SoberJobs Resource Articles & Guides

By Darla Blackmon

No matter where you live, finding meaningful employment can be a job in itself. In many American cities jobs are still scarce, but that doesn’t mean you should give up looking for your dream job. There are plenty of companies hiring if you knowhow to look.

Savvy job-seekers know that simply relying on a local newspaper or word of mouth is no longer enough. You’ll need to use all your available resources if you want to have your pick of job listings. If you live in a major metropolitan area, then one of the best ways to find jobs is to take advantage of technology. Websites can help your target your search and maximize your chance of finding the best job listings.

1. Access More Information By Searching Online

A big advantage of using the Internet is that you can do more research about prospective companies. Most job sites provide a link to the hiring company’s website. Use this valuable link to learn more about the company culture and work environment. Websites also provide a more detailed job description than the few lines available in the local classifieds. This can help you decide if the job description really matches your career goals.

Not only will researching the company culture and job description help you narrow down which jobs to apply for, this extra knowledge will be an asset when you get the interviewing stage. Potential employers will be impressed that you took the time to “do your homework.”

2. Define Your Search with the Right Keywords

Online, there are many different careers to choose from with pages of search results in each category. It’s important that you have a clear idea of what you’re looking for. Your search will be more efficient if you only apply for positions that really match your needs and skills. Make a list of your skills or special training, then use them as your keywords when searching for jobs online.

This doesn’t mean that you need to completely avoid employment opportunities that fall outside of your skill set. If you’re looking to change careers, then focus more on finding a company that matches your goals rather than your current skill level. In this case, your list will include a description of the type of office environment you want to be in, the skills you’d like to learn, or specific benefits your new company should offer. As you browse the job listings, keep this list handy so you can see how potential companies measure up to your goals.

3. Sort Potential Jobs by Location or Skill Set

Even if you narrow your job search to match your specific education or training, sorting through all the employment options can be time-consuming. Happily, searching online also makes it easy to bookmark your favorite jobs. You can even sort your bookmarks according to region or career – Long Beach jobs in one folder and Los Angeles jobs in another or graphic design jobs in one folder and writing jobs in another.

Being organized will help you stay on track as you go through the application process and make it easier to follow up on leads later.

4. Be Persistent

The perfect job may be hard to find, but there are many ways to use technology to increase your luck. Evaluate your career goals and then target your search to just the job listings that match your objective. Whether you live in Long Beach or Long Island, by effectively using technology you’ll see that finding a career you are passionate about can be a rewarding experience that pays off both professionally and personally. Take the time to do your research and you may just find that your next job is your best job.

Asking tricky questions during a job interview is a sure way to evaluate how well a candidate copes under pressure. High pressure questions and difficult interview questions are asked as an attempt to assess if a candidate is right for the available position or not. To eliminate fears about how to answer difficult job interview questions familiarize you with them.

Follow these simple job interview guidelines and answer difficult interview questions with ease.

What are your weaknesses and how do you remedy these?
We all have character defects and areas of our jobs that are weaker than others. While this is true to every worker, no one likes to admit to their imperfections. When an interviewer asks this difficult question, there are specific ways to answer.

Try to avoid confessing to a character defect that will interfere with your ability to perform the job function. Rather try to specify a defect that is a weakness but almost favors or benefits the company directly, should they hire you. An example of such a weakness is being a perfectionist. While being a perfectionist suggests you pay attention to detail, if not managed appropriately, this can sometimes slow your productivity down.

To counter such a weakness, you could express how important time management is to you and how you apply this to your daily responsibilities. As mentioned before, prepare for this difficult interview question ahead of time so as to avoid being put on the spot.

Why are you looking for a new job?
The most important thing to keep in mind when faced with this tricky interview question is never slate your previous employer. As tempting as this may be or as much as the job interviewer pry’s, never ever bad mouth a previous employer. Although you may have valid reason to want to leave, it never looks professional when job seekers blame their employers for having to look for a new job.

You are entitled to your opinion but remember to use tact and always be respectful. Try to answer this difficult job interview question with a positive statement such as seeking greater job satisfaction, career advancements or the desire to apply your skills to a new industry.

How have you dealt with past challenges in your career and what did you do to remedy this?
By asking this question, the employer is specifically looking to find out how you cope with difficult situations. By asking such a question, the interviewer is not so concerned with what the problem was, but more so how you managed to overcome this problem. To answer this difficult question, again hold back on getting too excited over your troubles. Highlight a situation that was challenging but not colossally damaging to your career.

An example of an answer to this question would be; managing a difficult staff member and the innovative ways you implemented in order to remedy the situation. Again you don’t want to confess that you make regular mistakes when facing challenges. Rather attempt to display your proactive stance in order to avoid such situations.

Why should we hire you?
While no one likes to advertise where their weaknesses lie, society has also taught us to be modest and humble. When asked this difficult job interview question, the most important thing to remember is to sell yourself as best you can. When approached with such a question, this is your opportunity to blow your trumpet loud and clear. The pre job interview preparation will come in handy now, as you will need to be on your toes when answering such a tricky question.

Yes or No questions
You should never answer a job interview question with only a yes or no answer. Closed ended answers are just as bad as the interviewer asking you a difficult, closed ended question. Always justify a yes or no answer with substantial back up. Give examples and display your comprehensive knowledge on the matter so as to ensure you are giving an impressionable answer.

By Gordy Serlist

Every year there are millions of people who accept an early retirement package. This is something they choose due to health, new direction in life, and sometimes it can be because of a change in the company’s direction they are working for. Before you consider an early retirement package you should research all of your options and consider the best strategic plan for your needs. This article will outline the five most common factors when considering an early retirement package.

