July 2019 |
Transition-e-news Volume 4 Issue 156 |
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Creative Ways of Thanking Our Troops that Put Appreciation into ActionBy Kelli Brewer - deploycare.org - Reprinted with permission ©2019 All Rights Reserved If you’ve ever thanked a veteran for their service, you know that a small gesture can make a big impact on a person’s life. Many service members will tell you that a simple “thank you” is all they need, but as much as this gesture means, there are so many other ways we can all show our thanks. These actions are just a few ways you can help give our service members, veterans, and their families the support they need. Choose a Career of Service One way you can give back as a civilian is by choosing a career serving those who serve us. Veterans especially can benefit from all kinds of professions, from small business owners who hire vets to social workers who help meet vital needs. Some military social workers provide mental health counseling, while others help service members who are reintegrating into society. Social workers are highly trained professionals, many of whom have completed a Master’s of Social work degree. These programs can be done online through several universities, and they include 900-1,200 hours of field education. Give Your Time and Talent Even if your job is in another field entirely, we can all give back by volunteering. The best place to start is by finding a local veterans organization and asking what they need. Many of these organizations have specific needs or programs that you can get involved with. According The Hero Effect, one way to help is by mentoring a veteran in your community. Another way to find volunteer opportunities is by searching DAV online. Deployment can be a strain on military families, which is why current service members and their families can use extra support just as much as veterans. While you can’t replace the deployed spouse, you can volunteer to ease the burden of the spouse who is at home. If you know a military family, don’t wait for them to ask! According to Military Times, it’s common for military spouses to feel lonely. Your friend may be reluctant to say anything, but you can offer to visit and even bring a meal to share. Another way you can support families is by helping children. When families move frequently, it can be hard for the children to adjust to new schools, new friends, and a new community. Even the simplest actions, like encouraging your own children to make friends with new kids from a military family, can help ease that transition. If you’re a teacher, offer your time after hours to help them over the hump. Find Creative Ways to Help Financially Any donation you make to a charity that serves military families is valuable. However, there are lots of other creative ways you can help financially. One way to maximize the funds you can give is by organizing a drive. Narrow down the type of drive you want to set up, such as care packages for soldiers, toys for their children, or food for veterans, and then rally friends, family, and even strangers to give. Remember that giving your time can also be a form of financial help for military families. For example, if you know a military family, you can offer to babysit their children, so they can enjoy a night out without having to pay a sitter, or so that a spouse of a deployed soldier can get a little me-time. It’s common for military families to have financial concerns, but even these small ways that you can help them save money make a difference. Some other ways you can help financially include caring for a service member’s pet while they’re away or donating airline miles. If you find yourself thinking you don’t have enough time or money to give, it may help to realize how much of a difference you can make with seemingly small actions. Being in the military is an honorable way that many people devote their lives to serving others. We can all give thanks and give back by serving them in our own way.
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Program helps veterans dig in and succeedBy THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE, GA. Stars and Stripes - Reprinted with Permission - ©2019 All rights reserved (Tribune News Service) — It's so satisfying to solve two problems with one solution. Actually these aren't problems. They're more like challenges. Here's the first challenge: Veterans leaving military service don't always enjoy a smooth transition into the mainstream job market. And even when they get there, the skills they acquired in the service aren't always compatible with what's required of them as civilians. Here's the second challenge: The massive construction projects undertaken by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers turn over a lot of dirt. And in that dirt are a lot of archaeological artifacts, many dating back centuries. You can't just throw them away. So they've been itemized, bagged and put in boxes – tons of them. And that's where they've stayed, some since the 1950s or earlier. Now they have to be re-processed, using modern archiving techniques including cameras and computers. But the Corps has lacked the manpower. Until now – thanks to the Veterans Curation Program. The program was started by local wounded warrior activist Laurie Ott, now an executive with University Health Care System, and Dr. Michael "Sonny" Trimble, now the director of the Corps' Center of Expertise for Archaeological Curation and Collections Management. From 2004 to 2007, Trimble and his archaeological team excavated Saddam Hussein's mass civilian graves in Iraq, and America's soldiers and Marines became his protectors. When Trimble returned stateside, immensely grateful to the servicemen and women who kept him safe, he wanted to give something back – something special – to veterans. Through Trimble's and Ott's efforts, the first curation lab in Augusta opened in October 2009. Today there are seven labs and satellites of the program spanning the entire country. In the labs, teams of veterans go through a program over several months to learn how to catalog, curate and keep records for these stacks of artifacts. When they graduate, military members who used