Using these techniques, Google will likely become much more useful to you.

These tips help you leverage many of Google’s hidden capabilities.

Become an “advanced Googler”! Use Google to help you find jobs and potential employers, to research those employers (financial stability, competitors, etc.), and to separate the good opportunities from the not-so-good ones.

Leverage Google to prepare for job interviews, as described in Job Interview Preparation with Smart Google Research. To avoid an employer heading for trouble, check out the 50 Google Searches to Avoid Bad Employers and Layoffs.

7 Tips for Better Google Job Search Results

Google is the largest and most popular search engine in the world, constantly changing and trying to improve. Google offers many tools to help users find exactly what they need. In this post, find 7 very useful functions for job seekers that Google has implemented.

Note: Not every website is included in Google’s database of Web sites. Some sites are not included because they are very new or are designed in a way that Google cannot see or catalog the site’s contents.

For best results, review the Google Search Ground Rules to be sure that you understand those basics (like the use of quotation marks). This post builds on the concepts in that post.

  1. Ask Google to find local jobs.  

When you simply type “jobs near me” into the Google search bar, you will find this blue box with a short list of jobs available where Google thinks you are located (the text in “Your location” below). At the bottom of the box will usually be a link to more jobs.

Notice that Google offers you the ability to choose the industry, age of the job postings (new is best), type of job (Full-time, Part-time, Contractor, or Internship), additional keywords, and many other options.

Click on the arrow at the right for more options. Or, scroll down the list of jobs and click on the link at the bottom to go directly to the Google for jobs page to see more job listings.

  2. Find potential target employers using Google Maps.  

Often, employers have open jobs that have not been posted anywhere public (a.k.a., “the hidden job market“). So, finding and reaching out to these local employers can be a great way to find a new job with minimal competition.

Google Maps can be a very handy way to find local employers. Simply go to maps.google.com, choose your preferred location (if it is not already on the map). Type the kind of employer you want into the search bar.

The example below shows what the results page looks like when you type “accounting firms near Boston” (without the quotation marks) into the search bar.

Click on the “+” sign on the map to get a closer look at the search results and where the employers are located. Use your mouse to shift the map around to see results in different locations.

Click on the image below to see live search results on Google Maps.

Click on any of the red dots on the map, and a box will open that gives you the address, contact information, a link to the website (if available), plus the times the business is open (if available).

  3. Tell Google the time frame you want for the search results.  

Perhaps you are interested in the latest news about an employer you are considering or the newest jobs at a specific employer. If so, choosing the time frame for search results should be very helpful. [Note: this is not necessary for the “Jobs near me” search.]

If you want the search results to be focused on a specific time frame, Google offers you the ability to limit the search results to a specific period by clicking on the “Tools” link and then clicking on the “Any time” link above the first search results. Google offers you the ability to limit the search results to a specific period in the past.

By default, the time frame used is “Any time,” but you can easily change that to a more recent period by choosing from the options Google provides (past year, past month, past week, etc.) or clicking on the “Custom range…” link to specify the exact dates you want.

To check on the latest news before you leave for your interview, choose “Past 24 hours” or whatever time frame would cover the last time you checked for news about the employer.

  4. Ask Google to fill in the blank.  

When you are not sure exactly the word to use in a phrase, replace that word with an asterisk ( * ) with spaces on both sides of it. When it sees the asterisk, Google will replace the asterisk with a word it thinks you might need.

For example, perhaps you want an entry level job or assistant job, but you aren not yet sure which job title you want, you could type this query into Google to have Google show you your options –

“entry level * job”   –   This search would find many different entry level jobs

“assistant * job”   –   This would find many different assistant jobs, including assistant cook, assistant bookkeeper, assistant manager, etc.

[Remember, from the Google Ground Rules, that Google will search on a phrase when you enclose the phrase inside quotation marks, as above.]

Or, maybe you want a manager job in a new location (not “near me”), but you are not sure what is available in that location. If you are curious about the jobs in the Boston and Cambridge area of Massachusetts, this search would show you the different manager jobs available in that location —

” * manager” job (Boston OR Cambridge)   –   This would find many different kinds of manager jobs, like project manager, marketing manager, etc. located either in Boston or Cambridge

In the last example, putting Boston OR Cambridge inside parenthesis helps Google understand which words are included in the either/or statement.

  5. Tell Google to find EXACTLY what you’ve typed into the search bar.  

This is the opposite of the fill-in-the-blank asterisk search above.

Because Google tries to help us find what we are searching for, the Google spell checker often corrects our misspelling and typos when we type our search queries into Google’s search bar. Most of the time, this is a good thing.

But, sometimes, even if what we type looks misspelled or there are many different versions of the word or other version of the search query, we want Google to find exactly what we typed into the search bar.

Fortunately, Google provides a way for us to tell Google to search for exactly what we have entered, without “correcting” the query or using stemming. This is called “Verbatim” search.

To activate the Verbatim search, click on the “Tools” link (circled in the top right of the image above) on the search results page.

Next, click on the term “All results” (in the box in the image above), and select “Verbatim” from the short drop-down list. When the check mark appears beside Verbatim, Google has accepted your choice and will apply it to your next search..

  6. Focus the search on a specific website.  

To focus Google’s search to a specific website: Use Google’s Site Search capability. Type your query into Google’s search box, type the word “site” with a colon (:) after it. Then, immediately following “site:” add the domain name of site you want searched.

For example, to search through the Harvard University website for an administrative assistant position, you would use this search query —

Please note! Do NOT put a space between the “site:” and the domain name you want Google to search. The search will NOT WORK if you add a space after the “:” and before the domain name.

Perhaps you are looking for Amazon recruiters on LinkedIn without logging into LinkedIn. Since some employers use the term “talent acquisition” rather than recruiter, an either/or query works best —

(recruiter OR “talent acquisition”) Amazon site:linkedin.com

To specify the company name and a location and searches only in LinkedIn, an additional version of this query could be —

(recruiter OR “talent acquisition”) Amazon Boston site:linkedin.com/in/

This search goes directly to the LinkedIn Profiles by specifying site:linkedin.com/in/.

If your goal is an administrative assistant job at a college or university in the Boston area, you could search for jobs in ALL .edu websites by using this query —

“administrative assistant” Boston site:.edu

Or, use your target employer’s domain name and location to limit the search to that employer.

  7. Have Google exclude one or more specific websites.  

Perhaps one or two sites dominate the search results, and you would like see your options without those sites cluttering up the results. Google offers you the option of adding a minus sign (-) immediately ahead of the domain name for the site you would like to have removed from the search results.

