Into the Fray
Unemployment or under-employment has come to many of us during this time of economic uncertainty. That fact sent me out on the web to locate resources to benefit those of us who are in need of new, additional or different ways of obtaining income. What follows are some of the articles, ideas, information, and links I found that seem worthy of sharing.
I hope there's something here that's of use to you or someone you know.
When You’re Out of Work
http://www.businesspundit.com/ten-ways-to-stay-marketable-when-youre-out-of-work/
Out of work? That doesn’t mean you’re also out of opportunities. Any single one of the ten methods below will help you stay marketable.
http://humanresources.about.com/gi/pages/poll.htm?poll_id=5763275227&linkback=http://humanresources.about.com/b/a/258241.htm1. Take a class
Classes help you build new skills, meet people, and expand your marketable offerings. Day classes or workshops can cost as little as $25. Find classes at your local Chamber of Commerce, professional organization, or community college. Be sure to network while you’re there! If you’re considering a career change, low-cost classes are also a great way to find gauge your aptitude in your field of interest.
2. Join an interest group
Try to make it an in-person, rather than online, interest group. Meeting people face-to-face is still the best way to network. Career- or industry-themed groups will help you network and learn new tricks. Non-career-themed groups will also help you meet people who could guide you to a new job.
Meetup.com has an extensive selection of themed meetups around the country. Social media outlets like Facebook and LinkedIn also host local groups. You can also look up local branches of national organizations, or try your local Chamber of Commerce.
3. Volunteer
Volunteer or do a pro bono project for your favorite nonprofit. Stretch yourself, do a good job, meet people, and boost your resume. Bonus: Help people while you’re at it. It’s win-win-win.
4. Attend a conference
Conferences stoke your creativity and provide excellent networking opportunities. You’ll meet major players in your field, learn about new innovations, and get a roundup of new opportunities. Conferences can be pricey. Consider it an investment–if you work the conference right, you’ll come out with invaluable new contacts and opportunities. If you have your own business, a conference also makes fantastic tax write-off.
5. Use social media
Image: WebGuild
If you don’t already have a LinkedIn account, create one! Link up with friends and groups, then join industry-specific groups to learn more about happenings in your industry. Contribute to discussions so that people get to know you.
Try Twitter. Send quality tweets. Build a network based on solid, interesting content. Follow people you admire. If you give Twitter a fair try and still hate it, leave. At least you tried.
Set up a blog. Write quality content. Comment on other peoples’ blog posts. Follow bloggers you like. Build a network. Try it out–it might just go somewhere.
Join Facebook. Put positive content in your profile and on your Wall. Facebook, like any social media vehicle, can either be a tool or a time-waster. Harness it for your own good.
6. Join a job search group
Job-Hunt.org has a killer resource on societies, associations, and organizations that support job hunters. Social media outlets like Facebook and LinkedIn also host job search groups. Independent job search groups have also been cropping up around the country. Look for them on Craigslist or your local Chamber of Commerce. Ask around–your neighbor could be hosting one.
7. Learn a new language
Knowing a language opens you up to all kinds of new work possibilities. For example, knowing another langauge will give you an edge in most multinational corporations. If you get good at your language of choice, you can offer translation or interpretation services. You can even go work in your country of choice.
8. Consult
Have you built up a strong area of expertise over your career? Harness it for the benefit of others. Start by defining where and how you can help people. Set a price. Then email everyone in your network. Tell them what you’re doing. Ask if they know someone who could use your help. Once you start getting responses, business is just a few steps away.
(Entrepreneur Magazine has a great article on starting a consulting business.)
9. Set up a businessEven if your business only picks up occasional work at the beginning, having a legal entity in place will open you up to valuable tax write-offs. Do the paperwork (it’s easy). Devise a business plan and strategy, but don’t worry if it doesn’t immediately take off. You have about three years to be unprofitable before the IRS starts asking questions.Note: I don’t want to encourage anyone to set up a business purely for tax reasons. I do, however, think it pays off to set up a legal entity even if you don’t yet have all your ducks in a row. Use those tax advantages sooner rather than later.