to be armed with weapons now are armed with new job skills from database management to computer skills to old-fashioned interpersonal communication among office-workers. Its numbers show success. As of last May, 600 vets have been through or are now enrolled in the program Of those, 72% went on to permanent employment. The work can be fascinating. When we visited the lab Thursday, a worker was going through pottery shards excavated in the 1950s from a Indian mound that's now beneath the shallow headwaters of Lake Hartwell on the Tugaloo River. The shards are likely Cherokee, and hundreds of years old. Other finds are more recent. From a collection of corroded metal found during excavations for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway across Alabama and Mississippi in the 1970s and '80s, archaeologists unearthed an antique toy car. We personally think it's a LaSalle convertible from the 1930s, but if you looked at it you might disagree. ___ ©2019 The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.) Visit The Augusta Chronicle at chronicle.augusta.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. |
Over 50? Here’s How to Find a Job© Copyright, 2019, Susan P. Joyce. | Work Coach Cafe | All rights reserved. Major parts of a successful job search process have changed dramatically since the 80’s or 90’s – the not-so-long-ago pre-Internet world. Technology and the Internet, plus the growth in population and the economic challenges of the past few years, have changed how employers recruit and how people connect – and stay connected. The changes in recruiting technology have, of course, had a big impact on effective job search strategies. No surprise. So, time to change some of your practices and procedures to fit the new requirements of the job market. 1. Know what you want – prepare your “job shopping list.”Compare today’s job search to shopping in a big box store. If you go into the store for “anything,” you don’t know where to begin. But, if your goal is a toy for a child’s birthday or something on your shopping list, you know exactly what part of the store you want, and your trip will be more successful. Exactly the same with a job search! If you are looking for “anything,” you have too many options now – Indeed.com, the largest job search engine in the world, had over 500,000 jobs posted last week. Without a goal (the title and location of the job you want), you will be overwhelmed and waste time applying for too many inappropriate jobs. So, save time by focusing on exactly what you want – put together your “job shopping list” two or three job titles, your preferred locations, and a dozen target employers you’d like to work for. 2. Customize your resumes to the employer and opportunity.Employers are buried with resumes for every job posted – often numbering into the hundreds! And, it is obvious that most of those applicants simply clicked on the “apply” button apparently without actually reading the job description. To stand out from that crowd, study the job description, and include the terms they have in the description. If it specifies certain “supply chain” experience that you have but you call that experience “logistics” on your resume, change your resume’s term to “supply chain” – the term the employer is looking for. If they call the position “Project Administrative Assistant,” change “Administrative Assistant” on your resume to match their job title. That matching process shows them that you are paying attention to their requirements, and it also helps you evaluate whether or not you are actually a good match for the job. Don’t waste your time applying for a job when you are not a good match for it. Your efforts will be ignored, and you will be teaching employers that you are a careless applying-for-everything candidate who should be ignored. And, don’t create a match where none exists because that will also ruin your reputation. 3. Get social – be visible and active on LinkedIn.LinkedIn is not Facebook. LinkedIn will not compromise your privacy. LinkedIn is also not optional for job hunting today. Seriously. LinkedIn is a recruiter or employer’s “happy hunting ground” where instead of being deluged with resumes from unqualified, sloppy applicants, employers can search for – and find! – job candidates who are qualified for the jobs they have. Make sure that your Profile is 100% complete and public. Connect with work friends and former colleagues. Follow your target employers and look for their recruiters who encourage you to connect with them. Join LinkedIn Groups that are relevant to your profession, industry, location, and target employers. Yes, you can look foolish on LinkedIn by doing stupid things, so don’t send out trashy updates, post nasty comments in LinkedIn Groups, or otherwise do something that would embarrass you in front of your current or future boss. 4. Practice Defensive Googling.In 2009, nearly 80% of employers Googled applicants before inviting them in for an interview. By now, that number must be close to 100%. It’s a quick “background check” that helps employers sift through the hundreds of applicants they have for every job. So, Google yourself before you apply! You MUST know what employers find when they Google your name! Contrary to what you may believe, finding nothing about yourself is NOT good – for two major reasons. First, you look like you don’t understand how to operate effectively in today’s online world, a necessity for virtually (no pun) every job. Employers do not want to hire someone who is obviously “out of date.” Secondly, it makes you vulnerable to mistaken online identity – someone else with the same name who has done something evil or, at least, inappropriate for the job and employer you want. [More on how to practice Defensive Googling.] 5. Reconnect with and Expand Your Network.This is the BIG advantage that Boomers have – they have lived long enough to have great networks! And, your network is what will help you land that new job as much as anything else you can do. This is not “using people.” This is connecting with old friends and colleagues, getting caught up, seeing what you can do to help them as much as what they can do to help you. This is the best part of your job search!
