The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, pointing to resilience in the labor market despite belt-tightening by Washington.

The improving job market tone is helping to prop up housing, with rising home prices keeping domestic consumption supported. But tighter fiscal policy as the government tries to slash its bloated budget deficit is dampening factory activity.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 340,000 last week, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economist had expected claims to fall to 345,000.

The drop unwound most of the prior week’s jump and suggested employers were not laying off workers in response to fiscal austerity, especially the $85 billion in across-the-board government spending cuts.

“The evidence from jobless claims suggests that layoffs have slowed, which hints at faster net job creation,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York.

The labor market is being closely watched by the Federal Reserve as debate heats up over the future of its expansive monetary stimulus.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told lawmakers that a decision to scale back the $85 billion in bonds the U.S. central bank is buying each month could come at one of its “next few meetings” if the economy appeared set to maintain momentum.

Economists believe that decision could come as early as the September meeting.

A separate report from the Commerce Department showed new single family home sales rose 2.3 percent last month to a 454,000-unit pace. The median sales price for a new home jumped 14.9 percent from a year ago to a record $271,600.

“We have seen some momentum in the housing market. The improving sales are a very broad and powerful positive effect for the U.S. economy,” said Robert Dye, chief economist at Comerica in Dallas.

MANUFACTURING STRUGGLING

Data on Wednesday showed home resales increased in April to their highest level in nearly 3-1/2 years, with the median price for a previously owned house the highest since August 2008.

Relative strength in the housing market is helping to mitigate some of the drag from higher taxes and deep government spending cuts, which has been evident in manufacturing data.

In a separate report, financial data firm Markit said its preliminary Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index fell to a seven-month low of 51.9 in May from 52.1 in April. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.

“Slower growth could be linked to a combination of fiscal drag hurting demand at home while at the same time many export markets remain in fragile states,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

That, he added, suggested manufacturing’s boost to U.S. growth in the second quarter would be modest at best.

U.S. financial markets were little moved by the reports as investors continued to digest Bernanke’s comments on Wednesday and weak factory data from China.

Stocks on Wall Street fell, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index on pace for its first back-to-back daily drop in a month. U.S. Treasury debt prices rose, while the dollar fell against a basket of currencies.

Last week’s claims data covered the survey period for the government’s report on nonfarm payrolls for May.

Claims dropped 15,000 between the April and May survey periods, suggesting steady gains in employment this month. Employers added 165,000 jobs to their payrolls in April.

The four-week moving average for new claims, which irons out week-to-week volatility, slipped 500 to 339,500.

The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid fell 112,000 to 2.91 million in the week ended May 11. That was the first time in five years so-called continuing claims were below the 3 million mark.

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John W. Fischer is a professor of hospitality and service management at The Culinary Institute of America — New York. Over nearly 30 years, he has worked as a captain, manager, wine director, and front waiter at some of the most famous fine dining locations in New York City.

What skills are required for waiting tables in fine dining? 

You have to want to serve people. That sounds easier than it is. If — on a really fundamental level — you don’t get satisfaction from making other people happy, it’s wrong for you to try it as a career. Secondly, you’ve got to have a laser-like focus. You have to switch from task to task very quickly.

How do you spot a good restaurant to work for? 

Of course, the reputation on the street is good to know. But take it with several pounds of salt, because hell hath no fury like a waiter scorned. Is it one person saying negative things, or several? Once you meet the people hiring you, take notice of how you feel around them. Do you get a creepy feeling? Do you enjoy talking to them? Working with people under stressful situations can be taxing and it’s better if you actually like each other. Also, if they offer you a ton of money that’s out of line with other restaurants like them, that probably means they’re a pain to work for.

So how do you break in? 

A good strategy is to identify the fine dining companies that also own more casual establishments. You can start in the casual location and move up to fine dining. But I think that if you’re smart and nice and hardworking, you can go to many great restaurants and say, “I will do whatever you need me to do, so I can work here and get better.” If you’re prepared to start by washing dishes, that kind of desire is very attractive to people in this business.

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As a member of a generation maligned as self-centered, lazy, and perpetually adolescent, David Burstein wrote his new book “Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation is Shaping Our World” to try and set the record straight about today’s young adults. Through research and interviews with several of the eighty million American Millennials, Burstein paints a nuanced and optimistic portrait of America’s emerging movers and shakers.

You write with more optimism about Millennials than most other people. What drove you to write this book?

For the 2008 election cycle I helped produce a documentary, and have been traveling all over the country showing it at college campuses and registering new voters. A lot of people talked to me about wanting to start an energy company or a business, about doing something about education, or about other problems around them. This is a story that needs to be told. At the same time I was reading all these stories by people from other generations about how our generation is a generation of narcissists, that we’re disengaged, and that’s just not what I’m seeing. So I set out to try and tell the story of our generation from the perspective of the people framing it.

I’m curious as to how the millennial generation is shaped by the Recession.

While this generation is on track to make less money than our parents, the cost of living actually decreasing. We have the lowest levels of car ownership, home ownership and childbirth. Young people today don’t need as much money as they have needed in the past. I think for the first time, you have a group of people not motivated by money as their #1 goal. There is a sense that happiness, fulfillment and community are more important. That is something that is consistently impossible for people of other generations to understand.

How have Millennials adapted the idea of community?

People today are part of so many communities, and they’re consistently and constantly connected to all of them. They take old communities with them, and join new ones along the way. Because of the internet, people can be part of communities across state or international lines, so the ability of young people to spread the work they’re doing is greater than ever before.

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No matter how much applause you get at curtain call, it’s never been easy to “make it rain” as a performer. Adam Huttler, the founder and executive director of the arts nonprofit Fractured Atlas, says it can be challenge for performers and artists to see the business for what it is: a business.

“That is what they are — even if they don’t always think of themselves in those terms,” he says. At talks and events, the company helps guide arts organizations toward the financial and nuts-and-bolts incentives that can keep them afloat. This evening, Huttler will lead a panel for Internet Week New York, titled “Revenge of the Art Geeks: How Tech Can Help you Build Audiences and Raise Funds.”