So, the query site:URL becomes –site:URL with a minus sign immediately in front of the “site:URL” part of the query, like this query which would exclude search results from both Indeed.com and Monster.com —

Please note! Do NOT put a space between the “site:” and the minus sign. The search will NOT WORK if there is a space between the minus sign and the “site:”.

In this example, above, we are searching for administrative assistant jobs with a focus on results from sites other than Indeed.com and Monster.com. We could also have excluded employers we did not want to see in the results by adding the -site:example.com (using the employer’s real domain name) to the query.

Again, if you choose, you can exclude whole categories of employers by excluding specific top level domains. So, your query could contain a search term like -site:.edu to avoid all colleges and universities.

  BONUS Tip: Combine the techniques.  

When you have a complex search, you can combine the various techniques into one long query.

For example, assume you wanted an assistant job for a bank located in Boston or Cambridge, MA, but you do not want to work for the South Cambridge Savings Bank because your spouse works there.

And you prefer to see jobs on employer websites so you want Google to exclude results from the big job boards like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn, and Glassdoor.

This is how you would structure that query –

“administrative assistant” job (boston OR cambridge) bank -“south cambridge savings” -site:indeed.com -site:ziprecruiter.com -site:glassdoor.com -site:linkedin.com

So, you have two phrases, one to be included in search results (“administrative assistant”) and one to be excluded (–“south cambridge savings”). You have a included an either/or (boston OR cambridge) and a single term (job). In addition, you have excluded results from several websites.

That’s a pretty complicated search, but the results should be exactly what you want. And they are! Of course, you can refine this search even more based on the search results you receive. Perhaps there is another bank or job board to be excluded.

When you find the perfect search, one that you would like to use in the future, set up a Google Alert, and Google will run the search for you again and again (you decide how often).

The Bottom Line on Using Google for Your Job Search

Maximize the benefit you have from using Google by becoming an “advanced Googler” — leveraging Google capabilities that few people know how to use, making your job search smarter and shorter.

More About Using Google for Your Job Search:

• Google Search Ground Rules
• Interview Preparation with Smart Google Research
• 50 Google Searches to Avoid Bad Employers and Layoffs
• Defensive Googling: Know What Employers Find Associated with Your Name
• Setting Up Google Alerts
• 5 Google Alerts for Your Job Search

About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
More about this author…

The post Search Smarter: 7 Ways to Leverage Google for Your Job Search appeared first on Job-Hunt.

The amount of content and powerful technology makes Google one of the most important tools for you to use in your job search.

Google also provides tools to help you keep track of what’s happening online while it adds new content to its index

On an consistent basis, Google adds more new tools and services as well as increasing the number of websites included in their index for all of us to access.

Here are some ways that you can leverage Google’s the current tools and content.

8 Ways to Use Google for Your Job Search

We cannot cover all of the tools Google offers, but we’ll cover the ones we think are the most useful to job seekers:

1. Google Search Ground Rules –
   Understand 5 basic ground rules of Google Search.
2. 7 Smart Ways to Leverage Google’s Power for Your Job Search –
   Advanced tips for structuring your queries so Google finds exactly what you want.
3. Interview Preparation with Smart Google Research –
   How to smartly leverage Google to demonstrate your interest to the employer and to avoid bad situations.
4. Setting Up Google Alerts –
   Set up Google Alerts and let Google keep you informed about the topics that are most important to you.
5. Using Google Alerts for your Job Search
   5 ways to leverage Google Alerts to help you in your job search.

6. 50 Google Searches to Avoid Layoffs and Weak Employers
   Put Google to work scouring the news for information about your employer (if you have a job) or potential employers (if you are job hunting).
7. Google Alerts to Monitor Your Reputation
   Reputation management with Google Alerts as your first line of defense.
8. Defensive Googling
   Helps you manage your reputation.

Be Find-Able

In addition to finding job postings, understanding how Google (and search) works can make it easier for employers to find you. Read Job-Hunt’s Guide to Personal SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for details on how to be find-able.

Protect Your Online Reputation

In the era of Google and social networks, knowing what recruiters will find about you in a search is important.  And, so is knowing how to fix problems you may find (your problems or those of someone else with the same name). Read Job-Hunt’s Guide to Online Reputation Management for more tips.

About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
More about this author…

The post Guide to Using Google for Your Job Search appeared first on Job-Hunt.

Getting Started

Before you start Googling, you need to do these four things to help you find the job postings you want:

  1. Know the job you want.  

An unfocused web search on Google is as useless as an unfocused job search in real life. “Anything” seems easy to find, but it really is not easy to find because no one describes their job opening as “anything.” Recruiters don’t search for someone who is able to do “anything” and you wouldn’t really want a job where your boss could ask you to do “anything.”

So, figure out the job titles typically used for the job(s) you want to do next. This provides you with the terms you will use in Google, LinkedIn, job boards, and also in your answer the next time someone asks.

In a Google search, add the word “jobs” to the job title to make it clear to Google what you want it to find. So, the search term “administrative assistant” becomes “administrative assistant jobs.”

When you do a jobs search, Google will show you a box, labelled “Jobs” near the top of the search results, likely showing jobs near your location.

  2. Analyze pages like the pages you want Google to find for you.  

Look for terms that are repeated on those pages (like “click to apply”), and then add those commonly-used terms in your search to find similar pages.

Read Ground Rules for Google Search to understand how Google “thinks” and to have the best search results.

  3. Test and modify your Google search until you find the best results for you.  

Often, search results can be improved by adding or removing terms.  Keep testing and modifying until you get the search results you want.

Read Google-ize Your Job Search with These Tips and Tricks for how to structure your search queries.

  4. Save your best search queries so you can re-use them.  

Once you have a search query that works well for you, copy it from the Google search bar, and paste it into a file you save for future use.

You can also use your best search queries to set up Google Alerts so that Google will email results to you when they change.

Tips for Effective Google Searches for Job Postings

If you are looking for a job, you must think like a recruiter or employer. You need to analyze what words people creating the postings you want commonly use in their postings:

  Search for the Correct Job Title  

Most job postings contain the title of the job, so those words should be used in your search. If you are searching for a specific job title, be sure to search using the most commonly used version of the job title, or, better, the job title used by your target employers.

Don’t assume that you know the job title used most often by the employers you want. For example, assume you were a “MIS Manager” for your previous employer. The majority of employers call that job “IT Manager” now, so a search for an MIS manager job would not be particularly effective.

Different employers and different industries often use their own versions of standard job titles. For example, perhaps your current employer calls your job “Member Services Associate,” but most employers use the title “Customer Service Representative” for people doing the work that you do.

This means that searching for “Member Services Associate” jobs won’t get you the results you need if your target job is really called a Customer Service Representative job by most employers.

[Related: Choosing the Best Keywords for Your LinkedIn Profile – discover the terms most employers are using in their job descriptions.]