10. Teach a classIf you know a subject well, tell other people about it by teaching a class or workshop. You can market yourself, your services, and/or your business through the workshop. Contact your local community college. Research how much you have to charge if you rent a space yourself and market the workshop. Speak at a conference or tradeshow. Teach through your local Chamber of Commerce. Where there’s a venue, there is a way.
Remember, opportunities are out there. It’s up to you to take advantage of them.
Useful Poll
(Excerpts from the following article)
10 Best (and Real) Work-at-Home Jobs
http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/107428/10-best-and-real-work-at-home-jobs.html?mod=career-leadership
by Melissa Ezarik
Two years ago, when The Rat Race Rebellion began tracking at-home jobs, there were 30 scams for every legitimate opportunity. Now, with 4,500 to 5,000 work-at-home job ads screened weekly, the Web site finds 57 phonies for every one that's for real, says Christine Durst, CEO of The Rat Race Rebellion.
Nevertheless, there's no shortage of people who dream of beating the odds and earning a living from home.
Consider these 10 jobs -- some rather traditional and others unexpected -- for interesting at-home work and good (if competitive) prospects.
1. Virtual Assistant
This is a field with much potential, in part because the title description covers many things. "You can fit your offerings to what you know how to do," says Foster. One can own a virtual assistant business or work from home for a company that makes you available to other employees or clients. Homewiththekids.com, for example, currently features a dozen such companies. Small businesses hire virtual assistants to help when they can't justify a permanent employee. The International Virtual Assistants Association, which Durst co-founded in the 1990s, began with 28 members and has grown to more than 600, who charge from $15 per hour to more than $100 per hour.
2. Medical Transcriptionist
As Foster knows, being a medical receptionist is a demanding job, and nearly every company listed on her site seeks applicants with experience and/or training from certain schools. The work involves listening to and typing up dictation from doctors -- some of whom have difficult accents, slur words together, and even "eat, drink, chew gum (and) talk to other people in the room" while dictating, she says. But hearing about medical matters can be interesting, and good transcriptionists are in very high demand. Expect initial earnings of less than $10 per hour, but some transcriptionists earn $20 or more per hour.
3. Translator
Those with fluency in more than one language translate audio files or documents, not just word for word but often with cultural differences in mind. "Companies can access home-based translators with hard-to-find language skills without being held back by geographic location," says Fell.
Foster's site lists 15 companies that seek home-based translators. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook 2008-09, which groups translators and interpreters, notes a projected employment increase of 24 percent over the 2006-to-2016 decade, much faster than the average for all occupations.
The national mean hourly wage for translators and interpreters was $20.74, with a mean annual wage of $43,130 as of May 2008, according to estimates by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some industries pay significantly higher, with the highest paying jobs generally in the management, scientific and technical consulting services areas, in which the mean hourly wage was $56.50 and the annual mean wage was $117,530.
4. Web Developer/Designer
Information technology is the sector, Durst says, where most of the home-based hiring is being done. Terri Orlowski, a virtual assistant and Web developer based in Ledyard, Conn., offers services such as custom Web site design, template modification and redesigns, code updates, hosting, and usability reviews. She previously held administrative positions in a variety of industries, and makes a higher per-hour rate now. The job is in high demand. Of the more than 15,000 new monthly work-from-home job postings on Odesk.com, Web developers are in the greatest demand, says spokeswoman Elizabeth Gordon. A list of companies that post at-home tech jobs is available at ratracerebellion.com.
5. Call Center Representative
When you phone to order something from a catalog or infomercial, a big office with rows of cubicles may come to mind. But the person on the other end of the line is likely to be sitting in a home office. "It's a huge and growing industry," says Durst of companies that hire independent contractors to take calls from home. She says the "home-shore movement" started in response to complaints about the many companies that looked offshore for workers. While some Web sites, such as Alpineaccess.com, actually hire representatives, most use subcontractors. Just be aware that the pay may be by the minute rather than by the hour, so you may not be paid for time you spend waiting by the phone. A list of companies that hire call center reps can be found at Homewiththekids.com.