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  VIDEO: “Made Here,” Reggie Watts, Cherry Jones and others share their stories

From the other side of the curtain, actress Cherry Jones is clear about the struggles of getting paid and making art. “It’s intoxicating working downtown — then you have to pay your bills.” she says of the artsy lifestyle in the online documentary series “Made Here.” The relationship between making money and making art in the scrappy downtown performance scene is just one of many topics covered in the series’ three seasons, including health and wellness, raising a family and more.

For Jones, who is most known for her recurring role on the television show “24,” she says television made it possible for her to continue doing the work in the theater that sustains her artistically. “I don’t know anyone left who’s done just theater for the last 30 years. But I have overwhelming respect for them if they have,” she says, with a laugh.” ”I did those two seasons and I made more money than I ever thought I would in my life, and now I can work in the theater any time I want to,” Jones says of her time in TV.

The issues raised in “Made Here” dovetail with the things Huttler encourages arts organizations to address. He says artists need to learn how to “speak business.” “The word ‘customer’ tends to leave a bad taste in people’s mouths,” he says. “People think ‘McDonald’s has customers, we don’t have customers,’ but they do.” Huttler believes that arts organizations that get real about the bottom line have the biggest shot at seeing their art — and their business — succeed.

Huttler has good news for the scrappy artists in “Made Here” and beyond, though:  “For the little guy, I think things are looking brighter than they ever have,” he says. “They have more opportunities to engage with their audiences directly and they can use technology and powerful new ways.”

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The first step in looking desirable to employers could be getting your hands dirty with a volunteering gig.

Entering your dream job—or even your dream job field—right out college has always fallen into Catch-22 territory:  How do you obtain job experience in a field you’ve never worked without someone hiring you to get that experience? Well, according to LinkedIn’s Career Expert and founder of WORKS, an online resource for career-minded young women, Nicole Williams says that the Millennials, the demographic group following Generation X born between 1983 and 2000, are currently writing the book on how to get that relevant experience.

Williams says that it’s all about volunteer work. Millennials are finding that many of the not-for-profit organizations that have seen funding evaporate with the recent economic woes have been offering positions to volunteers that go beyond trivial daily duties and are actually attached to real skill development.

“Volunteer opportunities are more challenging. They’re more interesting. They’re more strategic and they offer a lot more than what they did in the past,” says Williams. “There are a lot of fundraising positions, social media, marketing, public relations and website development positions. All of those positions would have been funded at a point in time, but now they’re not. So, the experience and the opportunities to learn have just increased exponentially.”

What she is seeing trending with the Millennials, who represent the largest number of the over 225 million LinkedIn members who have added the “Volunteer & Causes” field to their profiles, is that they are filling of these volunteer positions simultaneously while holding down their first jobs out of college.

“And, frankly, that’s pretty smart,” says Williams. “What’s happening is they’re getting a double hit in terms of exposure to new relationships that are hopefully going to lead to full-time employment in their desired field.”

Williams also makes clear that no cause is too small. If you can’t donate time to staffing a part-time position at an organization, she says: “Go out to your community. I was walking down the street in New York City and there’s a new “Clean It Up” initiative for the summer season. Yeah, you’re going to spend a day sweeping, but that’s not the point. You’re putting it out there that you’re taking the initiative to go out and find opportunities.”

According to Williams, employers are responding to seeing these experiences on resumes as hiring managers are “always looking for an affinity.” She believes that the volunteer work being done by this demographic illustrates that larger and possible global interests are on their mind, which could potentially align with the gatekeepers of your dream job.

Employers seem to be getting it, too. Williams states, “employers really do understand that the world of volunteering has really changed and there’s a high number of hiring managers that consider volunteer work part of the package when their assessing if this is the right person for the job.”

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Last month I attended the annual awards conference of Catalyst, an organization that advocates for women in business. Xerox CEO Ursula Burns was the lunchtime speaker. She was refreshingly blunt, funny and engaging. One of the points she made was that mentors are an important part of a successful career: “Men and women need them, but women need them more.”

That made me a bit concerned, as I’ve never really had one. I asked Tiffany Dufu to spell out just what mentorship can do for women in particular. Dufu is chief leadership officer of Levo League, a startup devoted to getting Generation Y women to the top. Mentorship, she says, “helps you achieve clarity through guidance and encouragement.”

Many women want to find a mentor, but it’s hard to go about that if there’s no obvious candidate lurking in your office. And there may not be, since senior women are relatively thin on the ground. Dufu says you should definitely seek out men as well. She advises mentees not to think about mentorship in terms of one person, a savior who’s going to magically elevate your career.

“It’s valuable to have multiple mentors at one time, because that’s how you can shape one element of mentorship, which is learning more about yourself,” she says, and adds that various mentors should be giving you messages about yourself that are consistent: “That is how you build a level of self-awareness about what to do next in your career.” Levo League now has an online mentorship program allowing members to tap many senior women for advice.

Dufu says she’s had wonderful mentors in the past who were totally unconnected to her company or industry — women “who had been around the block several times and could provide guidance.” So don’t feel your mentor has to be someone from work.

Ashley Milne-Tyte is a radio producer and reporter based in New York City. She hosts a bi-monthly podcast called “The Broad Experience” about women in the workplace.

The post The Broad Experience: Find a mentor, ladies appeared first on Metro.us.

There is both professional and personal risk involved with aspiring for a creative career. Parsons School of Design faculty member and teacher of his self-designed course “Creativity: Making a Living With Your Ideas,” B. Jeffrey Madoff says: “Anyone pursuing a creative career should realize it’s a job. A fun job. However, discipline is essential and like an athlete, dancer or musician, practice and challenge yourself constantly to get better.”

How do you approach building a creative career with your students?
As a teacher, my job is to provoke, entertain, disrupt and educate. I crack jokes, make outrageous things up, call on students randomly to include everyone in the discussion and most importantly, create an environment where the students will feel safe so they will not be afraid to speak up.