  Search for the Appropriate Location Name  

If Google does not return “near you” jobs, or if you want to move to another location, you will need to tell Google where you want to work.

To find a job in a specific location, include the name of that location in your search query. Use the words normally used to describe the location, and think about how the location is normally described.

For example, if you are looking for a job in eastern Massachusetts, south of Boston, try terms like “greater Boston,” “South Shore,” “south eastern MA,” “eastern MA,” “south eastern Massachusetts,” or a list of the city names.

See the tips and tricks in the Google-ize Your Job Search article to search in several different locations with one query or Google Alert.

  Add Job Description Terms to Your Search  

If you are ending up with many results that are not job postings or not the job postings you want, you can fix that by adding terms used in job postings to pull those into your search results.

Some job postings contain the term “job description” and many often offer directions about how to apply for the job (like “click to apply” or “submit your resume”).  You can include those words in your search queries to find the jobs they have posted.

So, if you wanted a job as a “customer service” job (but not a bilingual job if your only language is English) in Boston working for a bank, you could search for those job postings using this search query:

bank “customer service” job Boston -bilingual

Often you will find developing effective searches is an iterative process. Looking at the results of the first search will help you refine the structure of the second search, improving your results each time. It shouldn’t take too long to develop the most effective search queries, and then you can turn those into Google Alerts to have Google run them for you on a regular basis.

  Search for the Appropriate Employer Name  

If you have target employers in mind, use those employers’ names in your search queries. When I worked for a company named Digital Equipment Corporation, the outside world often used the whole name in references to the company, or they used the initials, DEC. But, inside the company, we called it “Digital” or, less often, “DEC.” Which version of the name is most commonly used in the company’s job postings? How does the company refer to itself on the website and in press releases?

The Bottom Line:

Google is amazing and can find almost anything on the web for you — if you focus your search and structure your search so that Google understands what you want to find.

More About Using Google for Your Job Search:

• Guide to Using Google for Job Search
• Google Search Ground Rules
• 10 Google Search Tips Plus 3 Tricks
• Finding Jobs Postings Using Google
• 50 Google Searches to Avoid Layoffs and Bad Employers
• Defensive Googling: Know What Employers Find Associated with Your Name
• Setting Up Google Alerts
• 5 Google Alerts for Your Job Search

About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
More about this author…

The post How to Find Jobs Using Google appeared first on Job-Hunt.

Google is not perfect, no question. However, often when someone is describing their Google “problem,” they demonstrate some confusion with how Google works.

Google’s goal is to provide you with the most useful search results — they truly want to help you find exactly what you are seeking.

How Google Search Works

To help you use Google more effectively, here are some “ground rules” to keep in mind when you are using Google for search.

Understanding Google’s assumptions can help you use it much more efficiently.

1. Google assumes you mean “and.”

When you type two (or more) words into the search bar, Google assumes you want to find pages containing all of those words, regardless of how close they may – or may not – be to each other on a page.

Google thinks you are using an “and” between those words, even if you don’t type that word into your query.

Assume you want to find a job located in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, or Chicago, and you type

job milwaukee indianapolis chicago

Typing those terms into Google tells Google that you really mean job (and) Milwaukee (and) Indianapolis (and) Chicago. So, it will show you web pages containing all 4 of those terms scattered across the content.

2. Google ignores capitalization — MOST of the time.

Google ignores capitalization used in queries in most circumstances. So, Google will find the same pages whether you type “Chicago” or “chicago.”  Makes no difference to Google, with these exceptions

The exception to the capitalization-doesn’t-count rule: Either/or queries

Going back to our example above, if you wanted Google to find jobs for you in Milwaukee, Chicago, or Indianapolis, Google could find jobs for you in those cities if you typed the word “or” in all capitals between the city so your query would look like this:

job (milwaukee OR chicago OR indianapolis)

Be sure to put a space on either side of the “OR” and enclose the optional terms inside a set of parentheses, as above, to be sure that Google understands the terms that may replace each other.

If you don’t include the “OR” (in all capitals, as in the example above), Google assumes you intend an “and” between those words, so it would find only those pages which contained all the words – Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Chicago, and job.

[MORE: Google-ize Your Job Search with These Tips and Tricks.]

3. Quotation marks tell Google you have typed in a phrase.

Google always assumes — unless told otherwise — that you want it to find pages which include all of your search terms appearing anywhere on the page, not necessarily close together. 

So, if you are a senior sales and marketing person looking for a job in business development, you might type this search query into Google —

business development

Without quotations marks around the term “business development” Google doesn’t understand that you want pages only where the words appear together in a phrase, so Google would show you all the pages containing those words.

However, in this case, you really want those words side-by-side, in a phrase.  Enclose them inside double quotation marks (” “), as below, and Google will look for that exact phrase.  This search would look like this:

“business development”

This search will have fewer results because the quotation marks were used. This is good! Fewer results are better results because those results are more accurate — they are what you really want.

4. Google recognizes one mathematical symbol.

The minus sign can help you exclude some results from your query.

Assume you are looking for Florida banks (the financial institutions), but your searches for “florida bank” turn up too many irrelevant results related to fish banks and food banks.

How do you exclude results that are not good fits for what you want? Expand your search terms by adding words from the kind of sites you want to exclude (e.g. fish, food), but attach a minus sign (-) to the front of each word. So “fish” becomes “-fish” and “food” becomes “-food” for all the terms to be excluded.

Thus, your Google search query looks like this —

— and Google returns results that include pages that DO contain the phrase “florida bank,” but do NOT contain the words “fish” or “food.”

5. Google lets you specify the kind of results you want to find – news, videos, maps, and more.

By default, Google searches through every kind of web page it can find (a.k.a., “All”).

But, if you know what kind of results you want, you can save time and focus your search results by choosing the type of results you want. To do that, Google offers you the ability to choose a specific category of content by clicking on the appropriate term near the top of the search results page.

Depending on the query, Google’s search results page offers you an easy way to narrow down the search results. On the search results page, depending on the search you have done, Google offers you the option to choose from “All” and “More” plus 3 other options that could be what you might be what you are seeking.

In addition to “All,” the 8 options include: Books, Finance, Flights, Images, Maps, News, Shopping, and Videos. The “More” drop-down menu, circled in the image below, offers options not included in the primary choices, which change depending on your initial search. Selecting one of these options allow you ask Google to find very specific information in one of the categories.

When you have chosen the type of search, Videos, for example, Google will return search results that are videos.

Bottom Line

Most of the world uses Google hundreds of times a day without paying close attention or leveraging all the functionality Google makes available. Leveraging the tips above, Google will be much more effective for you than it has been in the past. For more tips, read 7 Great Ways to Leverage Google’s Power for Your Job Search and see the other links below!

