August 2014 |
Transition-e-news Volume 3 Issue 97 |
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Sponsored By: |
Transition Insight"People should be more aware of the many sacrifices that the heroes of this country make for our sake. My hope is by reminding us of this message through music, will keep our brave patriots and their families in our thoughts and prayers. For all you do, thank you!" - A proud US citizen, Brandon Deluca Brandon's Song - 'Empty Seat' |
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The Stars and Stripes Transition Guide is a compilation of articles - on financial matters, education, resume-writing, career fairs and more — specifically designed to help active servicemembers and veterans navigate into their next stages of life. Each edition of this semi-annual publication provides practical guidance and resources for maneuvering through their next objective, whether it is enrolling in college, finding a job or getting their finances in order. |
Five Tips to Make an Everlasting First Impression
by Barbara Adams, CPRW, CEIP, MFRW, MMRW, MFCA-T
First impressions are fast, firm, and very important when being judged for a job. Thankfully, there are plenty of tips and a lot of advice for those looking to improve their first impressions. Below I have listed the top five to consider: 1. The Basics Your appearance is the foundation for any first good impression. Whether you like it or not, looks matter, and you should care how you present yourself. If you have special issues such as an abundance of tattoos, cover them up. If you feel uncomfortable about competing with younger candidates and want to look younger yourself, dye your hair. If you can’t afford to buy a new suit or outfit, press your current apparel and ensure you have a crisp shirt or blouse to wear. If you wear facial piercings, remove them. If you wear an abundance of makeup, tone it down. When you look good, you feel good. 2. Prepare for Your Interview You applied for the position you are interviewing for; certainly you must know why you want to work for this organization. I recommend you Google the company’s name and find out what its mission and goals are, what products and services they sell, and anything else you can find out about the company. It will be extremely embarrassing if, when asked in your interview why you would like to work for the organization, you show a blank stare. One possible great response might be: "I would like to work for a progressive organization like yours because you are on the cutting edge of launching the best widgets to enhance the performance of electricity in air conditioners." By directly providing knowledge about the company, you will rank high in the interviewer’s opinion. Individual details about you and the company can make or break an interview. 3. Listen If you want the person who is interviewing you to trust you, then fight the impulse to talk first. Remain quiet instead of blurting out your experience and qualifications. Ironically, one of the best ways to win people’s confidence is simply to let them talk first. Wait until the interviewer asks you specific questions and then be prepared to respond with high-impact answers regarding your background, experience, and accomplishments in one minute or less. Endless chatter about you eventually turns the interviewer off. Select what your top achievements are before the interview and be ready to share them in brevity. 4. Body Language and Eye Contact It is known that making eye contact is a signal of sincerity, but research has also shown that it makes you appear smarter. With a crisp new outfit on, you should feel more confident. Keep your head up when you walk in the room, make eye contact, sit up straight, and appear alert. No one wants to talk to someone who is slouching in a chair and who is looking all over the room. 5. Communication — Avoid "Um" and "Ah" How you speak and communicate can also be one of the best first impressions you make during your interview. It is important to enunciate your words and speak slowly. If you keep saying "um," it appears you are not sure what to say next. It is inappropriate during any professional presentation or communication. If you do not understand or did not hear the question being asked, you can always say, "Can you repeat that question, please?" instead of saying, "Huh?" Of course there are many more tips that are good practices. I have only listed some basic information on the most common best practices. In closing, always know yourself and the information you wish to relay about yourself, dress appropriately for a business meeting, keep your chin up, make eye contact, and speak clearly. Good luck! Barbara Adams, President and CEO of CareerPro Global (CPG), the parent company of www.careerproplus.com and www.militaryresumewriters.com, has been a member of the careers community for the past 20 years. Ms. Adams holds four prestigious industry certifications. CareerPro Global is the only ISO 9001-2008 Certified Career Service in the industry, as well as one of the fastest-growing Military, Federal, and Civilian Resume-Writing and Careers-Coaching companies. The team of Certified Professional Federal and Military Resume Writers at CPG assist thousands of clients in applying for and gaining employment each year. We can help you land your military to civilian job. |
Obama signs veterans' health care overhaul
by By MATTHEW DALY and DARLENE SUPERVILLE of Associated Press
With service members, lawmakers and military leaders looking on, Obama put his pen to the bill at Fort Belvoir, an Army base south of Washington, where he held up the legislation as a rare example of Republicans and Democrats working together effectively. Denouncing delays in care for veterans as wrong and outrageous, Obama said the government would keep moving ahead with urgent reforms to ensure veterans have the care they've earned. "This will not and cannot be the end of our effort," Obama said. "We have to make sure the VA system can keep pace with the new demands." The $16.3 billion measure allows the Veterans Affairs Department to hire thousands of doctors, nurses and other health professionals at the VA's nearly 1,000 hospitals and outpatient clinics nationwide. Under the new law, employment rules will be revised to make it easier to fire senior VA executives judged to be negligent or performing poorly. Congress approved the measure last week before taking a five-week recess — one of the few significant bills approved this year by both the House and the Senate. The legislation is a response to reports of veterans dying while awaiting appointments to see VA doctors and of a widespread practice of employees covering up months-long wait times for appointments. In some cases, employees received bonuses based on falsified records. The veterans bill, approved with strong bipartisan support, "will put in place reforms and needed