Back in the Saddle – Landing Your Next Job

“When the horse dies, dismount” – Unknown

Losing your job is a very traumatic experience (see “I Lost my Job, Now What?” and “Dealing with Job Loss“), but it is a lot like falling off of a horse, you need to get “back in the saddle” as soon as you can. Of course, many times that is easier said than done. Whether you’ve lost your job because the company is cutting back or because it was not the right fit, the end result is the same. It really doesn’t matter how you got there (as long as it wasn’t the result of a felony ☺). Now I know it’s not as easy as “get over it” or “suck it up”, but you really do need to start your job search as soon as you can. There will be a million excuses why now is not the right time as well as a million distractions. Today’s post will provide resources (from our deep inventory) for fast tracking your search.

Right Career or Wrong Job?

Career Transition Guide – It’s not very often that I find relevant links from the US Government, but this is the exception. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management provided this link and is a guide to transition. Topics include: where to get more information, reemployment, transition services and more. The article is very comprehensive, with 56 questions and answers that will help you with a career transition.

Career Choice or Change – Another list of resources from About.com, this article has links to career plans, career change quizzes, choosing a career development professional and so much more. There are quite a few links to additional resources, most are relevant and worth a read (how about “Make your hobby work for you”?).

Resumes and all that Jazz

Resume Examples - from resume-resource.com

Resume Examples - from Exampleresumes.org- An amazing number of resume examples by job function (going down the left hand side of the page) with Occupation based resumes in the middle of the page. This is followed by Situational Example Resumes. If you are look to change or create a resume, this is one site you must connect with.

Resume Templates – This site is by Microsoft and provides 4 main categories (Entry Level, Professions, Career Moves and Academic. There are several examples within each of the main categories. Click on any one to see a snapshot. You also have the option of downloading

Where are the Jobs?

Hound.com – This is a different type of job search site from what I’ve reviewed in previous posts. Rather than listing jobs from recruiters or from other search sites, hound.com pulls jobs directly from employer career pages (their tag line “Search Jobs Direct from Employer Career Pages“). However, this is not free. Hound.com charges a fee (based on the length of time you subscribe). Due to the fee, I’ve not fully reviewed the site, but there is a free video you can watch on the main page of the site.

Job-Hunt – Job-Hunt is a free online search site which offers advice, job search news, and a comprehensive (and quite amazing) list of job search sites (categorized by location, networking, industry/profession, etc.). You could easily spend a few days leveraging the links from this site alone (and maybe you should). Unlike other search sites, it does not appear as if jobs are posted directly to Job-Hunt. Rather, it provides links to other sites which have posted jobs.

Employersjobs.com – This is a free site that claims to link employers and candidates. The set-up is a 3 step process: upload your resume/cv, create your profile (I don’t recommend entering your date of birth) and create email alerts. The password is assigned to you (you will receive it in an email). You can set-up a job alert, but I’ve not been able to find out how to run it. If you try to edit the alert, you get an error. After creating an “advanced” search, specifically indicating the US and NY, it only produced jobs in York (the UK) and other UK locations. Clearly, this is a UK based search site which either needs additional work or should not show locations it can not support.

Trovix.com – Trovix, which is in beta (and is free), matches your “dream job” and your resume versus open jobs. It also looks like they are creating a social network (like LinkedIn) at the same time (but you can skip this step). When joining, the site analyzes your resume and some basic information (location and title). After analyzing your resume, the site asks you to confirm some basic information from your resume, then you complete the sign-up process. The site also lists several employers on the main page that are currently hiring. The matching seems to work well and is easy to use.

Good luck in your search.