6. Tech Support Specialist
Call centers also hire technical support specialists to work remotely. Kate Lister, co-author of "Undress for Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home," names it as one of her top three "best-bet work-at-home jobs." And according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, jobs for computer support specialists (on-site and remote combined) were expected to increase by 13 percent from 2006 to 2016 -- much faster than the average for all occupations -- with 71,000 new jobs.
7. Travel Agent
Scams abound in the travel industry -- particularly organizations that charge for information on how to break into the field. But operating a home-based travel agency can be an excellent business, says Tom Ogg of the Home Based Travel Agent Information Center. "Real home-based travel agents have experienced robust growth over the last decade, and there are probably around 35,000 of them and growing." A growing (although small) number of people earn $100,000 or more a year, he says. "A solid business concept and plan focused on profitability will take you a long way to achieving your monetary goals." There's also the joy of helping others enjoy their leisure time.
8. Teacher
From post secondary education to elementary schools, there are opportunities for students to learn virtually. Along with that, come opportunities to teach (and tutor) virtually. While distance learning is not new, advanced technology, collaborative multimedia software designed for schools and high-speed Internet connections have created more opportunities for teachers and students to work together from afar, says Fell. Durst has also noticed more teacher jobs being posted, and she knows of one professor who works mainly online and makes six figures -- although income "depends on how many hours you're applying to it and the type of classes you're teaching." A resource center for online teaching jobs is available at GetEducated.com.
9. Writer/Editor
Yes, the print publishing industry has been suffering, but Durst is seeing frequent listings these days for writing, editing and proofreading, particularly for the Web. Even those without writing experience can join the blogosphere. Not only can blogging be lots of fun, Foster says, but also there's money to be earned blogging for someone else's site, getting paid to post on your own blog or through revenue-sharing arrangements. A list of blogging opportunities, for which the pay range is less than $5 per post to more than $20 per post, can be found at Homewiththekids.com.
10. Franchise Owner
It's a no-brainer: Owning a business can be the road to at-home work. For an initial investment, franchises may offer a ready-made business with brand awareness, a system and a territory, says Leslie Truex, founder of the Web site Work-At-Home Success. She advises considering businesses that target the over-50 crowd or the self-employed, involve health and wellness, relate to the "green" movement, or involve electronic or online devices (i.e., accessories, applications).
Scam Alert:
When considering any at-home job, put up the scam-detection radar.
Durst suggests watching for these positive indicators of "real" employment:
- The hirer is an established company.
- The ad includes the company name and does not have applicants reply to a blind e-mail address.
- Human resources personnel are available for questions.
- There is mention of information commonly associated with "real" employment (benefits, vacations, policies, etc.).
- There is an application and interview process, not simply an e-mailed offer.
- The employer can detail the job duties and expectations.
- References/work samples are requested.
(Excerpts from the following article)
Companies That Hire Home-Based Workers
CareerBuilder.com Writer
1. Alpine Access: A call center company that uses home-based customer service representatives to handle calls for a variety of companies, including J. Crew and 1-800-Flowers.2. Arise: Matches work-from-home agents with open positions in sales, technical support and customer service.3. Convergys: Hires home-based agents to serve as customer service, technical assistance or sales agents for clients.3. Liveops: Customer service calls for a variety of major corporations are routed through this center and answered by people who work from home.4. Staffcentrix: Finds virtual assistants who perform a variety of administrative and other business tasks from their home for CEOs and other clients.5. VirtuServe: A call center that hires home agents for various services, such as telemarketing, help desk support and survey research.
6. VIPdesk: Home-based concierge and customer service agents are hired to work with various companies.7. West Corporation: Finds customer service agents based out of their homes for a variety of industries, including pharmaceutical, retail and hospitality.
15 Hot Jobs in a (Gulp!) Depression
some career fields will thrive
Most economists do not expect the U.S. economy will go through a depression related to the credit-crisis-mortgage-meltdown-bailout bonanza. Most Americans, however, do.
