Posts Tagged ‘ jobs ’

7 Reasons Self-Employment is More Secure than a Job

By Kevin M

Last night my wife learned something disturbing—not for herself but for some of her coworkers. She has a part time job with a company that just announced that fulltime employees are losing their benefits and being converted to part time status.

Now the optimist may say, “it could have been worse—at least they didn’t lose their jobs”. And while there may be a grain of truth to that assumption, the bad news outweighs the good here, and I’d say by a wide margin. First of all, part time isn’t full time—it’s part time. That means even if you keep your hourly rate of pay, there’s no guarantee of 40 hours a week, or even of 30 or 20. That looks an awful lot like a pay cut to me.

Second is suddenly going from a job with benefits to one without—that includes health insurance. Charles Hugh Smith has made a strong case that the middle class isn’t middle class without health insurance coverage, and I think that point is beyond debate. What we’re looking at here, in addition to the pay cut, is the loss of socio-economic class status. They’ve been demoted to “the working poor” without ever losing their jobs. That’s pretty radical.

There ain’t no more job security

And one college’s “Employment Pledge” to ease the transition

Guest Post by Philip Reed

Even at the best of times, mounting a job search can be intimidating and often, disheartening. With today’s unemployment numbers and still shaky economy, a job search can be downright terrifying.

It’s important that you don’t let the whole process of it overwhelm you by taking it one day, one resume, or one interview at a time. If you can remain focused on the individual tasks required you will present yourself to prospective employers in a far more confident and positive manner. The more confident that you appear; the higher your chances are for a successful interview and—ultimately—a job offer.

New college graduates

New graduates are facing a difficult road in getting that first job. If you’re just out of college, or will be in the next year or two, your major area of study will be a critical factor in both how quickly you land a job and how much you will earn.
Read more »

Why Skills are More Important than a Job

By Kevin M

Having a job is a good thing—the problem is complete reliance on it! That, unfortunately, is where most people are. The loss of a job can set a chain of financial catastrophes in motion, and even threaten the survival of a person or an entire household. Is there an answer to this dilemma? Is there a way to enjoy the benefits of a steady paycheck—preferably one with medical insurance—without being so totally dependent on your employer?

There is—the answer is skills, your skills. And not just any skills but two specific types that rise above all others: transferable skills and retail skills.

Everyone brings general skills to their work—management, administrative and organizational skills, typing, computer skills, “people skills”—we can think of them as the minimum requirements for employment.

But transferable and retail skills are much deeper. They’re skills that are in demand, easily recognizable, portable and have application across different industries and business types. When you have them, your ability to earn a living is never in doubt—even if your current job is.
Read more »

Turning Relocation Into a Strategic Move

By Tim Eyre

Life in today’s corporate world can be difficult to adjust to. Change is a fact of life and when that change means pulling up your roots and relocating to a different part of the country, the effects can range anywhere from short-term annoyance to long-term trauma. But there are many occasions when people need to confront the difficult decision of whether to uproot or stay put.

Sometimes the choice is stark: relocate and keep the job, or stick around but look for a new line of work. In other cases, the choice is whether to settle for the status quo or to improve your professional and/or financial status by relocating. In most cases, there are no easy answers. But there are always good questions to ask that can help clarify the options. Here are a few questions to consider that might help the decision-making become a little easier:

Why It’s SO Hard to Get a Job

By Kevin M

As if the poor economy, high taxes, too much regulation, advancing technology and globalization weren’t doing enough to torpedo the job market, there’s yet another obstacle to finding a job, one of a more personal nature and it’s having a bigger impact all the time.

It’s the background check.

Background checks now go farther and wider than they ever have, but it’s happening against the backdrop of a time when life is getting uglier and more complicated than ever for tens of millions of people.

It’s getting more difficult for a job seeker to pass a background check; in fact, at times it looks like a conspiracy. With computerization and the increased availability of data at progressively lower cost, more information is available about us than ever before. And unfortunately, economic, legal and social conditions are combining to make it more difficult than ever for the average person to pass employment muster.