What would you say to someone who believes they have failed at making a creative career work?
It’s important to define what failure is for you. If a person has failed in their pursuit, it’s important to understand why. Failure can be a terrific learning experience. Failure to me, is not trying. As long as I keep trying and keep learning, I haven’t failed.

What are some motivational tips for people wanting to get a creative career underway?
Motivation is why you do something: for money, fame, approval, and satisfaction. It’s up to the person to keep themselves motivated by what they hope to get out of what they do. One can be supported and encouraged by others, but the motivation has to come from within. Creativity to me is a passion to affect change. Passion is internal. Follow your passion.

Are there ways to take a current career and make it creative?
Frank Zappa defined music as “any sound you can control.” It’s all about how you look at what you do and how you act on it. Music, painting, boxing, mathematics; everything can be creative or drudgery. A creative person discovers the ways to make what they do interesting.

Starting a creative career requires these things:

• The clarity to determine where and how one wants to apply their creative efforts.
• An awareness of the distinctive difference they can bring to that pursuit and the ability to articulate that difference to the gatekeeper you need to get through, e.g. investors, employers, consumers, etc.
• The knowledge that there is a market for what it is they want to create.
• Not being paralyzed by the fear of risk or failure because if you are afraid of either you will never do anything interesting.
• Thick enough skin to persevere through the inevitable rejection and criticism you’ll receive.
• The realization that whatever you create it is separate from you. Criticism and rejection shouldn’t be taken personally.

The post Expert advice: Building and sustaining a creative career appeared first on Metro.us.

Loving your job just might be the oldest career objective out there. For the founders of the website “Live in the Grey,” it’s the idea they hope to make into a movement. Friends Maneesh Goyal and David Munczinski decided that the new crop of entrepreneurship-minded young people would benefit from a place to find out how people like them — with an idea and some passion — were able to merge what they love with what they do. We asked  founder Maneesh Goyal for his advice for young professionals.

So, what is your advice for people just starting out?
We believe your first step has to be discovering and defining what moves you. For me, it was as simple as sitting down and writing out “what doesn’t feel like work”. I took these passions and eventually entered the event marketing industry.

People are making their own paths more frequently now. What’s your practical advice to them?
Before you can chart your own path – whether in a company, as a freelancer or as an entrepreneur – you need to have a clear vision for where you are going, while being open to unforeseen changes. You have to start by truly defining what is fulfilling to you. For us, fulfillment is the cross-section of personal and professional, and fulfillment is fundamentally necessary to sustain anyone in their career. We highlight the stories of people that are “grey” to inspire people to get there on their own.

What scared you most about taking the leap into a new venture?  
The most intimidating aspect of starting Live in the Grey was overcoming the fear that our philosophy was only a personal outlook we share as co-founders. Was anyone going to appreciate and be inspired by these ideas? Fortunately, we have found an engaged audience through our site and events. This is always a risk for a person or a group starting a venture with a mission. Our message is “risk makes life remarkable” – and that means redefining risk from something to be scared of into something to embrace.

The post Escaping life in black and white with “Live in the Grey” appeared first on Metro.us.

According to a study published by Drexel University’s Center for Labor Markets and Policy, teens who spend some time bagging groceries or syphoning fries into happy meals have a larger shot at success throughout their career.

Paul Harrington, a Drexel University labor economist and lead author of the study, says that work experience in a formal job during high school (from ages 16 to 19) correspond to a 20 to 25 percent increase in salary for teens almost a decade later. In this case, a “formal” job means a gig in food service or retail for a larger company, as opposed to work like babysitting or cutting the neighbor’s grass. High school students who work, he says, are also more likely to have a job a decade after high school than their peers. The numbers are even stronger for teen boys, Harrington says.

“I think there’s a dignity in work,” Harrington says. “It’s really important for people to understand how they contribute to making an organization function. The way you understand how that works is by doing it.”

The study did reveal some bad news, however. As the economy has suffered, jobs for teens have become more difficult to come by. In the Metro Philadelphia area, the study revealed that in 2000, about 44 percent of teens between the ages of 16 and 19 had jobs. Today, that number has fallen to 25 percent, mostly due to the lack of employment opportunities and to the fact that older workers are holding onto jobs longer than they have in previous decades.

The other piece of data that the study revealed is that attendance in high school is a very strong indicator of good things to come. Harrington says that having high daily attendance in high school means that students have a much higher chance of graduating from college.

“Woody allen said 90% of life is showing up,” Harrington says. “Turns out he was right.”

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When most people think about improv comedy classes, they think about over-the-top performances and aspiring future Saturday Night Live cast members. While this reputation for goofiness might seem ill-suited for the buttoned-up professional world, many improv theatre companies are challenging these expectations by offering corporate training courses to various companies. By drawing upon lessons from the world of improv, instructors strive to promote the development of team building, communication and problem solving skills applicable to the workplace.

“Improv is so cavalier and edgy,” conceded Carter Edwards, who helms the corporate leg of the Upright Citizens Brigade. “But as soon as we started this, we started to see how translatable the philosophies of improv were to corporate training.” Chief among these philosophies is the strategy of ‘yes, and,’ which encourages actors in a scene to accept and build upon anything their partners create. “The majority of the corporate world would never think to do this, but as soon as we describe it to them, there’s a major a-ha moment that goes on with the participants,” Edwards said.

To help professionals work harmoniously and productively, Rob DiNinni of Stage Coach Improv has also made ‘yes, and’ a central tenet of his corporate improv program. “If you acknowledge and understand someone’s point of view, you create a collaborative environment, DiNinni explained. “You can debate instead of negate.”

Employees often bring these lessons back to their jobs after completing the program. Rebecca Cronin partnered with Stage Coach Improv as part of her work at Phillips. She described a heated meeting at the office shortly after several employees participated in a Stage Coach training session. “One of my colleagues stepped in and said, ‘yes, we’re going to do that, and…’ in a really exaggerated tone, and got everyone laughing,” Cronin said. Recalling the lesson from improv helped get the meeting back on track.