A recent CNN poll finds that nearly 60 percent of Americans believe we're very likely facing a depression. It's a bearish view but probably bolstered by recent headlines, like those about a survey from consulting firm Watson Wyatt, which found that 26 percent of companies expect they'll conduct layoffs in the next 12 months. Indeed, a depression spells bad news for workers. The last time this country's economy saw such a painful downturn, 1 in 4 American workers was unemployed and looking for work. The unemployment rate was 24.9 percent in 1933, according to Labor Department data.
Of course, that means that 75 percent of workers were employed. So, while most Americans would suffer in a depression, some careers should remain strong, maybe even be bolstered. Here's a look at 15 career fields with particular resilience:
Accounting: Bad economic times increase businesses' and individuals' desire to wisely account for every last dollar.
Education: Even in the current slowdown, our political leaders seem committed to education spending, and voters continue to pass education bonds to upgrade facilities.
Entertainment: During the Great Depression, the movie industry boomed as people craved escapism and had time to burn. That would very likely be the same today: The film, video game, sports, and creative arts industries should remain viable.
Utilities: This is the classic defensive stock investment. Even in the worst of times, utilities stay cranking.
Home, car, commercial, and industrial repair: In a bad economy, the rule is—don't replace, repair. It doesn't just go for you and your 12-year-old sedan or your leaky toilet. In a depression, struggling car manufacturers will more often opt to repair than replace a balky welding robot.
Alternative energy: Despite all the media attention to solar and wind energy, it's possible that the nuclear industry would, over the next decade, create the most jobs.
Health care: The jobs with the most security include registered nurses, physician assistants, internal medicine physicians, dentists, optometrists, pharmacists, and physical therapy assistants.
Law firms: If they specialize in discrimination law, immigration law, or sexual harassment—they'll still need plenty of employees.
Law enforcement: In tough times, the level of crime tends to increase.
Community colleges: Many people return to school for retraining when they're unable to land a good job. Even people with college degrees will turn to community colleges because they typically teach technical skills and offer practical, career-related training at a price that's affordable—even in a depression.
Senior services: There's a wide range of industries and fields that will most likely continue to benefit from baby boomers getting older, including senior housing, home retrofitting, geriatric care management, and, of course, the aforementioned healthcare.
Clergy : People seek spiritual support in tough times.
Repossession, foreclosure, and debt collection: When borrowers can't pay back their loans on homes or cars or credit cards, someone has to collect and evict. If you're a car person, there will be jobs repossessing giant SUVs from borrowers who took advantage of no-qualification loans even when they knew it was more than they could afford.
Government (especially homeland security, health care, accounting/auditing, information technology, and taxes): Government has the power to collect taxes in good times and bad. It may be the last bastion of secure employment, requiring 40-hour workweeks and offering ample sick days, holidays, and vacation days.
http://providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,5944-1-3037-1,00.html
Did you know . . .
Did you know . . . LDS Employment Resource Services (ERS) helps individuals:
- Find Jobs
People seeking employment or better employment are assisted in learning effective job search skills, finding a job coach, and identifying potential employment opportunities.
Get into Education
Thousands of people have been assisted in finding scholarships or other funding and in enrolling in education or training programs.
Start or Improve a Small Business
Those who have interest in starting or strengthening a small business will find resources and information about self-employment.
Did you know . . . ERS operates 313 employment resource centers worldwide?
- There are 110 centers in the U.S. and Canada and 203 located throughout Africa, Asia, the Pacific, Europe, and Latin America. Find the Employment Center nearest you.
Did you know . . . ERS offers a Career Workshop?
- Throughout the world Church members are learning the skills necessary to better compete for job opportunities by attending a Career Workshop.
Did you know . . . ERS has a new initiative called the Professional Placement Program
- Each week thousands of professionals meet together in employment centers around the world to network, share leads, and develop and practice effective job search skills. The Professional Placement Program consists of a Career Workshop and networking groups just for executives, professionals, and managers.
2 comments:
This is a great resource! Thanks so much for taking the time to put this together!
You are amazing...thanks.
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