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Posted
Sep 30 2009, 06:12 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Julie Rains at partner blog Wise Bread.
Many people are job hunting these days. I have worked with job seekers for many years and have found that these five common assumptions frequently derail a job search.
Being open to anything will increase my chances of landing a job. The search ought to have a focus: You should be targeting opportunities in a certain discipline or function; or you should identify the strengths you'd like to leverage and then uncover positions that match those strengths. The résumé should convey that focus; otherwise, you can't differentiate yourself from other candidates because you're not really great at anything but rather average at many things.
Hiring managers don't want to spend training and payroll dollars on a so-so candidate, especially in an environment where money is an extremely limited resource and a more qualified candidate is sure to surface soon.
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Posted
Sep 29 2009, 06:48 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Jim Wang at partner blog Bargaineering.
Movies today can rely on special effects, monster marketing efforts, and a few pretty faces (*cough* "Transformers 2" *cough*). In the 1980s and early '90s, movies had to rely on the story and the acting to achieve success.
Out of that era, which coincided with my childhood, came a lot of classic movies that teach powerful lessons about how to deal with your money, how to approach your career, and how to find success in both.
I thought it would be fun to pick out five lessons from just five movies from that era (one of them is from 2000, but no fancy special effects there).
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Posted
Sep 22 2009, 05:34 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Jim Wang at partner blog Bargaineering.com.
A few years ago, when unemployment was low and the economy was rosy, all you needed to do to get a job was get your résumé in front of as many people as possible. You had to carpet bomb, stuff electronic résumé boxes, and simply wait. One of the companies you reached out to probably had a job opening and you probably were a pretty good fit.
Nowadays, the jobs are harder to find and companies aren't going to take a risk on a "pretty good fit." So, I compiled a list of 10 tips I've tried to use when crafting my résumé during a job search.
You are a salesperson now. Joe Sugarman is one of the most famous copywriters of all time and a mail order maven. I read one of his books about copywriting, and think that the best part about his tips is that they're simple -- your title should be designed to get the reader to read the first sentence. The first sentence should be designed to get the reader to read the second sentence. The second ... you get the idea.
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Posted
Sep 21 2009, 07:47 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Wojciech Kulicki at Fiscal Fizzle.
A critical skill for a fulfilling financial life is understanding your own money priorities. Without taking this first step, it's like driving without a destination -- you will simply end up wherever the road takes you.
I've touched on the topic of setting priorities in a number of past posts:
Now I'd like to take a more detailed approach and propose a list of seven independent activities that will drive you to find what's at the heart of your financial desires.
I guarantee that doing even one of these will bring you much closer to understanding what you value and aligning your daily actions with where you'd like to finish. It's worth the effort.
Consider these seven individually, or as a group:
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Posted
Sep 16 2009, 02:09 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This guest post comes from Baker at Man vs. Debt.
I think I'm going to enjoy writing this much more than you enjoy reading it.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Tyler Durden, he is an essential character in "Fight Club," which is both a novel and movie. While the novel came a few years before, the movie escalated into a cult classic in the years following its DVD release. If you aren't familiar with the character, well ... we should probably part ways here.
For those who are still with me, let's get some things out of the way. We aren't going to be talking about masculinity, violence, mental disorders, religion, or even politics. Those themes run rampant through the movie and have been discussed in great length and detail by individuals much smarter and more witty than me.
Instead, we are going to have fun. We are going to dive into some of Tyler's most famous quotes (from the movie) and attempt to pull any applicable personal-finance wisdom from them. The movie's strong anti-consumerism message will make some of these very easy, while others may seem like more of a stretch. I'll let you decide.
Here are Tyler's thought on a wide variety of personal-finance themes:
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Posted
Sep 16 2009, 10:50 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
It's unfortunate but true that homely folks often have more limited income prospects than their better-looking peers. People are shallow like that.
What can you do if you've been blessed with less than your fair share of good looks? Both "FMF" at Free Money Finance and Kiplinger columnist Marty Nemko have some advice.
Bing: Famous ugly people
Marty also has some relevant remarks for employers: "All other things being equal, I'd give the nod to an ugly candidate." You can probably hire them for less and they'll work harder than those who know how to get by on their looks.
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Posted
Sep 10 2009, 10:06 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
When you're selling yourself in a résumé, there are definitely things you should not do.
A typo? Fuhgeddaboudit. A recent survey by Accountemps, owned by Robert Half International, found that 40% of the 150 senior executive who were questioned will toss a résumé after finding one single solitary typo. Another 30% said the magic number is two, writes Color of Money columnist Michelle Singletary at The Washington Post
So, make sure you read and reread and reread your résumé, and then have someone proofread it after you.
How damaging can a typo be? For more on that, we turned to Resumania (and thanks to Michelle for pointing out this hilarious site).
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Posted
Sep 01 2009, 01:55 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Are there office clichés that you find overused, tiresome and extremely annoying? Take "outside the box." "Outside the bun" is clever; "outside the box" is not. Thankfully, that phrase is no longer around -- after a long and painful death.
You can compare your most hated phrases with those selected by a variety of executives, reports Marlys Harris, The Consumer Reporter at CBS MoneyWatch.com. Marlys shares results from Accountemps, which did the survey, in a post called "Words you should never use at the office unless you have to." She also offers her own often hilarious translations.
For example, Marlys wrote: "Value-add. A gain, usually financial. Example: "She refuses to donate to charity unless she sees some value-add, say, eternal salvation." Read More...
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Posted
Aug 24 2009, 07:26 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from J.D. Roth at partner blog Get Rich Slowly.
In June, a user at Ask MetaFilter wondered: What are the differences between someone who makes $100,000/year and someone who makes $30,000? As you might expect, this question generated a lot of discussion -- all of it interesting.
Many commenters noted that, from their experience, high-income earners generally exhibit several of the following traits:
- They maintain a strong work ethic.
- They don't watch the clock.
- They seek to improve their skills.
- They do quality work.
- They're flexible and adaptable.
- They maintain a good social network.
- They possess self-confidence.
A few commenters noted that there are two other factors that absolutely play a role in how much a person earns.
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Posted
Aug 19 2009, 01:30 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from James Limbach at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
Not all job-search methods are created equal.
In fact, a recent survey of human resources executives found that networking is the most valuable tool in the job seeker's arsenal, while going to job fairs is the least effective.
The survey asked the hiring execs to rate the effectiveness of various job-search methods on a scale of 1 (least effective) to 5 (most effective). Networking averaged a 3.98; about half of those asked gave networking a rating of 5.
The second most effective job-search tool, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., which conducted the poll, is a relatively new one. Social/professional-networking sites, such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, garnered an average rating of 3.3, with 47% of respondents giving it a rating of 4 or 5.
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