TAOnline Transition Insight Newsletter

The Recruiting Template(Part Four of Four)

In the first three parts of this series, you learned that when you meet or exceed the parameters of a company’s educational, professional, and personality profiles for a job, it is highly likely you will be offered that job. Congratulations! Your search is over! Right? Not necessarily. Just because they have decided to offer you the job does not mean that you will accept it. Your acceptance or rejection depends on something that is more important than the first three combined: does the opportunity match your requirements? That is the subject of this final part of the four-part series. Every job seeker must develop a set of decision criteria with which he or she will evaluate an opportunity. Once these criteria have been determined and prioritized ... Read More

Bill easing commercial driver's license requirements for veterans becomes law

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (Tribune News Service) — Legislation that eases requirements on service members seeking commercial driver's licenses was signed into law last week. Originally introduced by Sens. John Cornyn, Elizabeth Warren and Thom Tillis, the legislation passed the Senate last fall. It is designed to streamline processes and ease burdens for active-duty military, Reservists and veterans who apply for the licenses, according to Tillis. "The brave men and women that serve in the U.S. military learn a wide-range of skills applicable to jobs once they enter the civilian workforce, but too often face unnecessary barriers that makes it harder for them to find jobs," Tillis said after President Trump ... Read More

To Be Hired, Be Found: Your Best Keywords

A critical aspect for a successful job search and career — now — is being quickly and easily find-able online. Like actors, actresses, and other public figures, the age of anonymity is over for most of us. Best to embrace it, and make the best of it. We can — and should — keep big parts of our lives private (like our children’s names and ages, our home addresses, etc.). But, we do need to have a “public” face we show to the world, one that supports our job search and careers. No Profile or Low Profile = No or Low Credibility Most employers are flooded with applications for every job posted, currently. So, they must quickly screen those applicants to determine ... Read More

Yale professor to receive $1M for warrior-scholar project

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Yale astronomy and physics professor has been awarded a $1 million prize to expand her work on a project that helps military veterans prepare for college. Marla Geha will receive the money over the next five years from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for her work on the science portion of Yale’s Warrior-Scholar Project. The project is a two-week boot camp on university campuses, aimed at giving enlisted veterans who have been admitted to college the skills and confidence needed to succeed there. The camps are led by veterans who already have made a successful transition, in ... Read More

Auto Body Technician - NY
Bridgestone Retail Jobs - USA
Help Desk Technician - VA
Customer Technical Support Engineer - MA
Network Operations Center Operator/Technician - MD

Click here for a complete list and description of organizations of TAOnline.com growing Partners!

**TAOnline Virtual Career Fair * The Big Virtual * February 6, 2018**

The Big Virtual is a quarterly TAOnline Virtual Career Fair where U.S. veterans and security cleared professionals can connect online with military-friendly organizations. The event takes place from your computer on February 6th from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm (ET). This event is for anyone seeking nationwide opportunities and is for all ranks and branches of service, including active duty, Reserve, National Guard, and individuals with a security clearance (including civilians). For more information and to register for the event, visit www.taonline.com/tbv-js.

**Corporate Gray Military-Friendly Job Fair * February 14, 2018 * Virginia Beach**

You're invited to meet face-to face with dozens of military-friendly companies at the February 14th Corporate Gray Military-Friendly Job Fair at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. Some of the early registrants include: ARServices, Carter Machinery, Cleveland Brothers Equipment Co., Edward Jones, MBP, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, U.S. Postal Service, Newport News Shipbuilding, and more. Job fair hours are 9 am to 12:30 pm, with two free employment seminars from 8 am to 9 am. To ensure you receive the job fair Employer Directory in advance, pre-register at http://corporategray.com/jobfairs/393. And if you upload your resume, the participating companies will have early access to your credentials. This military-friendly job fair is open and free to all job seekers, but especially for transitioning service members and veterans.

**Corporate Gray Military-Friendly Job Fair * March 23, 2017 * Springfield, VA**

Save the date to attend the next Corporate Gray Military-Friendly Job Fair in the Washington, DC Metro area on March 23rd at the Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Virginia. Job fair hours are 9 am to 12:30 pm with an Employer Panel discussion for job seekers starting at 8 am. To ensure you receive the job fair Employer Directory in advance, pre-register at http://corporategray.com/jobfairs/394. And if you upload your resume, the participating companies will have early access to your credentials. This military-friendly job fair is open and free to all job seekers, but especially for transitioning service members and veterans.

FREE U.S. Veterans Magazine Subscription for TAOnline Members!

U.S. Veterans Magazine (USVM) Is the premiere resource magazine for transitioning service members, service-disabled veterans, veteran business owners and their spouses and families. USVM is the link between the qualified students, career and business candidates from the ranks of our nation’s veteran organizations, educational institutions, corporate America, and the federal government. Subscribe for FREE today!