More About Using Google for Your Job Search:

• Search Smarter: 7 Great Ways to Leverage Google’s Power for Your Job Search
• Interview Preparation with Smart Google Research
• 50 Google Searches to Avoid Layoffs and Bad Employers
• Defensive Googling: Know What Employers Find Associated with Your Name
• Setting Up Google Alerts
• 5 Google Alerts for Your Job Search

About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
More about this author…

The post 5 Ground Rules for Effective Google Search appeared first on Job-Hunt.

Research with Google can help you discover if an employer is declining so you can avoid going to a bad employer or leave one that is headed for trouble.

Companies go out of business. Or, they layoff staff, and then go out of business.

Best not to be the last employee hired before the layoffs begin.

If you are unemployed, stay informed about potential employers so you can avoid pursuing employment with an employer who may stop hiring or may provide only short-term employment. You don’t want to be job hunting again very soon (right?).

If you are employed and your employer seems to be having a tough time, start thinking about moving on to another employer. Read Job-Hunt’s free Layoff Self-Defense ebook for suggestions about how to prepare to move on easily and smoothly.

Below, find more than 50 search queries in 5 categories of information that can be strong indicators of pending layoffs. Test them until you finds the queries that work the best for you.

Your mileage may vary. Companies with excellent management or very good luck can recover from setbacks, but not every company has excellent management or great luck.

Use Google Search for Career Self-Defense

Millions of businesses appear while others disappear or “down-size.” Constantly…

Fortunately, being well-informed is easier today than ever, thanks to Google.

Discover the bad news, or speculation, about your current employer — or a potential employer. Having your antenna up (with Google) should help you avoid moving into an employer or a group/division that is failing. You may also leave a bad situation (the employer as a whole or a vulnerable part of it) before all employees are branded as undesirable by other employers.

Most Google searches are automatically “Everything” searches which includes websites, images, video, shopping, and other options. To learn the latest about your employer (or potential employer), the “News” searches may be more helpful for this research. So, news.google.com is a great starting point!

Read the Google Search Ground Rules to understand what Google can and cannot do for you. Also check out Google-izing Your Job Search article for advanced search tips to better leverage Google.

How to Use These Queries

Try these Google searches. Some will work better for you than others, and some may not be appropriate for your situation. Refine your search based on the search results you get.

Copy the search queries below for your searches. Then:

• Replace the brackets [  ] and the words enclosed inside those brackets with the term described.
• Put quotation marks “around phrases” << like that.

So [insert company name] restructuring becomes “JP Morgan Chase” restructuring — if that is the employer you are researching.

General Bad News

This simple query will flag any bad news about a company –

[insert company name here] “bad news”

5 Kinds of Bad News

Searching for specific kinds of bad news can be the most effective way to uncover problems that may be developing.

1. Restructuring or closure of a plant or office

Try these searches to find information about part of a company shutting down, which usually means that some jobs will be lost (and probably not filled in other parts of the company as employees are transferred):

[insert company name here] restructuring

[insert company name here] “reduction in force”

[insert company name here] “down-sizing” OR downsizing

[insert company name here] “right-sizing” OR rightsizing

[insert company name here] “head count reduction” OR “headcount reduction”

[insert company name here] “layoff pending”

[insert company name here] “layoff planned”

[insert company name here] “reduction in head count” OR “reduction in headcount”

[insert company name here] “moving production”

[insert company name here] “halting production”

[insert company name here] “ending production”

[insert company name here] “stopping production”

[insert company name here] “plant closing”

[insert company name here] “office closing”

[insert company name here] “branch closing”

[insert company name here] “division closing”

[insert company name here] “shutting down”

[insert company name here] “consolidating operations”

[insert company name here] “ending production”

[insert company name here] closing

2. Drop in sales or revenue

Try these searches to find information about sales or revenue going down, which may lead to layoffs to reduce expenses –

[insert company name here] “sales drop”

[insert company name here] “reduction in sales”

[insert company name here] “earnings drop”

[insert company name here] “reduced profits”

[insert company name here] “profits drop”

[insert company name here] “revenue dropping”

[insert company name here] “negative revenue” forecast

[insert company name here] “negative outlook”

[insert company name here] “negative sales forecast”

[insert company name here] “negative revenue forecast”

3. Product or service discontinued

Try these searches to find information about products or services being discontinued because the people responsible for producing those products or providing those services may no longer be needed –

[insert company name here] “production discontinued”

[insert company name here] “production ending”

[insert company name here] “ending production”

[insert company name here] “will cease production” [insert product name here]

[insert company name here] “production ends” [insert product name here]

[insert company name here] “line closing” [insert product name here]

[insert company name here] discontinued [insert product name here]

[insert company name here] “no longer available” [insert product name here]

4. Company being sold

When a business is purchased by another business, the company doing the purchasing may eliminate jobs in the acquired company that are already being handled by their current employees. For example, two complete financial staffs may not be needed, so some employees of the acquired company may be laid off. Occasionally, employees in the acquiring company lose their jobs.

Try these searches for news about the employer being sold –

[insert company name here] “on the market”

[insert company name here] “looking to be acquired”

[insert company name here] “hoping to be acquired”

[insert company name here] “purchase pending”

[insert company name here] “pending purchase”

[insert company name here] “pending sale”

[insert company name here] “sale pending”

5. Executive or senior manager leaving

When senior executives leave unexpectedly, it may be a sign of turmoil in senior management, and that turmoil may signal the beginning of a decline. Or it may just be the change of one individual’s career. Pay attention if more than one executive seems to leave unexpectedly.

Try these searches to find news about executives leaving your target employers. Use the names of the members of top management. If you are employed, do this search on your current employer using the names of your manager and the other managers up the management structure to the head of the organization –

[insert company name here] “[insert executive name here]” resigned

[insert company name here] “[insert executive name here]” “resigned unexpectedly”

[insert company name here] “[insert executive name here]” departed

[insert company name here] “[insert executive name here]” “departure announced”

[insert company name here] “departure announced”

[insert company name here] resigned

[insert company name here] “resigned unexpectedly”

[insert company name here] fired “[insert executive name here]”

Save These Queries to Use Again

Once you have refined the searches and figured out which work the best for you, set up Google Alerts for the searches that seem the most productive for you.

Google will email the results to you. Read the Setting Up Google Alerts article for details on how to use Google Alerts.

Bottom Line

Being uninformed today is a dangerous habit. Often a strong or smart employer can overcome bad luck or a change in the economy and survive successfully for many more years. Both Google and Microsoft have had layoffs in the past few years, for example.

Sometimes bad luck or a bad strategy becomes a death spiral, so paying attention is the smartest strategy.