Despite these professional benefits, it can be difficult to convince people to unwind in a work setting. “With professionals, you have folks who are at their best in front of a computer,” DiNinni said. “We try to create a psychological safety net so everyone feels comfortable taking risks.”

The majority of participants do eventually get past that hump. “I love watching the transformation in people when they finally relax enough to have fun with it,” Cronin said. “These workshops are the time and place for it.”

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The season for summer getaways is fast approaching. But for those who are still wet behind the ears in a new position, is vacation really a possibility? Some companies have a clear policy of when an employee can cash in on paid time off, while others are more vague. We asked the experts just how soon is too soon when you’re a recent hire.

The first ninety days at a company are usually a trial period when the employee gets situated. In most cases, paid time off is accrued after that. “For this reason, it is generally advisable to not take a lengthy vacation, more than two days off, for at least six months. Even better – wait until you have completed your first year at your new job,” suggests Lahle Wolfe, writer for About.com’s Guide to Women in Business.

If you have travel plans prior to starting, it’s best to be upfront about it. “If you know you have a major vacation planned when you receive a job offer, it’s best to be honest about it with the hiring manager,” says Lori Hourigan, Regional Manager for staffing firm Robert Half. “If you explain the situation and give enough advanced notice, most supervisors will try to accommodate your existing plans.”

When you don’t have pre-standing plans it’s important to go into vacation negotiation delicately. “If you must ask at the start of your new job, be thoughtful in not requesting time off during a crunch period,” Tina I. Hamilton, Professional in Human Resources, president and CEO of hireVision Group, Inc. “And defer to the vacation requests of more tenured staff whenever possible. These considerations will pay off for you in the long run, and as you get established, your peers will do the same for you.” Make yourself comfortable at work, live it up when the weekends come, and start planning an outstanding vacation for next year.

The post Vacation: how soon is too soon at a new job? appeared first on Metro.us.

Using jargon phrases such as ‘think outside the box’ and ‘touch base’ will make you an unpopular colleague, and can destroy workplace morale, according to a new study of the worst office habits from Britain’s Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM).

Around 64% of those surveyed complained of ‘management speak’ in the workplace. Colleagues arriving late to meetings upset 65% of respondents, while 60% had a problem with gossip. Clothing choices and refusal to make tea or coffee were also common reasons for irritation.

The study urged management to proactively address such problems, which although seemingly trivial, can escalate into serious issues.

“People treat these as minor irritations but there is a cumulative effect,” David Pardey, ILM’s Head of Research & Policy, told Metro. “If no-one takes action, it communicates a lack of care or respect that can lead to departures, or in the case of gossiping, legal issues such as bullying cases.”

Managers must address such problems, Pardey added. “The first time one of these issues arises, the manager is not responsible. The 10th time it is squarely on them.”

Workplace irritations are widely blamed on long hours, but Jonny Gifford, research adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, disagrees. “Job satisfaction has increased during the recession, despite the fact we are working harder. This is due to a rise in worker influence, involvement in decision-making, and a more open culture.”

ILM tips to be a model colleague

1. Treat people well, and with good manners.
2. Be on time for meetings – lateness is disrespect.
3. Avoid ‘management speak’ – it alienates and confuses people.
4. Think about the best mode of communication. Face-to-face is often better than email.
5. Consider how noise you make affects colleagues.

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It’s that time of the year again when students are graduating and are desperately looking for jobs. While some students may have already secured one, others are in panic mode and are even willing to settle for a position just to have an income. A new national study by my company and AfterCollege — the student employment website — of 600 student’s shows that 79% have had at least one internship in the past six months, 57% of those internships were unpaid and 76% didn’t result in a job offer. These numbers are staggering and it just goes to show you that the job market isn’t getting any better. Here are some tips for securing your job upon graduation:

1. Don’t take anything for granted. 44% of those surveyed only apply to between one and five jobs at a time. After submitting your application, don’t stop and wait for a response, keep going. You can’t rely on anything and need to be proactive in your job search if you want results.

2. Work harder at it. 44% of those surveyed only apply to between one and five jobs at a time. You need to make your job search a full-time job. The more jobs you apply for, as long as you’re qualified for them, the higher the probability of success.

3. Think like an entrepreneur. When asked if they were interested in starting a company in the next few years, 62% of students weren’t interested. Entrepreneurship is now a viable path to employment so if you have a great idea, and some ambition, you should do freelance work or create a new product or service to solve a market need.

4. Find networking opportunities. 57% of students wish their schools offered more networking opportunities. It’s your responsibility to find and create your own networking opportunities, even if your college doesn’t have them. Use eventbrite.com or meetup.com to find networking opportunities in your area that relate to your profession.

5. Come to interviews prepared. 37% say that the most stressful part of the job application process is preparing for the interview. I’ve also found that employers feel that students come to interviews unprepared. Through the Internet, you can find out information on the people you’re interviewing with, the company and industry news.

Dan Schawbel is the author of the upcoming book, Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (Sept 3^rd, St. Martin’s Press).

The post Tips for students to graduate into jobs appeared first on Metro.us.

The bar is high for laughs with history for tour guides around the country.

Even after 16 years as a tour guide, Josh Silver still breaks out in an irrepressible ear-to-ear grin when he discusses the history of Philadelphia.

He started in 1997 as a part-time guide at Clifton House — a historical home just outside of Philadelphia — and discovered he was a natural. Silver has an affinity for local history, combined with a habit of describing events and artifacts with strict precision: “My friend calls it my bow-tie way of talking,” he says with a laugh.

“The challenge for me is staying fresh. And that takes a lot of self-generated motivation,” explains Silver. “After a while you have a lot of material to lean on, but you’ve got to push yourself to keep learning and incorporating new things.”

Today Silver is one of the most sought-after guides in the city. But he still has to hustle to remain a full-time guide. There are few — if any — Philly tour guiding companies that offer full-time work, and almost all hire guides exclusively as freelancers. Silver has worked for almost every tour guiding company in the city, and currently rotates between two small for-profit companies and one nonprofit.