The Recruiting Template (Part Four of Four)

© Tom Wolfe, author; all rights reserved; excerpts from Out of Uniform: Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Career Transition; used with the permission of the author and publisher, www.potomacbooksinc.com.

Just because they have decided to offer you the job does not mean that you will accept it. Your acceptance or rejection depends on something that is more important than the first three combined: does the opportunity match your requirements? That is the subject of this final part of the four-part series.

Every job seeker must develop a set of decision criteria with which he or she will evaluate an opportunity. Once these criteria have been determined and prioritized, the candidate will know how well the opportunity matches up against what is important to him or her—that fourth profile.

Although each individual determines his or her personal set, issues such as job satisfaction, growth potential, compensation, location, and quality of life appear on most people’s lists. If the job offer matches up well with these criteria, either initially or potentially, then the fourth profile has been satisfied and the offer will probably be accepted.

Understanding the four profiles of the recruiting template gives you insight into the job search process from the perspective of both the company and the candidate. In effect, the job search can be viewed as a balancing act between the application of the first three profiles by the organization and the fourth profile by the individual. When the balance between the two is stabilized, each party can satisfy the needs of the other and the stage is set for a mutually beneficial relationship, both initially and in the future. For more on the subject, visit www.out-of-uniform.com. Good hunting!

By Tom Wolfe, Career Coach

© 2018; Tom Wolfe, is an author, columnist, career coach, veteran, and an expert in the field of military-to-civilian career transition. During his career he assisted thousands of service members in their searches for employment, placing more than 3000 in their new jobs. Prior to civilian life, he graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy and served as a surface warfare officer. He teaches transition courses, gives seminars on career and job change, writes about the career transition process, and continues to counsel current and former military personnel. His book, Out of Uniform: Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Career Transition, was published by Potomac Books in 2011. Tom lives on the North Carolina coast with his wife, Julie, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Maggie.

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Bill easing commercial driver's license requirements for veterans becomes law

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (Tribune News Service) — Legislation that eases requirements on service members seeking commercial driver's licenses was signed into law last week.

Originally introduced by Sens. John Cornyn, Elizabeth Warren and Thom Tillis, the legislation passed the Senate last fall. It is designed to streamline processes and ease burdens for active-duty military, Reservists and veterans who apply for the licenses, according to Tillis.

"The brave men and women that serve in the U.S. military learn a wide-range of skills applicable to jobs once they enter the civilian workforce, but too often face unnecessary barriers that makes it harder for them to find jobs," Tillis said after President Trump signed the legislation into law on Jan. 8. "This legislation will allow our active-duty military, reservists and veterans to apply the experience they gained serving our nation in a civilian capacity and not force them to go through a duplicative credentialing process to obtain a commercial driver's license."

Cornyn added that the bill shows veterans that leaders have their backs.

"Now that this bill has been signed into law, veterans will be able to more easily transfer the commercial driving skills they've honed in the military to civilian life, and therefore more easily find jobs that pair well with their skillset," he said.

The legislation was part of the Jobs for our Heroes Act of 2017, which adjusted standards first created as part of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act, officials said.

That act created new standards that exempt veterans from all or a portion of civilian commercial vehicle driving tests if that veteran had experience driving similar vehicles while in the Army or reserves. It also allowed formal military training to count as credit toward the minimum requirements to obtain a license.

The new legislation made those standards permanent and extended them to currently serving troops. It also makes it easier for veterans to receive the Department of Transportation-required health examination to hold a commercial driver's license.

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(c)2018 The Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, N.C.)
Visit The Fayetteville Observer at www.fayobserver.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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To Be Hired, Be Found: Your Best Keywords

A critical aspect for a successful job search and career — now — is being quickly and easily find-able online. Like actors, actresses, and other public figures, the age of anonymity is over for most of us. Best to embrace it, and make the best of it.

We can — and should — keep big parts of our lives private (like our children’s names and ages, our home addresses, etc.). But, we do need to have a “public” face we show to the world, one that supports our job search and careers.

No Profile or Low Profile = No or Low Credibility

Most employers are flooded with applications for every job posted, currently. So, they must quickly screen those applicants to determine who is qualified for the job and who isn’t. Typically, the vast majority of applicants are not qualified.

Minimal online visibility causes several problems for those invisible job seekers.

Employers verify the information on resumes and job applications by comparing the submissions to the public profiles.
Employers observe applicant behavior.
Employers evaluate applicant communications skills.
Employers consider the applicant’s “fit” within the organization.

If you have too low a profile on the Internet, you are invisible. If you are invisible, nothing about you can be quickly and easily verified or evaluated. So, invisibility guarantees a failure in the initial screening.