What type of health benefits will you receive?

With the rising cost of health care you will want to make sure that your early retirement package includes continued health care benefits. You will need to negotiate how much of the monthly premium you will be responsible for. One other key aspect that is often overlooked is your location. If you decide to move out of state or even to a new location within your state will you still have the same coverage benefits?

What is included for compensation?

When you are offered an early retirement package most companies will make an offer to compensate you or even to entice you into taking an early retirement package. If you have put in at least 20 years of honorable service with a company they will evaluate your record and make an offer accordingly.

Will Early Retirement Affect Your Pension Plan?

If you decide to accept an early retirement package you will want to calculate the difference between retiring now and perhaps five years later. How much loss of monthly income will you suffer by accepting an early retirement package?

Will You Be Able to Afford Early Retirement?

Hopefully you have planned ahead and set yourself up for early retirement. If not, you will need to do some calculations and make sure you can afford to accept an early retirement package. It may be a matter of re-adjusting your living environment to enjoy the lifestyle you want to live when you retire.

People skills are how effective one deals with many different types of individuals on a daily basis. The wider the range of others in terms of ages, cultures and company levels that one can deal with, the better that person’s skill level. It doesn’t matter which field whether it’s medicine, law, engineering, journalism, the arts, one of the trades or any other career as the most successful individuals in each area are not necessarily the ones who had the highest school grades or those who are the most technically gifted. Instead, the top stars in each field are the ones with the best people skills.

Once these individuals enter the workforce, they will soon realize that those with superior personal talents will end up moving up the corporate ladder faster as their competition gets promoted through the ranks past them. If they are lucky, after a few years of learning the hard way, these individuals will learn to develop much needed soft skills and hopefully, management will notice their improvement in social interactions at the office enough to warrant promotions.

Unfortunately, people or ’soft’ skills as they are sometimes known, are not usually taught in classrooms at any educational level. Many students who end up spending all their time and energy during their school years to maximize their grades do not end up learning to effectively interact with others, especially if not developed outside of the classroom. In effect, their development was unbalanced too much towards pure academics.

However, most folks in this situation will not be so lucky. They are either too set in their ways to change or don’t even recognize their own personal deficiencies. These individuals will have reached a ceiling in their fields relatively quickly in their careers. The world, both corporate and non-corporate, desperately needs more leaders and this lack of leadership will not be filled anytime soon if the majority of the workforce is lacking in people skills. Fortunately, this problem can be addressed in two ways.

For those already in the workforce, companies can utilize seminars and workshops as part of on-going professional education on these skills including diversity training. All management, current and potential candidates, should attend such development sessions. The result will be a much more efficient management which in turn will mean bigger profits.

The other way is to expose students at every level and as early as possible to principles of people skills. Schools in many areas are already become quite diverse so such additional development for students in this area will be a natural evolution. It just has to be made part of the regular educational system somehow, with external trainers and speakers if necessary. Of course, staff including teachers and professors should also be exposed to their own developmental workshops as well since they were most likely not given the opportunity during their own years as students for this type of training.

By Steve Wong

Usually the potential employers will provide an opportunity for you to ask questions towards the end of the job interview.

Can you ask questions prior to this allocated slot? It’s nothing wrong indeed!

But you should always ask permission from the interviewers when asking the first couple of questions, and you need to read their responses. If the interviewers are showing signs of discomfort, you need to back off. If asking questions is acceptable to the interviewers, you have established a 2-way flow.

So, what kinds of job interview questions are appropriate to ask the potential employers? Here are the guidelines you can use to construct your questions:

The Do’s:

1) Tailor your questions to a specific job position. Before showing up for any interview, research as much as you can for the position you are interviewing, the industry, the company, the mission statement, the recent news and the job nature. Formulate your questions according to the requirement of the specific job and the goals of the company.

2) Ask intelligent open-ended questions and be a good listener. Let the interviewers do the talking and bring about giving you the information that you want. Allow the conversation to flow naturally and build some rapport with the employer. The employer will want to hire those they feel most comfortable with.

3) You may need to attend a few interviews for a specific position before getting hire. You should shape your questions intelligently according to the different stages in the interview process. If you’re in the screening stage, you will probably ask general questions. If you have a chance to attend the 2nd or 3rd interviews, your questions can be very targeted. Likewise, you’ll expect similar concise questions from the interviewers.

4) Read the interviewers’ reaction for what you say or ask. Observe their body language, eye contacts and listen to their verbal signals. All these will provide indication for how well you’re really doing.

The Don’ts

1) Don’t ask multi-part questions all at once. You should ask concise and to-the-point questions one at a time and wait for the interviewers to answer before asking another. You can continue with your follow up questions and let the interviewers bring out more information before switching to another one. If not the interviewers may confuse or have the choice of which one to answer.

2) Don’t ask questions where the answers are easily available to the public such as from the company’s website or on the internet. For example, “Who is the Managing Director of this company?”

3) Don’t ask questions regarding rest days, medical leave, working hours, etc. Focus your questions on the job objectives and company’s goals.

4) Don’t ask questions about salary, benefits or reward during the first interview unless it is brought up by the interviewer. Keep these questions until you are offered a job or during the 2nd or 3rd interviews.

5) Don’t ask personal and weird questions with poor sense, non job related and bias. Even if you’re terminated from your current job, you should not ask questions that show you are desperate for a job.

For examples,

“I will do anything. Will you hire me?”

“Is my boss younger than me?”

“Is my boss a female?”

Conclusion:

Asking targeted, intelligent, well-crafted and concise questions during an interview will demonstrate the extent of your professional and knowledge of the particular job and the company you are interviewing. It helps to align and match your experience, skills and expectation with the company’s need.