“It can be an excellent way to get some supplemental income with something that’s always challenging and keeps you learning,” says Silver. “But if you want to do it, I think the first step is coming out of your shell. There are monthly meetings of tour guides. There are tours offered every day. Get out there and start talking to people, because that’s a big requirement for the job.”

Quoted:

“It’s not like [a lot of service industry jobs] where you’re often treated poorly. Very simply, you know where to go and they don’t. You’ve got the inside scoop, so people don’t look down on you when you’re serving them.” New York tour guide Robert Westfield (www.robertwestfield.com)

The post Tour guiding your way to success appeared first on Metro.us.

The job application process is shifting due to applicant tracking systems, which are online résumé aggregators that most midsize to large nonprofit and corporate entities use to weed through candidates. Trudy Steinfeld, assistant vice president and executive director of the NYU Wasserman Center for Career Development, helps you navigate the new system.

Talk to the robots (mostly)

Do: Maximize keyword searching
“Say they’re looking for a candidate who’s detailed, can communicate and is a good editor,” Steinfeld says. “When they get résumés, they’ll search the system for those keywords. If you don’t have those words on your résumé, even if those skills are displayed differently, your résumé is likely not to be identified.”
Don’t: Go overboard
“I recently heard an interesting story: There were 10 openings in this company and one person’s résumé was identified with every keyword search, though the jobs were completely different. The candidate included keywords for every job, made the text white [so it was disguised] and put the résumé over [that text]. They tossed the résumé when they learned of the stunt.

Numbers game: quantify your results
“If you’ve worked on a project and there are quantifiable results, provide the numbers,” she says. “Employers are into analytics; having an actual measure of your success can really help. Say you want to be a fundraiser. If the organization that currently employs you was taking in $1 million a year when you arrived, and now brings in $1.5 million a year, say that. People are results-oriented.

Old is new: Send a fax
“Especially when applying to small organizations, fax your résumé. Most offices still have a machine and — guess what? — it never rings,” Steinfeld says. “I’ve noticed that in my own office, when the fax machine rings, people wonder, ‘What could that be?’ It could be your résumé. It sounds crazy, but the reality is, I test this out all the time with employers and they say, ‘Yeah, if I get a résumé over the fax machine, I’m curious.’ Say, ‘I also sent this online, but I wanted to make sure it got into your hands.’”

The post Tricking the applicant tracking systems appeared first on Metro.us.

Mobile job search apps, which enable you to apply for a position from your phone, are popping up all over. Major search sites like Monster and Career Builder offer an app that lets you to browse postings, update your status and apply right from your phone. But is all this technology making the search for a new job easier, or is it just one more thing to keep track of?

According to Luis Salazar, more mobile application programs would mean a greater chance at job placement for many hourly workers. Salazar is co-founder and CEO of Jobaline, a mobile platform that connects job-seekers with companies. “The hourly workers, which are 59 percent of our economy, are especially left behind,” says Salazar.

“These important workers often either lack Internet access or only access the Web using mobile phones. When we bridge the gap by providing mobile recruitment tools that address job search needs, workers and employers alike will have the ability to find a better fit.”

Companies that create an app need to focus on keeping it concise and user-friendly. “A well-designed mobile recruitment system can reduce the amount of time and effort necessary for a candidate to apply, leading to higher application rates and fewer orphaned applications,” explains Mahe Bayireddy, CEO of iMomentous, a mobile talent recruiter.

“By integrating with DropBox, Google Drive, and social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn, applying for a job through mobile can be simple. Forms that once took upward of 20 minutes to complete can be automatically pulled from existing profiles,” Bayireddy says. Like so many other technological advances, if you’re not keeping up with the times, you’re falling behind.

“Five years from now, it’s impossible for us to imagine a world where most job searches and applications will not happen through a mobile device,” says Proven’s CEO, Pablo Fuentes. Proven is a job search app that lets users send résumés to job sites. “Today, people are doing banking, travel, and taxes on their phone. Tomorrow, mobile will be the standard for job searches.” Julia west

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Take it seriously
Treat your online profile as a professional asset and determine if it positions you the way you want it to. Google yourself often and see what the world sees when they look for you.

Commit to a professional online persona
You will be judged by what you post and what others do, too. Select a professional voice and spell-check your postings. Don’t post or say anything online that you wouldn’t want your grandmother or boss to see.

Monitor
Sign up for free, no-obligation alerts on a site that manages online reputations. Enter your name or other keywords and be alerted when potentially damaging materials are posted about you. At Reputation Changer, the technology crawls the “deep Web” going beyond what search engines look at to see what dangers may exist.

Take proactive control
Commit to ensuring that the entire first page of Google’s search results for your name or your company bring up websites or pages that you control.

1. Even a site like Yelp or Wikipedia portrays you in a particular way, so make sure you control the message.
2. Set your Facebook privacy settings so that nobody can tag you in a picture without your approval. Review the privacy settings of all the social media sites you use.
3.  Create online assets using your exact personal and/or company name as the title (such as .com or .net). Use social media profiles and free blogs. Update and post to these pages consistently. The volume of activity required depends on how prominent you are. The more prominent you are, the more active you must be.

Prepare for the worst and react fast
Proactively build up some messages that you can release if a negative news story breaks. If you believe that people may post negative or embarrassing things about you, try to head it off, but expect that you cannot. Once it is out there you can only react to it. If you need to apologize, do that, but don’t debate online because it drags out the conversation. Shift the conversation to the things that you want people to focus on.

By the numbers
70 percent of U.S. companies say that they have disqualified candidates based on what they find online about them. By 2014, 53 percent of all retail sales (online and offline) will be influenced by the more than 1.6 trillion searches conducted per year.

— These tips were compiled by Michael Zammuto, president of Reputation Changer, a company that helps people manage their online personas.

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Bea Arthur is the founder and CEO of Pretty Padded Room, a website that provides online therapy to women on their own time. We sat down with Arthur to ask about her experience running her own business.

When did you start your company, Pretty Padded Room?
I just had the two-year anniversary of my business in February, and celebrated with a fancy meal and even fancier wine from Trader Joe’s.

