Finding A Job#10:
Do You Need Extra Skills?

January 15, 1998 A strange mix of conflicting advice comes from "career experts". Some suggest that the best way to prepare yourself for the marketplace is by becoming a generalist. Others will tell you that you need to have specialized expertise. How do you tell the difference?

The hiring managers (in smaller companies) that we talk to really want both...experts with a generalists view of learning new skills and the adaptability that comes along with that attitude. They want accountants who don't mind pitching in on last minute deadline problems or Information Technology professionals who will will take responsibility for broad organizational issues. They want the best of both worlds.

In larger companies, the requirements are more focused on expertise within a discipline.

The trick to sorting out where and how you'll fit involves making a decision, early on, about the size of the company you want to work for. Both really want team players. In the case of the smaller company the team is the company. As the size of the company grows, the team becomes the functional department.

In either case, you are going to discover that sustained growth in a career requires that you constantly update your skills. It's just a part of having a career in the information age. By keeping your skills sharp and up to date, you build yourself insurance against the changing fortunes of a single employer.

These days, Internet/Web skills will discriminate you from the rest of the pack. The great news is that you can be certified and credentialed from home. Take a close look our list of online continuing education programs. These two operations offer courses and training over the Internet for little or no cost.

• Manpower offers skills certification and is rapidly expanding the areas in which it offers courses
• The Ziff-Davis University offers short, inexpensive online courses about the web and Internet technology.

Finding A Job#9:
Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses

January 14, 1998 It's too bad that self evaluation isn't as easy as learning search skills. The following links will offer bits and pieces of useful advice:

• Canada WorkInfoNet - presents learning and employment opportunities, labour market information, career resources and services, and financial supports.
• Career Atlas For the Road - tips on getting top pay, translating past success into future resumes, self-assessment, positive networking, interviewing, negotiating, and using references.
• Career Companion - delivers more than 4,000 Web resources which target the needs of business professionals whose focus is on more than browsing the Internet.
• Career Consulting Corner
• Career Development Process - a guide to Internet resources.
• Career HOPES - sign up to participate as a volunteer in a research study of an online career exploration program.
• Career Planning Process
• Career Toolbox - games, workshops and assistance to kickstart your career, from the folks at Chivas Regal.
• careers.wsj.com - listings of management and professional positions available in many industries, with emphasis on sales, marketing, finance and technology.
• Discover Learning - Career Adventure - provides a rich, stimulating educational environment for K-12 and post-secondary collaboration, creation, and communication.
• Findout - work and career library.
• Getworking - community for job seeking and career building that connects you with real world opportunities and people.
• Job Analysis & Personality Research at Virginia Tech - A repository for research documents dealing with job analysis and personality assessment.
• Job Search Guide - courtesy of Gerogetown University MBNA Career Education Center.
• Occupational Outlook Handbook, 1996-97
• Saludos Web - career, employment, and education resources for Hispanics.
• What Color Is Your Parachute: Job Hunting Online - sponsored by washingtonpost.com. Advice and answers to your questions from Dick Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute?
• WORK Place, The - information resource for a competitive labour market.
• WORKink - consists of many interactive features, including online counselling, full-motion career and training videos, discussion forums, and job databases.

Finding A Job#8:
Master Internet Search Skills

January 13, 1998 It's no small task. Internet search engines have to hit a happy medium. At the same time that they will try to satisfy your requirements as a job hunter, they are busily trying to serve the "average" Internet customer.

(For a peek into the mindset of the "average" web user, try Metaspy. The service allows you to watch the specific searches made by websurfers on MetaCrawler... a minor search engine. You'll soon see that most websurfers aren't exactly looking for detailed company info or job opportunities.)

For many users, a simple superficial use of the net is adequate. In the case of job research, however, having soundly developed skills will make all of the difference in your success. Here are some key pointers:

• When searching Yahoo!, always begin your search in the "Companies" section (bookmark the page). The page is essentially divided into industries. If their are industry specific resources, you'll find them here. Take Mining for example. The page has Employment listings as well as key professional organizations, the pages of all of the companies in that industry and key magazines and trade journals

• We highly recommend using DejaNews to evaluate job listings in the Newsgroups. Last year, there were over 7,000,000 job postings in Usenet Newsgroups. DejaNews even offers a special tool for searching these listings. It's very useful to explore the professional interest Newsgroups as a way of beginning to build an online Network. DejaNews offers a special "interest finder" search window.

• Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the features of AltaVista. Interestingly, a search for Web documents containing the word "resume" will generate a lot of job listings. This is because Search Engines like AltaVista index the words in a document. Almost all online job postings contain a phrase like "send your resume to:....". They don't always contain the word "job".

• Take a long look at ZDNet's tutorials on Web Searching. This group of articles concentrates a large volume of search technique into a single spot.