Your application may be forwarded for consideration anyway, or laid aside for more research “later.” But, depending on such exceptional treatment is dangerous today.

You may choose the invisibility option, but it is an option that ensures a longer job search.

How to Be Find-able

Being find-able is not difficult with all of the social media we have available to us now. That’s the best place to start, and also, potentially, the most dangerous.

1. Choose — and consistently use — the same name for your public visibility and job search/career.

This is the name you use on your resumes and job applications. This name is a “clean” name — no one’s “digital dirt” (your dirt or anyone else’s) is stuck to this name.

If you are smart, you use a different name for any of your sports, political, or religious ranting online and any other questionable behavior online.

2. Set up a complete LinkedIn profile

Using your professional name, you set up your LinkedIn profile, and you make sure that your profile is complete, according to LinkedIn’s criteria, so that you will reap the greatest benefit from your efforts on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn defines a complete profile as one with:

Your industry and location
An up-to-date current position (with a description)
Two past positions
Your education
Your skills (minimum of 3)
A profile photo —
Make it a good head shot of you, by yourself — no significant other, children, pets, family members, co-workers, etc.
At least 50 connections —
More connections are better, both for credibility and visibility. Shoot for at least 300.

Without a complete profile, you have limited visibility in searches of LinkedIn.

According to LinkedIn, “Users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities through LinkedIn.”

3. Focus on your best keywords.

To attract the best opportunities for you, use the keywords most likely to be used by the employers you want for the jobs you want.

Keywords are the words that recruiters and employers use to search for applicants qualified for the job they are trying to fill. Keywords are also the words that we all use to find people to add to our professional networks.

The main keywords used to find people we don’t know, both for hiring and for networking, are basic:

Job title
Industry/profession
Location
Skills
Experience
Employer name (current or former)
Education (school and degree)
Professional certifications

One of the best places to research the best is mega-job board Indeed.com’s free JobTrends tool. It analyzes the contents of the millions of job descriptions on the Indeed site and shows you how often those terms are used now and have been used in the past (back to 2005).

Choose Your Best Keywords — Two Examples

Use the “most popular” version of your keywords that are appropriate for you.

First, supplement odd or quirky keywords with standard terms —

For example, assume that you are the senior administrative assistant for a small company. But, your official job title at work is “Wizard of Administrative Services.” No one else uses that job title for the job, so if you use “Wizard of Administrative Services” on your resume and LinkedIn profile, you’ll be invisible in a job title search (one of the most frequently done).

Time for you to become a “slash person” — like this, “Wizard of Administrative Services/Senior Administrative Assistant.” You are respecting your employer’s quirky title, being accurate (if asked, that’s what they’ll probably tell people you do), and also using the keywords that your future employer is probably using in their searches of LinkedIn, Indeed, and job boards.

Second, research to discover which term is used most often (and which are ignored) —

For example, assume you have earned the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. It’s referred to as:

Project Management Professional
PMP
Certified PMP
PMP Certified

Does it matter which term you use since they all mean the same thing? YES! It matters quite a bit! Two out of 100 employers use “Project Management Professional” while fewer than 0.001% use “PMP certified” and no one uses “certified PMP” in their job descriptions. So, they very likely aren’t searching on those little-used terms either.

Bottom Line

Don’t ignore this critical aspect for a successful job search and career — being find-able online. Employers verify the information on resumes, observe behavior and communications skills, and evaluate “fit” with an organization. If nothing is there, you usually lose opportunities.

More About Being Hired

To Be Hired: Be Referred

To Be Hired: Be Focused About the Job You Want

More About Being Find-Able

Finding the Right Keywords for Your Resume

How to Get Noticed by Recruiters

Using the Right Keywords on Your Resume

Using the Right Keywords in Your Email Message

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+

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Yale professor to receive $1M for warrior-scholar project

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Yale astronomy and physics professor has been awarded a $1 million prize to expand her work on a project that helps military veterans prepare for college.

Marla Geha will receive the money over the next five years from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for her work on the science portion of Yale’s Warrior-Scholar Project.

The project is a two-week boot camp on university campuses, aimed at giving enlisted veterans who have been admitted to college the skills and confidence needed to succeed there.

The camps are led by veterans who already have made a successful transition, in collaboration with faculty and students from the schools involved.

Geha designed a science boot camp at Yale and hopes to expand its curriculum to other Warrior-Scholar projects across the nation.

The Warrior-Scholar Project (WSP) empowers enlisted military veterans by providing them with a skill bridge that enables a successful transition from the battlefield to the classroom; maximizes their education opportunities by making them informed consumers of education, and increases the confidence they will need to successfully complete a rigorous four-year undergraduate program at a top-tier school.

Click here to learn more about the Warrior Scholar Project and how you can benefit.

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