You’ll get caught up with what is going on in those worlds, which will be good for your mind as well as your job search, and you’ll meet new people. And once you have expanded your network, keep it alive so you can help others with their job search or other life challenges as well as having fun. Just Another “Learning Experience”And that’s the good news, as far as I’m concerned. When I stop learning new things, life won’t be much fun. You have accomplished very difficult things in your life, you can find a job now. Just keep on learning, and consider that learning a benefit, helping you stay young. For More Information About Job Search in the 21st Century:Critical NEW Job Search Skill: Reputation Management (or Recovery) You Are Being Watched! And Judged! Social Proof: LinkedIn to Your Resume (Job-Hunt.org) Is Your Job Search Too Old Fashioned? Why You Didn’t Get the Job: 10 Reasons You Can Control Why Job Hunting Is So Hard, and How You Can Make It Easier Defensive Googling (Job-Hunt.org) |
How To Use Social Networks to…NetworkBy Hannah Morgan Career Sherpa - Reprinted with permission - Maybe it’s time you tried changing your approach to networking- here’s how to use social networks to network (build new mutually beneficial, long term relationships!).
You may have noticed more companies becoming active on social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Social networks are multifaceted tools being used to create awareness, promote and build relationships! What if you tried using social networks to create awareness of your personal brand and to build new relationships? Social networks may not be the only solution to your job search woes but it just might help. Networking Isn’t a Once-and-Done TaskPeople who are serious about managing their careers understand how important it is to have a pool of people to interact and share ideas with. This doesn’t just happen overnight. Pick up some of the habits of “power networkers:”
Smart job seekers focus on the needs, wants and desires of others and obsess less over the need to find a job. Successful networkers know that when they show generosity toward others, it can and usually does come back to help them in the future. LinkedIn Connections Can Power Your SuccessLinkedIn can help you stay connected with people you’ve worked with and people you know. It also allows you to meet new people who work in companies you are interested in or in roles you aspire to be in. Savvy networkers realize you can’t just meet someone one time and expect results. The relationship needs to be nurtured. This can be done by monitoring LinkedIn in several ways:
Need more help using LinkedIn?Learn how to update your status on LinkedIn with this how-to article. And get more ideas on different types of activities you can use on LinkedIn to stay connected. Facebook Friends Can HelpAccording to the Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Study, 76% of social job seekers found their current position through Facebook. These social job seekers are mostly ages 30 to 39, college educated, with annual incomes greater than $100,000. Social job seekers report using Facebook to:
Need more help using Facebook?Get help preparing your Facebook profile for job search! Here are a couple of Facebook secrets you should know about. Engage on TwitterWhen you use an open network like Twitter, you can follow anyone you wish. And you can even send anyone a public message by tagging them (using the @[handle]). Strategically follow people who work in companies you would like to work for. (You can use Twitter’s Advanced Search function to find people using the company name.) Once you start following these company insiders, you can and should:
If you do this with some regularity, the person will usually respond. Continue to look for things you have in common, such as shared interests outside of work, colleges, cities of residence, etc. You can leverage any of these common interests to take the relationship to the next level. Most people who hang out on Twitter want to interact and build meaningful, worthwhile relationships. Need more help using Twitter?How To Use Twitter (for your job search) Pinterest Is Your PortfolioPinterest is known for sharing visual content (pictures, infographics, etc), but you can use it to showcase links to your work or even your LinkedIn profile. Need more inspiration on Pinterest?Instagram Shows PersonalityDon’t dismiss the potential to convey your personality and interests through Instagram. If it is where you are active and sharing photos of your life (outside of work), then why not use it for your job search too? How To Use Instagram for Job Search However, if it isn’t something you want recruiters or hiring manager to find, be sure to use a profile name that will not easily identify you. In other words, do not use your name. And don’t use the same email address you use for your job search. Take Pro-Active Steps to Manage Your Online ReputationUse these steps to clean up your digital dirt: 12 Easy Digital Housekeeping Steps Adapted from original post on US News & World Report On Careers |
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