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February 21, 2012
Written by Dawn Rasmussen Uncategorized
Go out and do a Google search on how to conduct job searches, and you’ll come up with literally a billion different articles and pieces of advice… with a lot of the ideas out there contradicting each other. One person says, “Do it this way” and then the next person has a different take on what you need to do. Is it any wonder job seekers are so darned frustrated? It’s sort of like the dog running around in circles chasing its tail, isn’t it? Round and round and round, and it seems like no matter what, there you are… Read »
February 7, 2012
Written by Dawn Rasmussen Uncategorized
A lot of times, job seekers will contact me with help on their career document, then start rattling off a whole list of COMPLETELY different functions that they want to cover in the résumé. One recent client was hoping to try and cover human resources, event planning, and communications all in one document. Unfortunately, in today’s brave new world of applications, one size does not fit all. But does that mean everyone needs to be constantly chasing after a moving target, always changing the document to meet each job posting? Nope. You have to rethink your strategy completely and start… Read »
February 2, 2012
Written by Dawn Rasmussen Uncategorized
So you’ve been working away in your career, and have cultivated a strong reputation with your co-workers. Want to kick it up a notch? Be indispensable. Here’s the trick: the most valuable employees are the ones who are the generous experts who give back. What you learn and how you share it can make you the workplace hero. A byproduct of being helpful and resourceful: you’ll earn respect as the company subject matter expert. Here are some tips to make yourself shine in some of the most humble ways: 1) Share articles of interest. Sometimes, companies only pay for publication subscriptions for select… Read »
January 24, 2012
Written by Dawn Rasmussen Uncategorized
Why is it that some people seem to have “all the luck?” Here you’ve been, slogging away at a focused job search for weeks, months, or even years, yet certain contacts in your circles just seem to “pop” between jobs with nary a blink of the eye with little or no “downtime” in between. Say what??? What’s wrong with this picture? It just doesn’t seem fair that you put a ton of elbow grease into a job search, yet those folks seem to flit by without going through the roller coaster of emotions,personal struggles, and financial desperation that you’ve been… Read »
January 17, 2012
Written by Dawn Rasmussen Uncategorized
I just got back from a presentation where I asked audience members to raise their hands to show if they were LinkedIn… and as usual, several people simply sat that question out… and avoided eye contact with me. As a follow up, I then queried the group as to who had made their profiles robust and updated them recently. A large number of hands came down at that point. After the program was over, several people came up to me and said that they had a profile up but it wasn’t something of which they were particularly proud, but they… Read »
January 6, 2012
Written by Dawn Rasmussen Uncategorized
If you aren’t already subscribed to thought guru Seth Godin’s blog, I would highly recommend you do so. His short, to-the-point, and thought-provoking posts are momentary day-stoppers because they make you pause… and think. I cannot even imagine what is going on in his mind at any given moment with so many pearls of wisdom floating around in there! But one recent post hit home particularly hard the other day… it was about planning versus committing. On a personal note, I had been planning to write a book on career strategies for a whole year. In fact, I had “planned”… Read »
December 21, 2011
Written by Dawn Rasmussen Uncategorized
Ho ho ho! The holidays are upon us, and Christmas is just around the corner. But unfortunately, many people aren’t feeling so jolly this holiday time simply because they still haven’t found work, which can be incredibly depressing during this time of gift giving. If you find yourself in this situation, here’s a few tips that will help you keep your head up and still enjoy the celebration. You can be a Job Search Santa, believe it or not, and here’s how you can still enjoy the spirit of the season… which is giving: 1) Find a volunteer opportunity and give of your… Read »
December 5, 2011
Written by Dawn Rasmussen Uncategorized
Life happens. Sometimes, we simply can’t predict the types of things that happen that can waylay the best intentions and plans. What we had hoped to achieve or accomplish within a set period of time simply doesn’t happen because other things come up that we have no control over… and those things take sudden precedence over everything else. And that’s ok. When it comes to your career (and life in general), the thing you always need to remember is that we are doing the best we can under the circumstances and trying to make the best decisions possible with what… Read »
November 30, 2011
Written by Dawn Rasmussen Uncategorized
This morning, I woke up really early (ugh 3:30am), and after tossing and turning around for awhile, I finally decided to get up to face the day… my mind kept racing as I was lying there thinking about what I COULD be getting accomplished as a head start on the day’s activities. So, I got up, went into the computer room, flipped the on-switch, and started perusing my emails. I like to call this early morning work my ‘stealth’ mode… which is when you can operate pretty efficiently by sending replies and projects out, and most sane people (unlike myself)… Read »
November 22, 2011
Written by Dawn Rasmussen Uncategorized
I have a confession to make…I’ve acting like the back-end of a horse lately. There. I said it. Publicly. What prompted this admission? Well, other than I really was acting like the business end of a horse, I feel really bad. Horrible, in fact. I thought I understood the rules of engagement social media fairly well, but it turns out that in one respect, I was the one behaving badly. So here’s the story: As an early adopter of many social media platforms, I have built a fairly robust network over the past years, especially on LinkedIn. But I was… Read »