Career Briefs

Education and Your Money by Anna-Maria Andriotis Smart Money

The latest development in ballooning college costs: application-fee creep.

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Timeliness is key. Send them as soon as possible after the meeting or interview.

By PHYLLIS KORKKI NYT

THE beginning of this New Year — after a very difficult 2009 for job seekers — offers a good opportunity to review and fine-tune every element of an employment search, from résumés to thank-you notes. While you may be doing almost everything right, neglecting or mishandling just one or two pieces of the process could keep you from getting a job, especially in this ultra competitive market. Here, then, is a checklist that covers some of the major links in the job search chain: To read the complete article, please click here.

Always express your gratitude.

By RIVA RICHMOND NYT
When Claude Vera responded to the customer-service job opening he saw on the online-classified site Geebo.com back in February, it seemed like one of a hundred small acts that might get him back to work. Most of his e-mail messages to prospective employers were going unanswered, so he was relieved when Penguin Express Inc. replied the next day with a work-from-home job.
To help him get a home office started, Penguin sent him money orders so he could buy, via money wire, the requisite laptop and other equipment from several different people. Mr. Vera, of Jamaica, New York, deposited nine United States Postal Service money orders into his Chase bank account and wired a total of nearly $8,000 to the various vendors. But he never received a laptop or anything else, and the money orders turned out to be already cashed or counterfeit. The scam consumed Mr. Vera’s tax refund and put him in the red by $6,700 to Chase, which sent his case to a collection agent. To read the complete article, please click here.

Need to run a tighter ship so you can have a little more leisure time? These days that’s a pretty common problem and goal. People work more hours and are spread pretty thin. But don’t despair. Here are a few time management tips from Worklifebalance.com’s (www.worklifebalance.com) CEO Jim Bird:

• Use a daily planner. Electronic or paper, it doesn’t matter. Choose one that gives you at least on page per day, and then make sure you always keep it with you. Jot down your commitments as you go.

• Get rid of your to-do list. Why? To-do lists often end up being frustrating and futile, something you never quite get to. Instead, take your to-do list before you toss it out and transfer the items to a particular time and day in your daily planner. You’ll be amazed at how much your stress level goes down and how much you accomplish when you do this.

• Set aside a block of time to return phone calls and answer e-mails. Choosing early morning to do this is often best since the other person will have the rest of the day to respond. Of course, urgent messages and phone calls should be returned in a timely manner.

• When talking on the phone or in face-to-face conversations, give the other person your full attention. Don’t page through your e-mail in-box or fill out your daily planner when you’re talking to someone. Make sure that your communication is clear and focused, which will reduce the need for clarification and other time-wasters in the future. Don’t multitask when you deal with people. It never pays off.

Assessments: These tests ask you a series of questions and try to provide you with some sense of your personality and career interests. You shouldn’t rely on the results of these tests by themselves, but the results can be a good starting point for discovering more about yourself and your interests and considering careers you may not have thought of.

Action Verbs: The building blocks of effective cover letters and resumes. These concrete, descriptive verbs express your skills, assets, experience, and accomplishments. Avoid nondescriptive verbs such as “do,” “work,” and forms of the verb “to be.” Instead, begin each descriptive section with an action verb. Almost every resume book has a list of great action verbs to choose from.

Respond, don’t react, to people and situations