Maine's Job Matchmaker

Four Maine companies have announced layoffs in the last week and more likely will follow. This isn’t an easy time to be job seeking, and it isn’t a comfortable time for those employed either. Some layoffs are unavoidable during a recession, but you may be able to help yourself by
taking a few steps now.

First, this is the time to make yourself the most reliable employee
around. Be at work when you are supposed to be there; and make your
hours at work productive, not just riding the wave until 5 pm “looking
busy.” Those employees who go above and beyond are noticed just as much as those who skate through the day hoping nobody notices.  Second, take advantage of tuition reimbursement if offered with your current employers. There is no way to better improve your value to your employer than by improving your knowledge base. Another way of becoming more valuable to your employer is to be flexible, adaptable and willing to learn as much as possible when given different tasks to complete.  Stating “it’s not in my job description” certainly is not a good idea in this day and age! Next, I offer three words of advice:  network, network, network! It never pays to talk badly about your current employer; but it does pay huge dividends if others in your line of work know who you are and what you are capable of doing. One online site that is an invaluable tool is Linkedin.com. If you use sites such as Facebook or Myspace, make sure there is nothing there that you wouldn’t want your current or future employer seeing.  Most HR managers and recruiters tell me they do go to Google to check out their candidate before an interview!

Let’s face it, even good employees do get laid off. It is best to prepare
that it might happen. If your job is specific that could be done across multiple companies, you could market yourself as a consultant. Maybe it’s time to go back to school full time or it’s time to take a step back and wonder if another career path would be a better option for you. One proactive approach an employee can take is to have their profile up to date on jobmatchME where they can specify they are a “passive” job seeker. By having a profile you will get notified when positions that you qualify for are posted. I found a blog, Colleen on Careers, that has great advice for those who have gotten laid of.

The adage comes to mind to “prepare for the worst and hope for the best.” Every economy downturn does eventually have an upswing; and whether we like it or not, we are all a part of the ride. It isn’t a time to sit back and just go along for the ride, it’s time to take over the drivers seat!

JobmatchME.com has listened to you job seekers! We have received a lot
of feedback about the search feature on our site. Overwhelmingly, the
response was that people did not like having to register before being
able to search the site by town or zip code. So, as of today you no
longer have to register in order to search the jobs! You can enter how
many miles you are willing to travel from your zip code or you can
enter which towns specifically you want to search for jobs in.

I do encourage everyone to create a profile because it’s the profiles
that prospective employers use to figure out who is qualified for the
posted jobs.

Yesterday, I was helping an employer publish her
company’s first job on Jobmatchme. Once the job description was saved
but before it was published, she saw that our site had searched the
more than 5,000 profiles placed by job seekers and narrowed the list of
qualified applicants to the best-qualified candidates. Those who didn’t
list their qualifications didn’t get chosen. This is why it’s
advantageous for job seekers to have their profile set up. So please
fill out those profiles when you get a chance. For now, however, you
can easily search for jobs whenever the urge strikes you!

Happy job hunting!

JobmatchME.com now has over 5,000 job seekers registered online! With 300 job opportunities posted, what does that mean for you?  It means that each one of you needs to find a way to stand out in the crowd. I have a few hints on how you can use the tools in jobmatchME to make you do that!

The first thing an employer is going to notice about  your profile is your email address, so make sure your address sounds professional. Names such as goodkisser, sweetpea, mudkicker, or any other fun-sounding nickname with any email address is going to not give the best first impression. My suggestion would be to use any of the free email accounts such as gmail, yahoo, or hotmail and use a combination of your first and last name with perhaps your lucky number (if your name is taken). This will immediately connect the online person with a genuine person-you!

Next, as a job seeker you need to utilize all of the jobmatchME tools to connect you with employers. When employers publish a job they will automatically have a list generated of matched candidates and how closely, on a scale of 1-100, job seekers meet their qualifications. So, as a job seeker you need to input all of the qualifications you have in all of the drop-down fields. By doing this, you have a better chance of being on the top of the list that the employer sees!

If you don’t have a resume, create one and upload it onto the job site.  If you need help with a resume the Career Centers throughout Maine are an invaluable resource. There are also many free resume templates available online. A few  that I found useful are: resumetemplates.org, landjob.com, and microsoft.com. Once that resume is created, check your spelling, proof read it, and have someone else proof read it again before uploading it online. Remember, it will be the first document that your prospective employer will have that has been created by you!

Lastly, log in to jobmatchME on a regular basis, preferably daily. Positions are uploaded daily at the Bangor Daily News onto the site and employers are uploading jobs as they decide to post them. Some employers may choose to initiate communication between themselves and the candidates online through jobmatchME. You don’t want to go weeks between logging in to your account in case an employer has contacted you for more information. This is especially important if you create an e mail account specifically for job seeking and you do not check it as often as you check your regular e mail account.

JobmatchME is a great new tool for job seekers and employers alike. It’s worth taking the time to put as much information as possible into your jobmatchme profile. You can log in at any time to edit and add more details that will help you to stand out as the job seeker to hire! If you have any questions at all feel free to e mail me at jobs@bangordailynews.net. Happy job hunting!

With the New Year there are many people out there looking for a new job. Maybe your company has downsized, or maybe you are just ready for a change and ready to try something new!  Last week I met with Vince Wank, owner of Innovative Marketing Solutions in the Target Industrial Circle in Bangor.  Vince told me exactly the type of employee he is looking for to work in his call center, “I’m looking for those people who have worked fast food or restaurant jobs who want to make better money. The reason I’m looking at those industries for my future employees is because I know they have a good work ethic and know what working hard is all about.”  So, if you are one of those job seekers who has restaurant or fast food experience be sure to go to jobmatchme.com and check out his job!

How often do you have a chance to give away $200 to a perfect stranger? It sounds odd, but it was rewarding, and it gave me a chance to meet Melinda Webber of Plymouth, who was the winner of our Jobmatchme.com contest.

Melinda won because she was chosen at random from close to 4,500 people who submitted resumes to our new online help-wanted site. When I called her with the news, she first thought I was a prank caller, but soon realized that I wasn’t joking. The day after Christmas she happily stopped by The Bangor Daily News to pick up her winnings. I asked if she planned on using this money to do some shopping at those after Christmas sales.  Her response was similar to what one would expect in these tough economic times, she smiled and said she’d be using the money to pay bills. Her gratitude showed in her smile and I knew in my heart that I would have to give money away to a perfect stranger again.  Hopefully the BDN will sponsor another jobmatchme.com contest on 2009!

P.S. If you weren’t the lucky winner of the $200, hopefully you will become the lucky winner of a new rewarding career!  Helpful hints and job lead ideas soon to follow…