How to Find Job Search Help

From Donna Marino

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

As a professional career counselor employed by a college, I will often receive requests for assistance from "non-affiliates" (individuals not affiliated with my institution). Due to the ratio of staff to client-base, our policy is to limit services to only our own students and alumni. Over the course of many years, my colleagues and I have often helped non-affiliates to realize that there may be a wealth of other local and Internet resources that they’ve not yet tapped, including career counselors in private practice. This brief article is meant to help college graduates and other job seekers identify free, or inexpensive, resources in their geographic areas.

Contact Career Services

If you are a college graduate, be sure to contact the career services office at your own alma mater(s). Many institutions, like mine, offer lifetime career development services for alumni. Others offer limited services; still others offer services at extremely reasonable rates. And much of what is offered may be available long-distance.

One of the most important services to request will be access to your alma mater's version of our Career Advisor Network (alumni who have volunteered to speak with you, respond to your career-related questions, and advise you on your job search).

You may be able to request telephone appointments with the career development professionals at your alma mater(s) for services such as resume reviews and advising sessions on job search strategies or interviewing techniques.

You’ll also want to get any required passwords for access to your alma mater’s online job listing databases.

And it never hurts to ask if your alma mater(s) have existing reciprocity agreements with institutions in your geographic area (allowing you to access the services of the local college’s career services office). But be prepared to hear that your access will be limited to non-password-protected job listings (no counselor contact).

Find Free Job Search Help

Here are some other ideas that are helpful to all job seekers, whether they’ve graduated from college or not.

Check with your local public library to see what they have in their career research and job search collections. Ask if they offer job search workshops or run a job search club.

Look for regional/local branches of professional associations for the field(s) of interest to you to tap their networking potential.

Go online for advice and job listing links. Some of the best sites include:

• The About Guide to Job Searching
• The Riley Guide: Employment Opportunities and Job Resources on the Internet

Check with your local Chamber of Commerce to ask about career/job fairs that may be planned for the near future. Search the Chamber of Commerce International Directory for contact information.

Tap resources and services available through your state’s Department of Labor. You’ll find both online resources as well as in-person options. For more in-depth information on this idea, refer to the previously published article, Departments of Labor: Job Referrals, Training and Other Employment Services.

Locate a Career Counselor

Finally, if you want actual career counseling (rather than just job search advice and resources) and live at too great a distance to make the often-mandatory in-person sessions with career counselors from your alma mater(s) feasible, you may want to engage the services of a private career counselor in your local area. Before doing so, be sure to consult the National Career Development Association’s (NCDA) Consumer Guideline for Selecting a Career Counselor. It provides an excellent overview of the roles of a career counselor, training and credentials information, what you should expect and demand as a client, ethical practices, and more.

Workplace Violence: Violence Can Happen Here Part II

By Susan M. Heathfield

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Behaviors That May Predict Workplace Violence

In her book, Risky Business: Managing Employee Violence in the Workplace (compare prices), McClure describes eight categories of high-risk behaviors that indicate the need for management intervention. She says these high-risk behaviors are everyday behaviors that occur in certain patterns - they occur long before threats or actual workplace violence.

The eight categories of workplace violence are:

• Actor behaviors: The employee acts out his or her anger with such actions as yelling, shouting, slamming doors, and so on.

• Fragmentor behaviors: The employee takes no responsibility for his actions and sees no connection between what he does and the consequences or results of his actions. As an example, he blames others for his mistakes.

• Me-First behaviors: The employee does what she wants, regardless of the negative effects on others. As an example, the employee takes a break during a last minute rush to get product to a customer, while all other employees are working hard.

• Mixed-Messenger behaviors: The employee talks positively but behaves negatively. As an example, the employee acts in a passive-aggressive manner saying he is a team player, but refuses to share information.

• Wooden-Stick behaviors: The employee is rigid, inflexible, and controlling. She won't try new technology, wants to be in charge, or purposefully withholds information.

• Escape-Artist behaviors: The employee deals with stress by lying and/or taking part in addictive behaviors such as drugs or gambling.

• Shocker behaviors: The employee suddenly acts in ways that are out of character and/or inherently extreme. For instance, a usually reliable individual fails to show up or call in sick for work. A person exhibits a new attendance pattern.

• Stranger behaviors: The employee is remote, has poor social skills, becomes fixated on an idea and/or an individual.

Dr. Lynne McClure is a nationally-recognized expert in managing high-risk employee behaviors before they escalate to workplace violence. She offered the eight categroies of behavior that an employer must be aware of to prevent workplace violence earlier in this article.