additional resources to meet the high standard of service that our veterans have earned," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. The bill devotes $10 billion in emergency spending over three years to pay private doctors and other health professionals to care for qualifying veterans who can't get timely appointments at VA hospitals or clinics or who live more than 40 miles from one of them. It includes $5 billion for hiring more VA doctors, nurses and other medical staff and $1.3 billion to open 27 new VA clinics across the country. The VA has taken aggressive steps in recent months to address systemic problems found in its health care system, Earnest said, adding that reform measures will continue and accelerate under new VA Secretary Robert McDonald. McDonald, a former Procter & Gamble CEO, was sworn in July 30 to lead the sprawling agency, which employs more than 310,000 people and provides health care for nearly 9 million enrolled veterans and disability compensation for nearly 4 million veterans. "This is a labor of love for him, and he has hit the ground running," Obama said. The VA announced last week that it planned to fire two supervisors and discipline four other employees in Colorado and Wyoming accused of falsifying health care data. Deputy Veterans Affairs Secretary Sloan Gibson said more VA employees will be disciplined as the agency tries to root out the causes of a scandal that he said has breached the trust between veterans and the agency created to serve them. Gibson, who served as acting secretary for two months after Eric Shinseki resigned as VA secretary, has vowed to protect employees who file whistleblower complaints — a promise McDonald has echoed since taking office. Any intimidation or retaliation against employees who raise concerns will not be tolerated, they said. Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: @MatthewDalyWDC |
Why Job Search Is SO Hard Today© Copyright, 2014, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved.
However, landing a job takes focus and effort. Understanding what is happening from the employers’ perspective will help you see how you can improve your techniques for a better outcome. 1. Employers are overwhelmed with applicants. The average job posting receives over 250 applications! Over 9 million people are unemployed and, according to recent studies, most of the people who have jobs would rather be working somewhere else. So, posting a job is almost a hazardous experience for an employer. Two hundred and fifty applications for each job creates a lot of reading! And, just imagine if the employer has more than one job open! The problem of finding the best applicants in the big crowd is increased exponentially! 2. Most of the applicants are not obviously qualified for the job. Sadly, these days, most of those 250 applicants are not clearly qualified for the job. They might be qualified, but they haven’t made it obvious to the employer that they are qualified. So, the majority of applicants are ignored. With recent studies showing that the average job seeker spends only 80 seconds reading a job description before hitting the "apply" button, it’s not surprising that most job seekers don’t appear to be qualified for the jobs they apply for. 3. The flood of applications has led to the use of technology to manage the flow. Particularly for employers with more than 100 employees, managing the high volume of applications requires the use of technology " resume databases or applicant tracking systems ("ATS"). An ATS allows the employer to search through all those applications to find the candidates with the right set of skills and experience " to find the clearly qualified candidates in the flood of resumes. 4. Few applications are actually seen by a human being. The widespread use of applicant tracking systems, used by an estimated 90% of employers, has really changed the game. Dramatically! Applicant tracking systems have blown away the one-size-fits-all resume submission process because that single version of the resume may NOT contain the right words " the right "keywords" - for each job description. Applicant tracking systems enable employers to search all the submitted resumes and applications for specific keywords " the keywords that describe the skills, certifications, technologies, education, and other criteria required for each different job. What does this mean to job seekers? For example, an employer may specify that the job requires "experience managing a LinkedIn Group." Assume that the job seeker does actually have that experience, but on their resume, they describe it as "experience managing social media communities" - "Social media communities" does certainly include LinkedIn Groups, but does not actually use the words "LinkedIn Groups" as specified in the job description. OOPS! Opportunity lost! Even though the candidate, in this case, did meet the requirement because the right keywords ("LinkedIn Groups") were not included in the application. The employer would prefer to evaluate all qualified candidates, but not all candidates understand how to make themselves visible to the employer. Solution to the ATS Invisibility Problem: Become visible by analyzing the keywords used in the job description and including those specific words and phrases in your resume or application. In our example above, the job seeker could have added the term, "including LinkedIn Groups" to the resume that was submitted, and it would then have been found in a search of the ATS on the term "LinkedIn Groups." NOT THAT HARD TO DO! About the Author… Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 2011, NETability purchased WorkCoachCafe.com, and Susan has been editor and publisher of WorkCoach since then. Susan also edits and publishes Job-Hunt.org, is a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a columnist on HuffingtonPost. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Google+ |
Thousands of Veterans sign up for Job Education
By: Ashley Hopkinson ATLANTA (AP) — Unemployed veterans may be heading back to school by the thousands under a new federal program that pays for up to a year of education. Officials at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs say out-of-work veterans can get back in the job market in high demand fields like health care, management and legal services. So far, there has been an enormous response to the program called the Veteran Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP). More than 27,000 unemployed veterans have applied and 13,083 have already been accepted. The program is first-come, first-serve for qualifying veterans between the ages of 35 and 60 who are unemployed at the time of the application. Veterans who are currently receiving unemployment benefits or are enrolled in a federal or state job training program do not qualify. |
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