More About Using Google for Your Job Search:

• Guide to Using Google for Job Search
• Google Search Ground Rules
• Search Smarter: 7 Great Ways to Leverage Google’s Power for Your Job Search
• Defensive Googling: Know What Employers Find Associated with Your Name
• Smart Google Research for Successful Job Interviews
• Setting Up Google Alerts
• 5 Google Alerts for Your Job Search

Using Your Google Research in Job Interviews:

• How to Answer the Why-Do-You-Want-to-Work-Here Question
• How to Answer the Why-Should-We-Hire-You Question
• How to Answer the Do-You-Have-Any-Questions Question (50+ possible questions to ask)
• How to Answer the What-Do-You-Know-About-Us Question

About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
More about this author…

The post 50+ Google Searches to Avoid Bad Employers and Pending Layoffs appeared first on Job-Hunt.

“How do I find an employer to hire me to work from home?”

Although the Coronavirus pandemic has certainly made working from home more acceptable to both employers and employees, there is no easy answer to that question.

When you are considering working from home, analyze your home and the opportunities you are considering to be sure you have a good fit.

5 Keys to Work-From-Home Success

But, let me share with you five key points to keep in mind when embarking on the home-based job hunt:

  1. Target work that can be easily handled at home.  

In general, jobs that can be completed independently, using basic home-based office equipment (personal computer and a telephone) tend to be best suited for telecommuting.

Examples of these jobs include:

• Accounting tasks  (e.g., bookkeeping, loan processing, and mortgage processing)
• Clerical duties  (e.g., data entry, transcription, or word processing)
• Computer programming
• Desktop publishing
• Customer service
• Internet related tasks (e.g., research, web design, writing copy, etc.)
• Market research/ telemarketing
• Recruiting
• Sales
• Writing, proofreading and copyediting

For more information, read Top Work From Home / Remote Jobs.

  2. Be realistic about finding quality work-at-home positions.  

As much as I would like to tell you otherwise, the vast majority of professional level work-from-home jobs are assigned to in-house employees who have proven their capabilities over time (and even those tend to be a mix of in-house and home-based assignments).

While there are some legitimate work-from-home jobs open to new hires, notably customer service and sales agents, most advertised openings are for relatively lower-level opportunities. This seems to be changing as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic as more “remote” management jobs are becoming available.

Certain industries tend to employ more telecommuters than others. Companies that have a large need for telephone-based customer service jobs (think online retail, finance, insurance, and software firms) can be good bets for home-based employment.

Other examples of telecommuting-friendly settings include banks that hire home-based mortgage brokers, home inspection companies that hire licensed inspectors, and executive recruiting firms that hire home-based research assistants.

There are also a handful of companies that recruit customer care agents who work out of their homes as contract employees.

For more information, read and How to Work Effectively From Home.

  3. Phase into a home-based job.  

Because companies tend to give home-based work to employees they know and trust, consider working for a telecommuting friendly company initially as an in-house employee, with the possibility of gaining a full-time telecommuting spot down the road.

This is a question you can carefully ask as part of the interview process. Ask if any current employees work “remotely” or “from home.” If the answer is yes, ask if the job you are interviewing for qualifies and how the process works for this employer.

  4. Persist (with caution) in your hunt for work-from-home jobs on the web.  

As with any job search, it pays to be persistent when looking for jobs online. Plug in keywords such as “telecommute” or “remote work” into the search filters to narrow your search results.

Focus your efforts on job boards that you trust, but Google the employers to be sure they are legitimate. Don’t forget to look at the openings posted directly on individual company sites.

Always be cautious when responding to posted openings. Remember the adage “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Avoid any jobs that require you to purchase lists, equipment for the job, or “inside information,” and do not accept any opportunities to be a package reshipper.

Read How to Avoid 5 Major Types of Online Job Scams and 50 Google Searches to Avoid Layoffs and Bad Employers for more information.

  5. If all else fails, go entrepreneurial.  

If you find yourself frustrated by the lack of quality work-at-home postings, think about ways to  sell your skills and services directly to companies as an independent consultant.

For example, you could market your administrative services as a virtual assistant to companies who want to outsource their data-entry work or you could offer medical transcription services to local physicians.

While choosing to go the entrepreneurial route might take more time and money initially, you will likely enjoy greater profits, flexibility, and control over the long haul.

For more information about starting your own business, read Guide to Freelance, Gig, and Contracting Jobs.

The Bottom Line

With the Coronavirus pandemic, working from home has become much more common, even required for many jobs. Working from home is a good option for many people, but caution is needed. Stay alert to avoid scams. As time passes, opportunities will probably increase.

Are you looking for a remote, work-from-home, or flexible job? Visit our partner site FlexJobs to find verified jobs in many different categories, including online data entry jobs, remote medical billing jobs, work-from-home healthcare jobs and more.

To Learn More About Work From Home:

• Work From Home: Making Life Easier
• Work From Home: Child-Centric Business
• Work From Home: Social Media Consultant
• Work From Home: Caregiving
• Work From Home: Sales Jobs
• Guide to Freelancing/Contracting
• How to Work from Home Effectively

More About Turning a Passion into Income:

• Uncover Your Passion to Discover Your Career
• How to Turn Your Hobby into Income
• How to Turn Your Love of Travel into Income
• How to Turn Love of Pets into Income

About the author…

Nancy Collamer, M.S., is a semi-retirement coach, speaker, and author of Second-Act Careers: 50+ Ways to Profit From Your Passions During Semi-Retirement. You can now download her free workbook called 25 Ways to Help You Identify Your Ideal Second Act on her website at MyLifestyleCareer.com (and you’ll also receive her free bi-monthly newsletter).
More about this author…

The post How to Find Your Best Work-From-Home Job appeared first on Job-Hunt.

If so, you likely have discovered that finding an employer that values work-life balance is no simple task.

Even among companies that have won awards for their work-life policies, the actual use of those policies tends to vary from department to department and manager to manager.

Although the Coronavirus pandemic has made working from home much more common, the right employer can make the experience much more pleasant.

But, the wrong employer can have the opposite result.

Determining if the Employer Is a Good One, or Not

How can you determine if a company is a good place to work from home?

You need to do your homework and prepare to ask smart questions during the interview, but you will want to ask them in a way that doesn’t set off alarm bells with the interviewer.

One of the best ways to determine if you will be able to work from home is to find employers who already have employees working from home. Start with the people in your network.

Ask friends and family if they know people with work-from-home or remote jobs, and check LinkedIn to see if any current or former employees are in your network. If you have employees in your network, contact them to learn more about the job and the employer.