What’s your favorite moment of the work day?
We have been able to help clients from all over the world in all kinds of circumstances, so I love it when I get a message thanking us. We had a client in the United Arab Emirates tell us that therapy wasn’t an option where she lived, so it was nice to know that we helped her feel heard. It keeps me going on tougher days.

What is surprising about your job?
I spend a lot of time alone. Even though my days are filled with meetings, connecting with clients and following up on leads, it’s all done remotely. Entrepreneurship can get lonely. I talk to myself a lot!

How does your job affect the larger community?
I believe my team and I are making a difference in the world. With our little site, we’ve been able to provide therapy for people who wouldn’t have had access to it otherwise. We’ve all had moments where we wanted to scream or cry, so being able to be there for someone during those moments means a lot to me.

A client video chats with her therapist via prettypaddedroom.com

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Working from home sounds like a dream, but the reality is that it requires a lot of skills. To work from home you must be self-disciplined and able to manage time, but there are many other characteristics that come with being a successful at-home worker.

Distinguish work time and play time: It’s easy to fall into the trap of constant connection when working remotely, but that doesn’t help your stamina. You lock yourself in a home office during work, so why not turn off your phone during personal time?

“You must make personal time off-limits for work as much as possible,” says Sabina Ptacin, co-founder of the online business community Tin Shingle. “This could mean no laptops in the bedroom or no calls during dinner. Try to be a realistic business and know when to turn off and on.”

Prepare for social isolation: Working outside of the office means no water cooler chatter.

“Because remote workers are isolated from their co-workers, supervisors and customers, they must be comfortable fulfilling their social needs outside of work or via electronic channels like instant messaging, phone and email,” says Jeff Facteau, vice president of professional services at SHL, a talent measurement company. When you find yourself longing for actual human interaction, schedule a lunch meeting.

Don’t forget, it’s still work: When you work according to your own schedule, deadlines can be tighter and resources may be harder to find. You have to treat work like work, regardless of what else is going on.

“Remember that bosses want employees who get things done. Deliver on what they want and they won’t care if you are in that cubicle or working out of a Starbucks,” suggests Jane Miller, founder of Janeknows.com and author of the upcoming book “Sleep your Way to the Top (and Other Myths About Business Success).”

“If you can get results and wear your bunny slippers, you’ll have the best of all worlds,” adds Miller.

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It’s that time of year again when we break out the cleaning products and industrial-sized trash bags, and now’s also the perfect time to do a little sprucing up on the career front. Whether you’re in the midst of a job search, or looking to improve your standing situation, a little elbow grease and polish will make your career shine.

If you’re actively looking for a new job, Executive Director of Rollins MBA’s Career Development Center Jane Trnka suggests reassessing your search plan. “How many hours are you dedicating to your search? How are you allocating those hours? By creating a calendar, charting out and making deliberate plans, you will avoid the ‘I can do it tomorrow’ self-talk and take productive action in a more timely manner.” Cut down on the hours spent aimlessly surfing and search with precise timeframes and goals in mind.

If you’re employed but keeping an eye out for a more fulfilling position, take a good look at what you’re putting on the Internet, it could be hurting you. Comb through your social media platforms and make sure they are scrubbed clean. “Be thoughtful about what you’re posting on your own social channels,” says Ben Martinez, HR director at thedigital recruiting platform HireVue. “You might want to consider deleting some old items if you feel they won’t go over well with a new boss,” he adds.

If you’re looking to dust off the cobwebs on your current position, it helps to be concise. Clear off the clutter and get to the heart of what your job is. Dorie Clark, marketing strategy consultant and author of book “Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future,” explains the importance of a career’s sharpened narrative. “Take control of your narrative by creating a one or two sentence statement that explains where you’ve been and how that uniquely positions you for the future,” she says. Now you’ve got a sparkling view of how to move forward.

What to toss

It wouldn’t be spring cleaning without a little purging. Joseph Grenny, co-author of the personal improvement book “Change Anything,” lists the top five bad job-search habits. It’s time to haul these to the curb.

• Unreliability
• “That’s not my job” attitude
• Procrastination
• Resistance to change
• Negative attitude

The post Tips to spring clean your career appeared first on Metro.us.

Over the last 35 years, Portland-based pianist Jill Timmons has created a sustainable career, without losing sight of her passion for classical music. And after 10 years of research and writing, her latest book, “The Musician’s Journey: Crafting Your Career Vision and Plan,” is finally set for release this month. In it Timmons shares her formula for a success-sans-starving career in music.

“I spent a lot of time researching before I began writing. I found a lot of books on the vision process – getting in touch with what you want to do in music most. And I found a lot of books on the nuts-and-bolts business aspect of having a career,” says Timmons. “But I couldn’t find anything that joined these two together, so I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to have to write it.’”

Timmons received her doctor of musical arts degree from Washington University, and her master of management from Boston University. She owns her own company, Arts Mentor, which consults teachers, artists, nonprofits and students on their artistic ambitions.

Over the years Timmons has performed at Carnegie Hall, founded an arts consulting business and reached tenure at Linfield College, along with a slew of other gigs and “reinventions.”

But all of her work has been related to music, and she encourages other musicians to embrace a similar piecemeal approach.

“I think the biggest mistake that most artists make is calculating their career based on what is outside of them, rather than considering the question, ‘If I didn’t have to make a living, what would I do?’ Because that’s the focal point, and everything needs to grow from there,” says Timmons.

“Making a living and being an artist are two separate things. Sometimes they intersect, but not always. To let your happiness hinge on, ‘I must get a job, tomorrow, in my field, or I can’t be an artist,’ is just self-defeating.”

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PA for a Day worker, Jennie Wright did a job for a personal chef by picking up a package from the client’s Manhattan apartment and delivering it to a Williamsburg apartment building. 

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Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead”, has topped both the New York Times and Amazon best-seller lists for weeks. In it, she argues that women hold few leadership roles in part because of their own internalized fear and doubt. She urges women to “lean in”: accept responsibilities without hesitating, promote themselves, and not “leave before you leave,” her catchphrase for bowing out to have kids long before considering pregnancy. Some critics have deemed the elite and fortunate Sandberg an unfit mouthpiece for all women; others argue that she doesn’t intend to be. Here, a more specific response: some of the city’s most successful working women add their personal experiences to the conversation.

