The National Association of Temporary and Staffing Services (NATSS) website is up and running. NATSS is a classic industry association, headquartered near Washington, DC. They provide industry analyses, lobbying and award winning publications. With over 1400 members, they are one of the largest industry groups in the country. The website is comprehensive and includes a thorough (and searchable) database of their membership. The database offers another useful set of targets for resume submittals if you're interested in temporary or project related work.
February 16, 1996
Job Hunting Tools
Job hunting stinks. Here's an exercise that should liven up your day. We promise that it will help build your job hunting effectiveness in the long haul.
Visit the new Disney site. Plan to spend at least an hour with it. The site is an amazing collection of state of the art add-ons to your Netscape (you are using Netscape?) browser capabilities. To fully explore the site will require that you follow their clear instructions for upgrading with various free plug-ins.
How will this help you in your job search? Two ways really:
By making you deeply familiar with your browser...the central tool in your research
By ensuring that your capabilities are as state of the art as free can be.
And, you'll have fun. We spent several hours gooing Wow! It made the dreary sounding job of learning new technical skills a fun adventure with immediate gratification.
February 15, 1996
Resume Submission
They used to be called Job Shops. Technical Service firms build teams of professionals within a discipline or a related series of disciplines. Companies hire from these firms for both long term assignments and peak staffing problems. The National Technical Services Association (NTSA) offers an interesting introduction to the field. NTSA features some interesting articles on the industry and an extensive database of member firms. It's a great start and a large but useful set of resume targets.
February 14, 1996
Making Your Own HTML Resume
We're (surprisingly) becoming fast fans of the Navisoft/Naviserver approach to Website development. The company, a subsidiary of America On Line offers a cleverly integrated website development tool, a browser and online website services. Whether or not you choose to use their products, they offer a 30 day trial of their easy to use NaviPress HTML development tool, a series of Templates including Resumes and Directions for Using the Templates. In one stop and about a day's work (if you're brand new) you'll be able to develop an effective Resume/Website. It looks like you can even use their website hosting service as a home for your credentials package. The software is available for all of the major platforms.
February 13, 1996
Tidbits
Hustling in a McJob dreaming of real opportunities? Temp Slave! is probably the magazine for you. $2 per issue, $7 for four. The current issue features articles like: Swimming With The Loan Sharks and The Temp-ing of America.
Looking for another place to post your resume?? RecruitAd Advertising Inc is a new resume collection and job advertising service.
Opportunity To Get Visibility and Make a Difference
Dave Winer is sponsoring a Valentine's Day project for the Net. Called 24 Hours For Democracy, the idea is to build a distributed Web page of essays about the Net and it's value in your life. As a job hunter, the project offers the opportunity to demonstrate your writing ability, make a statement and lead potential employers to your credentials. Take a look at 24 Hours For Democracy
February 11, 1996
Career Resources
Finding the opportunities in entrepreneurial startups is often a hunt for the "needle in the haystack". The instinct to use a corporate website as a recruiting tool runs surprisingly deep, but listings in larger job advertising databases are somewhat scarce. The job opportunities at Xing Technologies for example, are a part of the website but rarely listed elsewhere. Xing Technologies would be an exciting place to work for a range of technical folks.
The moral of the story? Keep your eyes peeled for companies that interest you. They're likely to have posted job opportunities somewhere on their site.
"Niche Job
Sites are more effective"- Forrester Research
study
Why not look for jobs in your specific area?