Then, put the Internet to use for you. Search Google for “work for home” or “remote work” (using the quotation marks), and note the employers who have those jobs currently open and postings on Google. Read 50 Google Searches to Avoid Layoffs and Bad Employers for examples of other searches you can do on Google to learn more about an employer.

When you have a list of employers compiled, research them to determine if they are genuine (vs. scam) and good places to work. Be cautious about pursuing job postings for employers you don’t know and haven’t validated.

Interview Questions to Ask the Employer

To help you do learn if the employer has employees who successfully work from home, here are four questions that should give you a better feel for the corporate culture and priorities, without being too obvious about your concerns in the process:

  1. In what ways is a career with your company better than one with your competitors?  

This question allows the interviewer to focus on whatever she wishes. If the company does indeed offer a great work environment, she will likely tout that in her answer, and if not, she will choose to highlight other things.

Listen for an answer that includes references to work-life balance or a friendly corporate culture.

Be wary if the employer references on-the-job “perks” such as catered lunches or on-site dry cleaners that tend to be used by companies where long working hours are the norm.

  2. What do you enjoy most about working here?  

Here again, this is a safe open-ended question that can lead to some interesting responses and insights. It’s a smart way to ask about the corporate culture without seeming overly eager to hear about options for flexibility.

Interpret it as a good sign if the employer responds to this question with lots of energy and enthusiasm.

  3. What characteristics do the achievers in this company seem to share?

Is this the type of place that places a big premium on face time? Do they only promote people who put in long hours or do they value results, creativity, and teamwork as being equally important?

Try to determine if people who work flexible hours have been promoted as often as those who log long hours at work.

  4. What qualities are you looking for in the candidate who fills this position?  

Is more emphasis placed on accomplishments than on” face time”? Is the employer willing to allow you the freedom to determine how to get a job done even if that means you occasionally work from home or leave work early?

Be wary of employers that respond to this question by emphasizing the need for someone who is “committed to the job” or ” willing to do whatever is needed” or other descriptors that reveal a bias towards employees willing to put work above their personal lives.

  Other clues…  

Finally, don’t forget to pay attention to other indicators of the company culture. Do people seem relaxed and comfortable in phone or video interviews? Do they seem to be people you would enjoy working with?

If the interview is video, see if you can observe what is happening behind the interviewers. Does this workplace, if it is where you would be working, looks like a good environment for you to work?

When/if you go for an interview at the employer’s location, pay attention to the environment. Are people smiling? Is the office comfortable and attractive? Do people have personal photos or memorabilia on display? Those little visual clues can reveal meaningful information about the company’s values and work environment.

The Bottom Line

Being careful of the scammers of the world who love to advertise “work from home” jobs and want to hire you immediately without interviewing you, especially if they pay extremely well for very simple jobs. Read 9 Characteristics of a Job Scam for signs that a job and/or employer are not real.

To Learn More About Work From Home:

• Work From Home: Making Life Easier
• Work From Home: Child-Centric Business
• Work From Home: Social Media Consultant
• Work From Home: Caregiving
• Work From Home: Sales Jobs
• Guide to Freelancing/Contracting
• How to Work from Home Effectively
• Search FlexJobs to Find Hand-Screened Work from Home Jobs

More About Turning a Passion into Income:

• Uncover Your Passion to Discover Your Career
• How to Turn Your Hobby into Income
• How to Turn Your Love of Travel into Income
• How to Turn Love of Pets into Income

About the author…

Nancy Collamer, M.S., is a semi-retirement coach, speaker, and author of Second-Act Careers: 50+ Ways to Profit From Your Passions During Semi-Retirement. You can now download her free workbook called 25 Ways to Help You Identify Your Ideal Second Act on her website at MyLifestyleCareer.com (and you’ll also receive her free bi-monthly newsletter).
More about this author…

The post Finding Work-From-Home Employers appeared first on Job-Hunt.

Below you will find descriptions of 12 typical situations faced by job seekers.

For each situation, you will find a description of the problems faced and how the job seekers addressed the situation with their resumes.

Today, a single version of your resume is not sufficient.

For best results, match the requirements in the job description with your qualifications and accomplishments, as you will see in these samples.

Samples for Many Different Situations

Below find sample resumes for special situations (entering or re-entering the job market, making a career change, unemployed, older candidate who wants to look younger, and more) as well as a standard employed job seeker.

Read the detailed explanation for each resume to help you understand the issues the job seeker faced and how they were resolved in the sample resume.

Choose and carefully examine the resumes closest to your situation. Also check out the other resumes to see how different experiences are handled by a professional resume writer.

  2 Versions of Each Sample Resume  

Because of the impact of technology used by recruiters and employers, we have provided 2 versions of each sample resume:

1. The formal version of the resume –

This is the traditional version of the resume designed to appeal to live humans. This is the resume sent directly to recruiters and members of an employer’s staff.

Leverage your word processing software’s functions to make it appealing and easy to read.

2. The simpler ATS-friendly version of the resume –

When you look at this resume, you won’t be particularly impressed by what you see because this is the simplified version of your resume that you would submit to most job boards and to employer applicant tracking systems (ATS).

Automated systems require a very plain format which can be processed by the software, generating the fewest errors in understanding the content of the resume. These ATS samples were prepared with assistance from JobScan.co.

The Sample Resumes

The challenges faced by these job seekers is explained in the article that accompanies the resume and should explain the particular challenges each job seeker faced. The job seekers range from executive to college student and everyone in between.

Each sample resume illustrates how to resolve several issues that the job seeker had.

Do read the explanation of the situation the resume is addressing before you look at the resume samples. That will enable you to see what “problem” the job seeker had that the resume addresses.

  Standard Situation:  

The Details: Average Joe Job Seeker

This “regular guy” — Eduardo Hortiz (not his real name) — has been working for several years and is looking for a non-management job in his current field. Learn more about how he stands out without changing who he is.

1. The formal resume: “Average Joe” Resume
2. The simplified ATS version: “Average Joe” Resume

  Typical Challenges:  

• The Details: Making a Career Change

  This executive job seeker, Joseph J. Monroe (not his real name), wants to change industries from healthcare to technology. Learn how he emphasized his accomplishments in technology to make the transition.

  1. The formal resume: Making a Career Change Resume
  2. The simplified ATS version: Making a Career Change Resume

• The Details: Older Job Seeker Looks Younger

  This older job seeker, Karen Coffey (not her real name), competes with much younger job seekers in a “young field.” Learn how she made herself look younger to compete successfully.

  1. The formal resume: Older Job Seeker Looks Younger Resume
  2. The simplified ATS version: Older Job Seeker Looks Younger Resume

• The Details: Highlighting Education

  In some fields education is very important to employers, so this job seeker, Frank Ford (not his real name), needs to emphasize that aspect of his background. Learn how this management consultant emphasized his education several ways to highlight his qualifications.