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  PHOTOS: Leading ladies, powerful women executives

THE REACTION

Tocci: I “leaned in” instinctively because I can be an unabashed self-promoter and I like to be in charge. I don’t think it’s necessary to lead in an arrogant way and I think that is what Sandberg meant when she commented about the importance of being likable. My observation is that women aren’t raised to lead. There have been thousands of years of instruction about being “ladylike” and absolutely no guidance on being the person in charge. I took Sandberg’s point to be that now that women CAN be the person in charge, they should be conscious of moving toward that goal and not be afraid of the opportunity.

Lebenthal: “Leaning in” means going for all the challenges openly. There isn’t a teacher monitoring you and grading. It’s every person for him or herself.

White: I can’t profess to having “leaned in.” I’m not into actively promoting myself. My nature is to let my work speak for itself. Fortunately I’m with an organization that has fully supported that.

THE EXPERIENCE

DeCesare: While I was on maternity leave, a colleague of mine was promoted. When I asked my VP why I was not even called about the position, the response was, “Well, you just had twins.” I realized I had to have a conversation with both myself and my boss about my goals. I let him know that indeed I did want to apply for the job, and that being a mother made me an even smarter and more dedicated worker. The fire storm this ended up causing changed the way the company handled women in the workplace. Also, I got the job.

Tocci: When my career took off, my husband and I made an important decision together that he would be the stay-at-home parent for the most critical years of our son’s childhood. I realize we were lucky to have that option. It was always women who would say to me, “Don’t you feel bad traveling and being so busy with a young child at home?” My response was “I’d feel worse if my son saw that I wasn’t able to work out how to pursue my passion.”

Anvik: In one of the worst economies we’ve seen in decades, I left a great job at an agency with summer Fridays, bonuses, health care and a guaranteed paycheck to launch a start up. I didn’t listen to any advice (male or female) that perpetuated the idea that women should play it safe. I knew I would make it, and that if by some chance I didn’t, I was smart enough to figure out a Plan B.

THE ADVICE

Lebenthal: Think of your goal as a destination on a map: Without knowing where you are going, it will be impossible to get there.”

A. White: At times I have “leaned out”, choosing family over work. I skipped traveling to an important internal meeting last fall to go to my son’s first day of kindergarten. I really needed to be at that meeting. Working mothers face these trade-offs all the time, and they can be extremely difficult.

C. White: I have to work, which sometimes means that family needs to arrange itself around my work. However, I’ve never felt any significant guilt about that. We all benefit.

Anvik: A female executive, when I started my first job, said, “I want to help you be amazing. You make me look good, I move up, and you move up. Then the next girl that comes in, we’ll help her too. This is not competition; it’s cooperation.”

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Meet the women featured in Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead”.  Her book features opinions and advice from powerful and influential women executives.

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Ashley Milne-Tyte says women need to stick to their guns while being polite when negotiating a raise.

How often do you negotiate a raise? If you’re female, the answer is quite likely to be not often, or even never. My first time came about 12 years ago. I was in my 20s and about to switch roles within a company. My co-worker told me I should shoot for a number that constituted a 25 percent raise. It seemed like a huge amount and I found it horribly awkward to discuss money — let alone think I was actually worth something. I squirmed at the thought. But during the interview, I summoned up the courage to make the ask. My supervisor acted surprised, which made me uncomfortable, but I managed to resist backing down.

He muttered that it was a very large raise and I was unlikely to receive that much. Still, he said he’d see what he could do.

I got it.

That was my first lesson in negotiating. Just ask — they can always say no. In almost every study done on negotiating, women simply don’t ask for raises as frequently as men do. It’s one of the many reasons for the gender pay gap. Of course, I know men who hate negotiating as much as I do (I never said it was fun) and women who consider it a point of pride to fight fiercely for what they’re worth. But in general, women face particular challenges when it comes to asking for what we want.

Society still views women as nice and accommodating. Asking for more money doesn’t fit that picture. So we have to be careful how we do it to avoid turning people off. But if you don’t ask, you have no idea what you could get. You could be turned down, but isn’t it better to find out by asking in the first place?

Do’s and Don’ts:

DO your research first. There’s a ton of it out there. I recommend Shenegotiates.com and the book “Ask for It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Want” by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever.

DON’T immediately back down if your boss balks at your request. This is all part of the game.

DO remain pleasant and polite throughout. Research shows women can get more from negotiating if they keep playing nice while sticking firmly to their guns.

DON’T say things like “because I deserve it.” It gets interviewers and managers all hot under the collar because it goes against gender norms for women.

Ashley Milne-Tyte is a radio producer and reporter based in New York City. She hosts a bi-monthly podcast called “The Broad Experience” about women in the workplace.

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Writing cover letters is arguably the worst part about job searching. Making yourself sound fun and cool but also professional and hardworking is exceptionally hard.

The folks at BuzzFeed seem to understand that.

A job listing for Support Specialist at BuzzFeed takes an unorthodox approach at vetting potential candidates.

To apply, BuzzFeed asks applicants:

“Instead of a cover letter, please send us instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Text, images, video … the format for your PB&J tutorial is up to you, as long following your instructions results in a really delicious sandwich.”

“One of the main responsibilities for the Support Specialist will be creating documentation and FAQs for our editing tools,” Alice DuBois, BuzzFeed product Lead for Editorial Tools, said in an e-mail to Metro. “We’re interested in getting a sense of applicants’ communication style. So instead of a cover letter, which tend to be generic and forgettable, we’re asking people to demonstrate a skill they’ll have to use in the job.”

Applicants will still have to submit resumes and interview for the positions, though Chris Johanesen, BuzzFeed VP of Product, had the idea to conduct one of the interviews over GChat, since the support specialist will spend a lot of time helping people via instant messages.