According to McClure, "When the manager, supervisor or HR person sees these behavior patterns, she must document, talk to the employee, discuss the behaviors in terms of their negative effect on work, and require training, counseling, or both.

"The manager, supervisor or HR person must then continue to monitor the employee's behavior. The goal is to either get the employee to change his behavior, via skills acquisition and/or dealing with problems, or leave the workplace by choice or company decision."

Haig Neville in Dealing With Workplace Violence, highlights several additional issues. "A New York Times study of 100 rampage murders … found that most of the killers 'spiraled down a long, slow slide, mentally and emotionally.' According to the study, most killers gave multiple signs that they were in trouble.

With this in mind, employers should be alert to some of the predictors of violent behavior. These include employees who: use intimidation, talk about weaponry, exhibit paranoid or anti-social behavior, feel they’re not being heard by the company, express extreme desperation, have a history of violence, are loners who don’t fit in with the group."

In an interview with Eric Snyder, past President and CEO of TCM, Inc., McClure said that at least three of these warnings were missed prior to the murder of seven employees at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield, Massachusetts. (The act that inspired the multiple murders, including the murder of two HR staff members, was the requirement of the IRS that the company garnishee Michael McDermott’s wages.)

McClure says that we now know that the employee was under psychiatric care and taking medication. Prior to the killings, however, he displayed fragmentor behavior; he saw it as the company's responsibility to protect him from the IRS. He displayed shocker behavior in which his actions were extreme and out of character.

The week prior to the murders, “McDermott had an angry outburst at work, which was both extreme and out of character for him.” Finally, McDermott exhibited shocker behavior; he "appears to have been remote, and he became fixated on the IRS and the company's role of protecting him from the IRS."

The Workplace Violence Research Institute estimated costs of workplace violence to U.S. businesses at $36 billion per year. Neville says, "Costs include medical and psychiatric care, lost business and productivity, repairs and clean up, higher insurance rates, increased security costs, and worst of all, the loss of valued employees.

In addition, business owners are increasingly being held liable for not making their premises safe for employees and customers. Potential areas of workplace violence-related litigation that should concern employers include civil actions for negligent hiring, workers compensation claims, third-party claims for damages, invasion of privacy actions, and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violation charges.

Workplace violence can happen here. Workplace violence can happen to you or someone you love. If you are knowledgeable and watchful about workplace violence and its signs in employees, however, you can anticipate and take actions that may prevent its occurrence.

• Know your employees; know when employee behavior is out of the ordinary.
• Train supervisors and other coworkers that reporting unusual behavior to Human Resources is expected and positive.
• Stop the spiral that can result in violence; give the potentially violent person somewhere to turn for help.

Workplace Violence: Violence Can Happen Here

By Susan M. Heathfield



Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs


A very real, clear and present danger lurks just beyond the consciousness of people who work together eight to ten hours a day, five to seven days a week. It is the potential for violence to occur in your workplace.

Increasingly, the Human Resources function is both the target of these threats of workplace violence and the organization's first line of defense for the prevention of workplace violence.

What causes workplace violence? Are violent actions more likely to occur at work? What actions or changes tell an organization that an individual has the potential to commit a violent act at work? This article about workplace violence answers these questions for the health and safety of your employees.

The Facts About Workplace Violence

Homicide is the second leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States. Nearly 1,000 workers are murdered and 1.5 million are assaulted in the workplace each year.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), in additional information about workplace violence, there were 709 workplace homicides in 1998. These accounted for 12 percent of the total 6,026 fatal work injuries in the United States. Of these 709 workplace homicide victims in 1998, 80 percent were shot and nine percent were stabbed.

According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), 2 million assaults and threats of violence against Americans at work occur annually. The most common type of workplace crime was assault with an average of 1.5 million a year.

There were 396,000 aggravated assaults, 51,000 rapes and sexual assaults, 84,000 robberies, and 1,000 homicides reported. These figures likely fall short of the actual number of violent acts occurring in workplaces as not all acts of workplace violence are reported.

Workplaces Prone to Workplace Violence

The news media tend to sensationalize acts of workplace violence that involve coworkers. In sensationalizing incidents of workplace violence, they remove the emphasis from the most important targets for workplace safety programs. In fact, the most common motive for job-related homicide is robbery, accounting for 85 percent of workplace violence deaths.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), provides information that illustrates anyone can become the victim of a workplace assault, but the risks are greater for workplace violence in certain industries and occupations. The taxicab industry has the highest risk, nearly 60 times the national average for potential workplace violence.

Other occupations at greatest risk include police, detectives, sheriffs, gas station workers, and security guards. In the NCVS study, retail sales workers were the most numerous victims, with 330,000 being attacked each year.