  1. The formal resume: Highlighting Education Resume
  2. The simplified ATS version: Highlighting Education Resume

• The Details: Non-Profit Executive with No Degree

  This successful senior manager, Ryan Meade (not his real name), did not finish his college degree and is now seeking an executive director position, typically requiring at least one degree. Learn how he managed the missing degree.

  1. The formal resume: Non-Profit Executive with No Degree Resume
  2. The simplified ATS version: Non-Profit Executive with No Degree Resume

  Entering or Re-entering the Job Market  

• The Details: A Mom Returning to Work

  This job seeker, LaDonna Davis (not her real name), faced two big challenges – handling the employment gap when she was home taking care of her family and also changing the direction of her career when she returned to the workforce. Learn more about how she managed each challenge.

  1. The formal resume: Mom Returning to Work
  2. The simplified ATS version: Mom Returning to Work

• The Details: College Student

  Graduating next May, this student, Loretta Perkins (not her real name), is getting a jump start on her post-graduation job search. Read how she combined her experience, both on the job and off, to impress potential employers.

  1. The formal resume: College Student Resume
  2. The simplified ATS version: College Student Resume

• The Details: New Grad

  This new accounting grad, Landon Jones (not his real name), wants to follow up on experience he gained during an internship. Read the issues this job seeker faced and how she handled education.

  1. The formal resume: New Grad Resume
  2. The simplified ATS version: New Grad Resume

  Unemployed Job Seekers  

• The Details: Job Seeker with Gaps in Employment

  This job seeker, Anna Gonzalez (not her real name), used her volunteer work to disguise her gaps in employment. Learn more about how she handled employment gaps.

  1. The formal resume: Handling Employment Gaps Resume
  2. The simplified ATS version: Handling Employment Gaps Resume

• The Details: Older, Laid-Off Worker

  Appropriately presenting all the experience that this older job seeker, James Carpenter (not his real name), brings to an employer can be challenging. Read how this job seeker resolved three tough issues.

  1. The formal resume: Older, Laid-Off Worker
  2. The simplified ATS version: Older, Laid-Off Worker

• The Details: Just Fired

  A job search after you’ve been fired can be difficult. Read how this experienced manager, Betsy Charles (not her real name), handled being fired.

  1. The formal resume: Just Fired Resume
  2. The simplified ATS version: Just Fired Resume

• The Details: Unemployed with a Chronic Illness

  This job seeker, Sandi Patterson (not her real name), faces two challenges, a chronic illness (MS) and being currently unemployed. Learn how she handles both her chronic illness and being unemployed.

  1. The formal resume: Job Seeker with Chronic Illness Resume
  2. The simplified ATS version: Job Seeker with Chronic Illness Resume

The Bottom Line on Resume Examples

Your resume is an extremely important personal marketing document, essential for job search today. Keep that perspective in mind as you create your resume. A resume must be truthful and focused on the employer and opportunity.

More About Resumes

• Effective Resumes Home
• 3 Smart Tips to Beat the ATS Systems
• Why 95% of Resumes Don’t Get Read and What You Can Do About It
• Why a General Work-History Resume Doesn’t Work Now
• 7 Deadly Resume Mistakes for New Grads to Avoid
• How to Triple the Value of Your Resume

About the author…

Erin Kennedy is a Master Career Director (MCD), Certified Master Resume Writer (MCRW), Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW), and Certified Empowerment & Motivational Coach (CEMC). She has been helping clients since 1999. Erin is also the President of Professional Resume Services, Inc.. Visit her website and connect with Erin on LinkedIn and Twitter.
More about this author…

The post Free Resume Samples and Examples appeared first on Job-Hunt.

When they’re checking out potential employers and engaging in interviews, spend as much time considering whether they want to work for the company as they do selling themselves for the open position.

After all, you spend the majority of your waking hours at work, and your interactions with your co-workers and boss have a direct impact on how much you look forward to going into the office each morning.

Good pay and benefits are important, sure, but you also want to be engaged by what you do and who you do it with.

Researching an employer is a basic task of job-hunting. Before sitting down for an interview, you want to know about the company’s lines of business, financial health, and the technology it uses.

It’s just as important to do homework on the background and style of the hiring manager. Besides helping you have a more productive and informative interview, what you learn will be of immense value when the time comes to decide whether or not this particular job is for you.

[MORE: 3-Step Proactive IT Job Search.]

What Kind of Boss Do You Want?

Before you do anything, take a step back, and think about the type of boss you want.

Doing so will put everything you learn about the hiring manager into a meaningful context.

For example, if you prefer to work with people who are engaged by technology — who post regularly on blogs and are involved in the open source community — you may be leery of a manager whose background is mostly in business.

On the other hand, if you prefer to work through technical problems on your own, you may appreciate a boss who cares more about the deliverable than the path you took to creating it.

Of course, you probably want someone who’s just a basically good boss: a manager who looks out for their team and will take the time to coach you, someone who makes each individual feel as if they’re a part of a greater whole. Don’t underplay those softer aspects of the manager’s job.

  Go Online  

Once you’ve defined the type of person you want to work for, it’s time to do some basic research. Start by going online, to LinkedIn and Google, specifically.

First, search for the manager’s LinkedIn profile. There, you’ll be able to see their career path, what kinds of technical positions they’ve held, what companies they’ve worked for and what organizations they’re involved with.

Look at their network to see if you have any mutual connections. If you do, they can be good sources of information about the manager’s approach to technology, business and management.

Also, look to see if the manager’s participated in any LinkedIn group discussions. That can give you an idea of their approach to various issues that touch their work.

[MORE: Beyond Networking — LinkedIn for Company Research.]

You can learn a lot from a Google search, as well. Searching on the manager’s name can uncover intelligence such as:

• Trade journal articles the manager may have written or been quoted in. These can provide insight into their depth of knowledge and approach to technical challenges.
• Their activity in certain meetups, working groups or professional associations. Besides giving you insight into the manager’s professional activities, you may also, again, identify mutual connections.
• Common interests between the two of you, either professionally or hobbies.

[MORE: 50 Google Searches to Avoid Layoffs and Bad Employers.]

Also, look on GitHub and appropriate open-source communities to see whether the manager has posted work there. Those are great places to get a sense of their hands-on technical skill.

  Ask Questions During the Interview  

A job interview should never be a one-way conversation. Just as the employer is using the meeting to get a sense of you and your skills, you should take advantage of the opportunity to decide whether this is a manager you want to work for.

Here’s where all of the research you’ve done comes into play. You certainly want to take the time to ask questions about the company and its approach. Doing so demonstrates that you’re interested enough in the firm to have learned about its business ahead of time.

