Here is a video that will discuss the most commonly asked interview questions. You will also learn the 5 Basic Principles of how to answer any individual Job Interview Question. The way you answer a job interview question is as important as the answer itself.

Many job hunters let the interviewer ask all the questions. This is a critical mistake. It is a lost opportunity to get needed job information and impress the interviewer.

In this video, you’ll learn that the best interviews are more of a two-way conversation. Asking questions helps you learn more about the job and the company. Well thought-out questions help you impress the interviewer. Unfortunately, many job candidates don’t ask the right questions.

Many people conduct a job search in a very reactive manner, without clear goals, objectives or specific actions. This disorganized approach often only results in wasted time and frustration. Constructing a Personal Marketing Plan and working that plan, will help you manage your time and enable you to gain valuable help from your job search contacts. Here is a video on how to begin your search by making a Personal Marketing Plan.

People are often confused about where to start and direct their job search. By starting with a clear Professional Objective, you will achieve faster job hunting results. It is critical to start your job search with a clear picture of the type of job you are seeking. Here is a video teaching you how to prepare the most important portion of your Personal Marketing Plan, Your Professional Objective.

Your Positioning Statement is a very brief story which, when shared with a job networking contact, will leave a lasting impression. Being remembered by your job networking contacts and the interviewers you meet is an essential part of a good job searching strategy. Here is a video that will teach you how to prepare a Positioning Statement.

Your competencies are those skills which make you valuable to someone else, a key ingredient in job searching. These skills are usually grouped in four areas: organizational, technical, transferable, and special skills. Here is a video that will teach you the importance of documenting your competencies.

The Target Market in which to focus your job search consists of four items: Geography, Industry, Organization Size, and Organizational Culture. When deciding where to job search, it is essential that you describe all four in order to properly help you determine where your next job, the job best suited for you will be. Here is a video that will teach you how to establish a Target Market in which to execute your job search.

Your list of Target Companies should be composed of companies that fit your Professional Objective and Positioning Statement and fall into your Target Market. This is where the jobs best suited to you are, and therefore where you should conduct the central focus of your job hunting and networking efforts. Here is a video that will teach you how to build the right list of Target Companies.

Using your Personal Marketing Plan when networking and job hunting will be most effective if you prepare the plan with great care and use it on a daily basis. Networking for a job can be time-consuming, and using a good plan will always produce the best results-a good job that suits you. Here is a video that will show you an example of a great Personal Marketing Plan to use as an action guide when networking and job searching.

There are several articles in this post:

Tips for Entering or Re-Entering the Workforce from AARP

Are you thinking about getting a job for the first time or going back to work? If so, does one of these situations sound like yours?

* After being involved with family, volunteering, and community for years, you now want a paid job.
* You’ve been out of the workforce for several years or more, and you want to go back.
* You’ve retired from your main job and now want a different kind of work.

Now’s your chance to match the work you want with what’s out there – or what you can create. Survey yourself first, and then look at job or self-employment prospects.

To see the full article, go to www.aarp.org/money/careers/choosecareer/occupational-info/a2004-06-15-tipsforwkforce.html
 

Advice on Reentering the Workforce from MetLife

So you’re ready to jump back into the job market. What have you been doing since you left the work force? Perhaps you’ve been home raising a family or enjoying the leisure of retirement. Now you’re ready to get back to work, but you’re afraid you may no longer be marketable. This article will provide useful tips on how to proceed with your job search.

To read the complete article, go to www.metlife.com/Applications/Corporate/WPS/CDA/PageGenerator/0,4773,P2354,00.html

 
Reentering the Workforce by Parents.com

Soon after his first child was born in 1987, David Boylan quit work. During the next 10 years, as he cared for his two children, he never once yearned for his former life as an actor. “I was more than willing to sacrifice my career for the kids,” says Boylan, 49, of Glen Ellyn, IL. “Fatherhood brought out unbelievably powerful emotions in me.”

To see the full article, go to www.parents.com/family-life/work-money-politics/work-life-balance/reentering-the-workforce/.

 
The Existential Crisis of the Wait-at-Home Mom By Vicki Glembocki

The first generation of Philly women who “opted out” in order to stay home with their kids is now ready for what’s next. Trouble is, opting back in can be pretty scary when you aren’t even sure who you are anymore

THEIR KIDS ARE in school. Their husbands are at work. It’s 10 o’clock on a Friday morning, and these women have nothing they need to do.

Sure, they could be playing tennis. Or organizing the silent auction for the Lower Merion High fund-raiser. Or calling their friends to meet them in a few hours for lunch at Du Jour in Haverford. They aren’t, though.

They’re doing yoga.

But this isn’t their mamas’ yoga. This is serious, sweating, handstanding yoga. This is guy-playing-the-drums-and-­chanting yoga. And the nine women — most in their late 40s — practicing at Jai Yoga on Montgomery Avenue in Narberth aren’t resting in child’s pose. No, they’re bending and twisting and inhaling deep into their abdomens, trying to quiet their troubled minds as they face the front of the dimly lit, caramel-colored studio where two red, glowing Buddhas hang on the wall, staring back at them.

It’s no surprise that they’re thin and coiffed and pedicured, or that they’re sporting ginormous diamond rings, and outfits by the high-end line Beyond Yoga (with its odd but appropriate slogan “I Am Beyond”) that they probably purchased in the boutique downstairs, along with their VitaminWater. Many of them are, after all, stay-at-home-moms on the Main Line, and have been for the past 10 years. Or 15 years. Or 20 years.

They haven’t always been stay-at-home moms, though. They used to be career women, with big degrees and big-paying jobs, 120 percent committed and on their way up. But when kids came along, they decided to give it all up to stay home and raise their families, 120 percent committed to that. Now the kids are pretty much raised, and these women are the only members of their families who are really at home anymore. They’ve become, instead, wait-at-home moms — waiting for the kids to come back from school or soccer practice or their friends’ houses, waiting to cook dinner, waiting to help with college applications, waiting to remind them it’s time to go to bed. Waiting, in essence, to be useful.

To see the full article, go to:
www.phillymag.com/articles/the_existential_crisis_of_the_wait_at_home_mom/

October 30, 2006 Article at www.msmoney.com

Women re-entering the job market after time off for childrearing, a leave of absence, or retirement face special concerns. Depending on how long it’s been since you were employed outside the home, you may have to deal not only with your emotional barriers (Am I too old? Will anyone want to hire me?) but also with logistical concerns such as updating your skills, presenting your time off in a positive light, and jump-starting your network of fellow professionals.

To read the full article go to:
www.msmoney.com/mm/career/transitions/reenter_workforce/reenter_workforce_intro.htm

 
Reentering the Workforce Takes Courage & Commitment
Published: April 4, 2004
By Marilyn Moats Kennedy

You’ve been unemployed, underemployed, on sabbatical, rearing children – somewhere other than the workplace for five or more years, and now you’ve decided to rejoin the paid employed. Understand that in all likelihood your first position back will be a transitional job unless you’ve been diligent about keeping up with your industry, your contacts and your continuing education. (Most people don’t because that is a full-time job.) Your goal is to find a decent job that will be the start of your career renaissance. What are the basic steps necessary to transition back?

To read the full article go to www.jobjournal.com/article_full_text.asp?artid=1098