“Many tweets about this job posting seem to suggest that BuzzFeed has decided to request PB&J instructions instead of a cover letter for all of our job postings, so I want to point out that we made this request only for the Support Specialist position,” DuBois said.

In addition to amazing sandwich making skills, candidates must possess amazing communication skills, problem solving skills and of course a sense of humor.

Follow Mary Ann Georgantopoulos on Twitter @marygeorgant

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Pierre Khawand says that optimizing productivity depends on working in bursts.

Some days, you feel like you got nothing done at work. It’s not uncommon: The email inbox grows, an instant messages pop up and colleagues interrupt your workflow. Productivity consultant and author of “The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook” Pierre Khawand says: “When we are working a few minutes here and a few minutes there, we are staying at the superficial level and not getting deep into anything.” Here are his strategies for digging in deeper to get more work done.

How can people reach their level of optimal productivity?

The first element has to do with how results change with time when we are working on a task. When we start to work on the task, we get results. But at some point, the results level off and then diminish, because either we get mentally tired and are no longer productive, or we need someone else to do their part before we can continue. This is all good in theory, but what happens in reality is that a few minutes after we start to work on a task, we get interrupted. When we get interrupted, our results go down to zero — this happens again and again, and again. It’s part of life in today’s work environment.

So how do we stay on task?

A key element is starting the day by identifying what we intend to accomplish that day and ending the day with a reconciliation process. That ensures that we close the loops on open issues. Instead of starting the day with e-mail, we should stop for a minute or two to reflect on what is important and what we want to accomplish. Then, put it in writing.

The idea is that we need to stay focused long enough so that we can achieve in-depth thinking, creative problem solving and get meaningful things done. Depending on the task, it can be 15 minutes, 30 minutes or several hours. Once we have accomplished something meaningful, it is time to stop our “focused” session, and switch to being collaborative — handle email, phone calls, have live discussions. This is the collaborative work where we get the most of our team productivity and equally important results. After the collaborative session, it is time to take a break — do something that gets us re-energized and ready for the next focused session. No significant productivity gains, and therefore no significant accomplishments, can be achieved if we don’t optimize our workflow by recognizing the concepts described above: focus, collaborate, then play!

Burst out:

Working in bursts manages tasks, interruptions and energy. It makes you feel invigorated and accomplished as a result.

• Alternate between focus, collaboration and play.
• Be intensely and wholeheartedly in each burst. That’s what the “burst” label is for — to maximize output.
• Each burst should build toward and enhance the next burst.

For more tips and information, see here.

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There’s no get-rich-quick scheme when it comes to blogging. Creating a website, building an audience and eventually garnering revenue is an exhausting process — which is why most successful blogs are labors of love. A good blog stems from an unwavering desire to do the thing you most enjoy and share it with the world.

Lauren Lilling had a degree in finance, but Wall Street just wasn’t cutting it for her. A year after starting her blog, Keep It Sweet Desserts, Lilling left the world of finance and devoted her time to a new business: a blog and “e-bakery” where users can order treats like her seasonally appropriate “Matzo-crack” salted chocolate matzo.

Like any savvy business owner, Lilling drew on what she knew. “As someone who worked in finance prior to starting a business, I was able to use skills from my previous career, leverage the social media buildup I had from blogging and build on the relationships in both places,” she says.

Babette Pepaj runs TECHmunch, a conference for food bloggers to help them do  what Lilling has done. Pepaj travels around the U.S. to help food bloggers make their work more financially rewarding, she says.

“The unsuccessful bloggers I’ve seen are the ones who are short-term planners,” says Pepaj. Most important, she says, is keeping the blog active to attract interest from advertisers: “You can’t expect a brand to look at your blog that hasn’t been updated in four weeks and think your community is engaged,” she says.

Tips for making a blog into a career:

•    Have a clear focus. In this case, casting a wider net will not necessarily get you a wider audience.
•    Be patient, but be persistent. The money isn’t going to come rolling in, but regular posting and diligence will certainly help.
•    Use social media. Utilize different platforms in order to promote your brand and drive traffic to your site.

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In 2008 Dave Stewart was laid off from his maintenance tech position at a Pennsylvania nursing home. The news came as a shock and, as a result, he decided to take his career in a radically different direction.

Stewart is now one of a select few Americans that make their living through eBay. (The company claims 1.3 million sellers worldwide, but experts believe the number of individual, primary-income eBay-ers to be much smaller.)

“I no longer wanted to be dependent on someone else providing me with paycheck, because I saw that you couldn’t rely on it as much as I did,” says Stewart, from his home in Bucks County, Pa. “I wanted to be self-employed, but wasn’t quite sure how to get there.”

Inspiration struck, along with a bit of luck: He discovered a stockpile of obsolete car parts in his grandfather’s cavernous garage. While his family was skeptical, Stewart was convinced there was a market for outdated parts.

“It started out as an experiment — just a few parts on the [eBay] page. They really sold fast, and I had an inkling I was on to something,” says Stewart “Pretty soon, I had an eBay store, and I couldn’t keep up with the orders.”

Stewart’s success wasn’t based on luck alone. He operates his business with the systematic, detailed approach you’d expect in a much larger operation. Every one of the 1,600 items in his eBay store is researched thoroughly and displayed with precise photos and descriptions. These days, car parts represent less than half of the items in his store.

“To be successful on eBay, you have to be a salesman. It’s like other sales jobs: If you’re good at it, you can make a living — but only if you’re good,” says Stewart. “It’s all about keeping people’s interest with new merchandise. You can’t just let it sit there and expect to make something.”

Q & A
Temple University management professor Paul Pavlou has been studying eBay for 15 years, since the company’s early days. He gave his expert advice:
How has the eBay game changed in the past five years?
A lot has changed ­— some that’s good for the individual, and some that isn’t. eBay has attempted to attract much larger sellers, and they have adjusted their model somewhat because of that. However, it’s a larger platform now, and the access to the market, logistics and infrastructure is still quite remarkable for the individual.

What sells best on eBay right now?
We’ve seen a trend toward used cars and products for used cars. eBay Motors is now one of the most popular platforms.

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