(But remember: You never want to ask a hiring manager, “So, what does your company do, anyway?” You should have learned that before you ever walk in the door!)

It’s perfectly fair to ask the manager how they run their team and what they expect from employees. Ask them to describe their ideal team member, then see how well you match up. It’s a red flag if the two don’t fit together very well.

To get a sense of their technical sophistication, ask the manager to describe the company’s technical stack. Because their job is to manage, the manager may not be as close to the stack’s intricacies as are members of the development team. At the same time, though, they should be able to discuss the advantages and challenges the team faces in doing its day-to-day work.

Be sure to approach your questions in the right way. Like it or not, the hiring manager is in the driver’s seat during the interview, so you’re not in the position of performing some kind of interrogation.

Most managers expect candidates to ask questions, just be respectful and keep your tone light.

Always pose queries in a positive way. For example, don’t ask what might make the manager a frustrating boss. Instead, ask generally how they approach managing the team.

  Ask Questions of the Team  

Nowadays, it’s more than likely that you’re going to meet with some members of the manager’s team when you visit the company. No one will give you a better idea of what it’s like to work for someone than their subordinates.

Here again, you have to ask your questions carefully and positively.

Inquire about what kind of team member succeeds with this manager, and get a sense of how the group is run by asking about off-site meetings or team events that the manager might host.

Ask why the team members like working for the manager, but stay away from questions about his weaknesses or what he might do better. The team members’ level of enthusiasm will tell you a lot.

[MORE: Answering Do You Have Any Questions in a Job Interview (50+ possible questions for you to ask them).]

Bottom Line

Your relationship with your manager is a critical component of your success, not to mention your happiness at work. Take the time to learn as much as you can about the hiring manager, both before and during your job interviews. The effort will be well worth it.

More About Job Search

• 5 Landmines to Avoid When Interviewing at Competitors
• 5 Things You Must Do Before a Job Interview
• Developing Your Elevator Pitch
• Answering Do You Have Any Questions in a Job Interview (50+ possible questions for you to ask them)

About the author…

Mark Feffer has written, edited, and produced hundreds of articles on careers, personal finance and technology for leading business and career sites. He is currently writing for JobsinME.com, JobsinRI.com, JobsinVT.com and JobsinNH.com, the top local resources for job seekers, employers, and recruiters in New England.

The post Smart Research: Check Out the Hiring Manager appeared first on Job-Hunt.

Making a career or job mistake is, unfortunately, not unusual. Most of us make at least one major mistake in our careers, but they can be avoided!

These situations cause stress and often impact our ability to earn a reasonable income. Then, a career or job change is required much more quickly than usual, which makes the job search process more complex and stressful.

The painful too-soon job search or the wasted time and money invested in training that is not useful — and the other related awkward situations — may be avoided through wise use of informational interviews.

Done well, informational interviews — collecting good information from a variety of sources before you make an important change of career direction or move to a new job — help avoid many mistakes, and are a very good idea.

Without collecting information, successfully changing careers or finding a great new job can often be more a matter of luck than a well-reasoned move to a better future:

• Media visibility for an employer or a great website can make the employer seem like the ideal place for you to work, when they are not
• Schools can trumpet how excellent their courses are without noticing that new grads are unemployed or not employed in the field they trained for.
• Job postings can be misleading, on purpose or not.
• Recruiters can be very enthusiastic about a job that they wouldn’t want a family member to have.

So, taking the time and making the effort to do some “due dilligence” before taking the next step in your career, whether that’s a new job, a new career, or a new employer, is smart self-defense.

1. Be better informed for your next career move.

Informational interviews help you make a more-informed decision before you take that leap into a new field or in a job with a new employer. You will learn the right questions to ask to get the information you need.

Collecting relevant information is key to your career success. Once you have made the move to the new field/employer, you will probably be stuck for as long as a year before you can gracefully move on.

If that new field or employer is a bad fit for you, your perfomance may not be great which will be refelected in your performance reviews and references, making that next job search more challenging.

Taking the time to be well informed will pay dividends in the future as you, potentially, avoid bad career decisions and/or bad employers.

(To use Google to avoid bad employers, read 50 Google Searches to Avoid Layoffs and Bad Employers.)

2. Improve and expand your network.

By asking people for advice, which is really what an informational interview does, you are paying that personal a compliment, and they know it. So, this may strengthen your relationship with that person.

Since you end most interviews by asking for the name and contact information of another person to talk with, you are also expanding your network, hopefully in a direction that will benefit your career.

(For more questions to ask, read Questions to Ask in Informational Interviews.)

3. Connect with opportunities.

A better (and larger) network will typically give you an inside track to opportunities inside that network. So, if one of your network connections learns of an opportunity inside their organization that might be a good one for you, you may be contacted by them.

You could become an “employee referral” candidate, giving you the best probability of being hired and, usually, rewarding the employee who refers you receives a bonus from the employer.

(For more about employee referrals read, Shortcut to a New Job: Tap an Insider and Target Employee Referrals, the #1 Hiring Source.)

4. Gain experience and confidence doing interviews.

Whether you are starting your first real job search or your first job search in many years, the more interviewing you do, the better you will become at doing it. The experience of interviewing, particularly going to a new location and meeting new people, will become less scary as you do more of it, and survive the process.

Start these interviews with people you know, or have at least met once or twice. Then, move on to people you don’t know. This will enable you to handle the intimidate “public” aspects of the whole job interviewing process. You’ll also learn how people recover from mistakes in the interview, as well as the most effective way to communicate, to present yourself and your experience in the best light.

5. Understand the interviewing process better.

As the person conducting the interview, rather than the person being interviewed, you will gain insight into what is happening on the interviewer’s side of the process — juggling schedules, watching clocks, asking the right questions to dig out the information you need, etc. You’ll learn their concerns.

You will also learn how important it is to be well-prepared for the interview so that you will ask the right questions to receive the answers you need. You will also probably learn more about understanding body language.

More: How to Get the Most Out of an Informational Interview

Bottom Line

Done well, informational interviews will help you steer your career in the right direction, chosing the best profession, employer, and job. They are excellent when you are considering a change in direction, but can also be helpful when you are considering a new employer or a new department in a current employer.

More About Informational Interviews:

• Top 10 Tips for Successful Informational Interviews
• 70+ Questions to Ask in Informational Interviews
• Email Requests for Informational Interviews (with 5 Samples)
• The Hidden Value of Informational Interviews (from the Guide to Working with Recruiters)
• How to Make Employee Referral Programs Work for You

About the author…

Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. A veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a recent Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. Since 1998, Susan has been editor and publisher of Job-Hunt.org. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Facebook, LinkedIn.
More about this author…

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