How to Help a Friend Find a Job

With the economy these days it can be tough to find a job for yourself. It’s pretty hard to be unemployed-but it’s harder to watch your friends suffer through unemployment. We all want the best for our friends, but of course you probably don’t have the option to just give your friend a job. However, here are some things you can do to help a friend find a job.

Step 1

Ask Around at Work. If you want to help a friend find a job, look around for job openings at your job. Ask a few of the supervisors, and do some networking to see if a position will open up soon. If nothing else, help a friend find a job by keeping their resume on file at your place of work-that way, if a job does open up, they will have a better chance of getting the job.

Step 2

Ask Friends and Family. If you want to help a friend find a job, always keep a lookout for job openings. Check bulletins at work, and ask your coworkers.  Talk to your friends and ask them if they know of anyone who’s hiring. Family members also work great for networking.  Make a list of names and numbers of contacts to help your friend find a job.

Step 3

Help with Resume and Cover Letter. You probably won’t be able to find a job for your friend right away, but while you’re looking, help your friend edit and revise their cover letter. If you want to help your friend find a job, a good resume and cover letter can go a long way. Make suggestions and help your friend build a strong resume. If you want to help a friend find a job, offer to edit your friend’s cover letter as well.

Step 4

Support your friend. When you find a job opening, be sure to contact your friend ASAP. Keep in contact with your friend, and give them pointers if they land an interview. If you want to help a friend find a job, be a good source of support. It can be tough dealing with unemployment, so be there to support your friend.

Step 5

Ask and send their resume. If you want to help a friend get a job, ask if you can do a little of the work for them. If you find a job opening available, ask if you can submit your friends resume. Ask for permission to give your friends resume to your family and friends.

source: eHow.com

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Win Your Next Job With Three Essential Interview Skills

Follow-up Steps after the Interview; Strategies to Help You Get the Offer

With competition for good jobs at an all-time high, candidates who conduct their job search as a sales campaign consistently win out over those who don’t. When job seekers practice the skills of sales experts they learn to apply the strategies of a sales presentation to their job interviews.

To get to the top of the candidate list, you’ll need these three essential sales skills:

1. Pre-interview preparation
2. Finding and using the interviewer’s “Hot Buttons”
3. Closing on the next step of the interview process

1. Pre-interview preparation Every great sales presentation starts with pre-sales preparation, which includes client research, and product analysis. Job seekers prepare for interviews similarly: research on the prospective employer and a thorough catalog of their own accomplishments to illustrate their potential contribution and worth to the employer.

Thanks to the Internet, company research is relatively easy, especially on publicly held firms. A few good sources are Yahoo, Hoovers, and the Wall Street Journal archives as well as company web sites. Information on privately held companies is often readily available as well. One of the easiest ways to get such information is simply to enter the company name in your favorite search engine and see what pops up.

Minimally, you’ll want to find out company size, products or services, major competitors, branch or headquarters and any recent news items. Time allowing, it’s also very helpful to know some of the major players in their organization, a little history on them and future products, markets or growth objectives.

Once you’ve done the research, prepare to communicate your value through your accomplishments. Examine your career for examples of how you have solved problems, saved money, increased revenue, or created revenue opportunities for your former employers. As much as possible, dollarize or quantify your contributions. Do not depend on your ability to “wing it” through your interviews. Ask any high-producing sales professional; they will tell you that it is impossible to wing your way to success. It takes preparation and practice.

Once you’ve prepared for the interview, don’t forget the next essential sales skill:

2. Finding and using the interview “Hot Buttons” An interviewer’s hot button is his/her unspoken concerns or wishes . It’s your job as the interviewee to uncover the interviewer’s hot button. If you don’t ask, he/she probably won’t tell you. There are two magic questions that will reveal the interviewer’s hot buttons.

  • “What do you see as the greatest challenge for this position?”
  • “What qualities do you see as most important for this position?”Once you’ve asked the all important questions— shut up and listen!After the interviewer has revealed his/her hot buttons, use the information to frame your answers to his/her questions. You’ll connect with the interviewer much faster once you sell yourself based on his/her motivations.Now that you have their attention, don’t forget the most important skill3. Closing on the next step of the interview processThe term “closing” is a sales term that means influencing one to agree to take certain action (as in signing a contract or writing a check.) A complex sale involves a number of small closes before the ultimate closing purchase. The interview process is a series of closes leading up to the final job offer.If you’ve purchased a car lately you know that the sale starts with the test drive and moves forward through a series of carefully crafted questions such as “Do you prefer silver or black?” “Which of you will be the primary driver?” “Shall we park this in the sale-pending area?” “Do you wish to trade in your car, or shall we finance this 100%?” The effective salesperson knows what closing steps must take place—attempt to skip the steps and he may lose the sale altogether.As a clever sales person identifies the small closing steps needed to move the sale forward, so must the job seeker understand the closes necessary to keep the interview process moving forward toward a job offer. Those steps look something like this:
  • The cover letter must entice the reader to read your resume.
  • The resume must motivate the reader to call you in for an interview.
  • In the first interview ask for a second interview.- “When would you like to schedule our next meeting?”
    – “Is there any reason you wouldn’t consider inviting me back for second interview?”
    – “Who will I meet in the second interview?”

    4. In the second interview ask to speak with the decision maker.

  • “Who, besides yourself, will make the final hiring decision?”
  • “When is convenient for Mr. /Ms. Decision Maker to meet with me?”
  • “Are there any other presentation materials I should bring when I visit with Mr./Ms. Decision Maker?”5. When speaking with the decision maker ask for the job offer:
  • “Are there any objections that prevent you from extending an offer? “
  • “When would you like me to start?”
  • “What challenges would you have me tackle first?”Asking for the next interview or the job offer may seem bold, but try it. You’ll find yourself invited back more often and feel much more in control of the interview process. Once you’ve mastered and applied the three essential sales skills for effective interviews you’ll see your job-search efforts accelerate and your confidence soar.

    • source: enewsletters.biospace

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    Raising the Social Security to Age 70

    WASHINGTON, June 29 (UPI) — House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, says the United States should raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 and limit benefits based on need.

    In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Boehner endorsed raising the retirement age to 70 for people who are still 20 years away from retirement and limit benefit payments to those who need them, the newspaper said Tuesday. Cuts in Social Security benefits should be part of entitlement reform he said would be necessary to pay the cost of the war in Afghanistan.

    Boehner also said the financial reform measure agreed to last week in a bipartisan House-Senate conference committee was out of proportion to the financial crisis that led to the deepest U.S. recession since the Great Depression.

    “This is killing an ant with a nuclear weapon,” he said.

    Instead, Boehner called for improved enforcement of financial regulations.

    Speaking with the newspaper’s editors and reporters, Boehner said a backlash against the Obama administration and congressional Democrats is building among U.S. voters.

    “The American people have written off the Democrats,” he said. “They’re willing to look at (Republicans) us again.”

    He accused Democrats of “snuffing out the America that I grew up in.”

    “There’s a political rebellion brewing, and I don’t think we’ve seen anything like it since 1776,” Boehner said.

    source: upi

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