They were followed by police, with 234,200 officers victimized. Disputes among coworkers and with customers and clients accounted for about one-tenth of the total incidences of workplace violence annually.

Thus, while this article emphasizes violence between coworkers, no responsible safety process in the workplace can ignore the fact that violence is more likely to come from outside the immediate workplace.

Human Resources Job Prospects and Earnings

By Susan M. Heathfield


Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Job prospects for various Human Resources positions vary by position but they range from growing as fast as the average of other occupations to growing faster than average, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Sample Human Resources Job Prospects and Earnings

• Human Resources Assistant: expected to grow by 11 percent between 2006 and 2016, as fast as the average for all occupations.
  
  The median of wages paid to HR Assistants was $33,750 in 2006. The range was $22,700 to more than $48,670.

• Human Resources Generalists, and Training or Labor Relations Managers: according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, employment is "expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations. College graduates who have earned certification should have the best job opportunities. Overall employment is projected to grow by 17 percent between 2006 and 2016."
  
  --Compensation and benefits managers made a median income of $74,750 in May, 2006 with a range from $55,370 to $99,690. The lowest paid 10% were paid less than $42,750; the highest 10% earned more than $132,820.
  
  --The median earnings of training and development managers were $80,250 in May, 2006. Salaries ranged from $43,530 to $141,140.
  
  --The median annual earnings of human resources managers in other specialty areas were $88,510 in May, 2006. The range was $51,810 to $145,600. The middle 50% made between $67,710 and $114,860 annually.

How to Research Human Resources Jobs and Careers

You can research any job title at the the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Occupational Outlook Handbook. Here's a hint to save you research time. While most Human Resources jobs including managers, generalists, training specialists and labor relations specialists, appear under "Human Resources," higher level jobs, such as Vice President and Director, appear in the index under "Vice President" and "Director."

The site provides the most current information about these job occupation areas.

• Nature of the Work
• Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement
• Employment
• Job Outlook
• Projections Data
• Earnings
• Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Data
• Related Occupations
• Sources of Additional Information

More About Potential Salary and Earnings in Human Resources

My only cautionary note, as you can see from the above examples, is that the range within a specific occupation for salaries is broad. You can obtain more specific salary information for your occupation, level, years of experience, region, market competition, skills, and education by researching at job boards, in your Human Resources office from salary surveys, and at sites that provide market research and salary calculators.

The pay for Human Resources jobs generally ranges from around $30,000 for an entry-level job to millions of dollars for a corporate executive with leadership responsibility for thousands or hundreds of thousands of employees, and often responsibility for multiple departments.

Summary of Human Resources Career Opportunities

According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, the three key points for people who want to work in Human Resources include:

• "The educational backgrounds of these workers vary considerably, reflecting the diversity of duties and levels of responsibility.
• "Certification and previous experience are assets for most specialties, and are essential for more advanced positions, including managers, arbitrators, and mediators.
• "College graduates who have earned certification should have the best job opportunities."

Human Resources is a field that offers multiple job opportunities: see these descriptions of the range of jobs in Human Resources. Human Resources jobs also offer the opportunity to make significant income and to contribute to business culture, business strategy, and the overall happiness and motivation of employees.

More About Pursuing a Career or Job in Human Resources

Looking for information, in addition to job prospects and earnings, about pursuing a career or job in Human Resources? Here are the resources you need to take your career development or job search to the next level.

How To Get A Free Education

By Al Lifeson

Jobs Vacancy, Job vacancies, Employment Jobs

Before I started writing articles I did a lot of research. Even got a book or two about it. All in all, it was a total waste of time and money.

I am sure many people are so scared to write the first article it never gets done. As with just about any other way to make money on the internet, people avoid actions because they fear the consequences.

The most common excuse it "I can't write". All I have to say to that is if you can speak it you can write it. In fact, you should speak it before your write it.

No matter what you learn before you start writing articles, it will pale in comparison to what you learn while you are writing them and watching the results come in.

It doesn't matter what kind of job you get, you have to go through training. And for me, on the job training is the only thing worthwhile. There is no substitute for experience.

If you are considering writing articles to promote your web site or product, but feel you are not up to the task, let me assure you a firm commitment to writing 100 articles relating to the product of your choice will provide you a complete education in the field of article marketing.

You will probably even get paid a little bit while you learn if you pick a worthy product.

Don't worry about the first few failing articles. Remember the Matrix when Neo tried to jump across the buildings for the first time. Everybody said "Nobody makes it the first time". And they were right.

Even the best has to start somewhere. And usually it is with a poorly written and failing article. But with the courage to write the first article and the dedication to write the 100th, you will receive an education that will allow you to write your own ticket to making money online.