Consider some of the information employers seek in background checks against the state of the world we now live in.

Where Have All the GOOD Jobs Gone?

By Kevin M

The official unemployment rate has finally fallen below the 9% level (8.9% in February), but does that mean the job market is finally turning around?

Yahoo! News had a revealing—but disturbing—article on the state of the job market last week. In Jobs returning—but good ones not so much, Zachary Roth reports some of the deeper details behind the unemployment benchmark:

49% of the new jobs created over the past year are in low wage industries, such as retail and food processing
Higher wage jobs represent only 14% of the new jobs, thought they accounted for 40% of the jobs lost during the recession
9.6% of the workforce are working part time but want full time jobs
On the topic of wage levels, the article reported that “though productivity rose 5.2 percent from mid 2009 to the end of 2010, wages increased by just 0.3 percent. That means only 6 percent of productivity gains were shared with workers. In past recoveries, that figure has averaged 58 percent.”

Would You Leave Your Job in this Economy?

By Kevin M

You hate your job; you can’t even stand the thought of staying one more week. You don’t like your boss, and you’re pretty sure he doesn’t like you. You’re not going anywhere and haven’t been for a long time. It’s been a few years since your last raise, and you’re not sure if another one’s ever coming. You’d quit tomorrow, if only…but the job market is lousy, and the economy looks so uncertain. You’d like to move on, but it doesn’t look like there’s any place to go—not any place decent at least.

Are you in this situation right now? You probably have a lot of company. This recession, poor economy—or what ever we want to call it—is getting old, very old. The job market has been weak for several years now, and many workers have been trapped in that uncomfortable “lucky-to-have-a-job” limbo for a very long time.

Not only have jobs and opportunities evaporated, but raises, promotions, bonuses and benefits have also been cut or disappeared completely for the survivors.

Despite signs of an improving economy, the job market remains stubbornly tight. Unfortunately, all the signs of a “jobless recovery” seem to be in place. And if it is, how long should you wait before making a move?

Five Unconventional Ways to Find a Job

By Kevin M

Even with hints of economic recovery in the air, getting a hired into a new job has never been harder, even for the fully qualified. I know many people who are or have been on extended periods of unemployment in the past year and one common theme is that the usual methods of getting hired aren’t working.

Getting a job is largely about getting noticed, and the best ways to do that are to approach employers in ways most other job seekers aren’t using. Try one or more of these and see if your luck doesn’t improve.

Finding Work by Working for Free

By Kevin M

Work for free—preposterous on the surface, I’ll admit! But it’s an effort that could pay off in a big way, especially in this economy. Think of it as though you’re starting a new business and you’re working to build a customer base by giving out free samples.

Just so you don’t think this is just an idea I heard somewhere and decided to write about, here’s my story…

Ten Well Paying Jobs Without a College Degree

By Kevin M

One of the driving purposes of OutOfYourRut.com is the identification of career and business opportunities, primarily for people engaged in one line of work but seeking entry into another.

In that vein, a noteworthy article appeared on Yahoo! Finance yesterday, 10 Jobs With High Pay and Minimal Schooling Required! written by Michael King. The article lists 10 careers that don’t require a bachelor’s degree for entry, but pay wages which are generally above average.

There are several articles with this same theme here on OutOfYourRut.com, either as full reprints or by excerpt, but in this time of career transition for so many people, it’s one worth revisiting often. The jobs appearing on each list tend to be at least somewhat different from one list to another, either because of the time of compilation, or the orientation of the source.

Page 1 of 212 »

Pages

Posts Tagged ‘ jobs ’

7 Reasons Self-Employment is More Secure than a Job

There ain’t no more job security

Staying Focused During the Job Search

And one college’s “Employment Pledge” to ease the transition

New college graduates

Why Skills are More Important than a Job

Turning Relocation Into a Strategic Move

Why It’s SO Hard to Get a Job

Where Have All the GOOD Jobs Gone?

Would You Leave Your Job in this Economy?

Five Unconventional Ways to Find a Job

Finding Work by Working for Free

Ten Well Paying Jobs Without a College Degree

Financial Management