Researching organizations you’ve applied to is a good way to use your time while waiting for them to contact you about an interview. While it’s good to know what a company does when you apply, there is plenty more to research to show a hiring manager that you are truly interested in working with their organization. Without overcomplicating it, you’ll want to get organized, have a methodical process for researching one organization after another, and catalogue your information

As you apply and prepare for an interview for your next better paying job, it’s probably giving you some ideas about future career plans. In the same way that concrete action helps you figure something out in a way that simply thinking about it can’t do, getting and starting a job will give you ideas for planning a career in a way that thinking about career planning without action cannot. Along with that, this post overviews Chapter 1 of the CareerForce Creative Job Search gu

While the resources in the previous post about interviews provide a lot of good advice to prepare for interviews, it’s important to be aware of common faux pas in job interviewing that could negate all the hard work you put into getting an interview. You don’t want to unwittingly commit an error that eliminates you from further consideration and then realize afterward that you did something wrong without realizing it. So, here’s a post and some helpful sources to inform you a

This post walks through an example of using a resume builder to help someone who is making themselves a resume for the first time. It documents the steps with many screenshots, so despite the length of this post, much of it is in pictures. Using a resume builder is a good way to both learn what information to put on a resume and see how a resume should look. - Complete the step-by-step process of building a new resume - Learn what information to include

Most of us, at least a few times, have waited until our resume needed an update before realizing we should have kept better notes about our work earlier. After reading this post, you’ll know why it’s advantageous to make notes about your work on a regular basis and update your resume at least quarterly to ensure you don’t forget to document anything that could be helpful to tell a future hiring manager about. You’ll also know a good technique for thinking about translating wo

Using the jobs portal on your job seeker website is a good place to start but certainly not the only place for you to search for your next, better paying job. There are many different ways to look for work; some are generally more effective than others, but each has its advantages. More effective ways often involve a higher degree of human connection. Employing more than one technique will probably help you reach your desired result sooner, so consider at least three to use w

With all the work you’ve done now to build a solid professional portfolio and make meaningful connections with others in the world of work, it’s time to look for your better paying job! If you know exactly what you’re after, that’s great! You can use the techniques in the post that will come next about how to pursue the job that you pick from this post, if you haven’t already picked one on your own. For today, review the list of jobs and descriptions below and note their pay,

Networking is an important ingredient to professional success that can be invisible if you’re not aware of it. When you look at a person, you might not know about different connections they have – people with powers and capabilities that this person can tap into by asking those in their network for a favor, when needed. As one person, your reach and abilities are inherently limited; there’s too much to learn to be an expert in everything, and you don’t have the time to do eve

Congratulations, the right people at your target organization have noticed that your portfolio is a good match for the role they’re filling and now they want to talk to you! Today, you’ll learn about basic considerations for succeeding in job interviews. Reading this post and taking the recommended actions will help you have a strong showing at your interview, which will greatly enhance your appeal to the hiring manager as the right person for the job. The main topics for thi

Applying for a job is usually the point at which you introduce yourself to a prospective employer in hopes of getting to work there. It’s how you try to make an organization aware of you and your desire to contribute. Your application is the gateway to getting the right people at your target organization to review your cover letter, your resume, and your LinkedIn profile. While information on your application will generally reflect what you have on those three items, your app

Like your LinkedIn profile, a cover letter is another opportunity to tell a hiring manager more about yourself than your resume alone conveys. It’s a chance to show the hiring manager how what you like to do and are good at can provide meaningful value to their organization. Your cover letter should include why you’re interested in the organization and how you think you can help that organization; this is something that your LinkedIn profile and your resume don’t address spec

A great way to boost your visibility to employers in our increasingly digital world is through creating a LinkedIn profile for yourself. This post will help you create a strong profile that gives you a professional image. Think of your LinkedIn profile as being a broader, more publicly visible version of your resume to show the world of work what you have to offer. Here are the main topics for this post: - Getting through the setup steps - Creating a qua

Now that you’ve completed some self-assessments about your skills, interests, and employment readiness, it’s time to start working on documentation you’ll put in front of prospective employers when applying for a better paying job. Today’s post will focus on creating a resume and will be about double the length of a typical ALRS post, so feel free to spend two days on this topic if needed to digest all the content and complete actions. Here are the main topics for this post:

Along with the work you’ve done from the previous two posts to assess your skills and interests, CareerForce offers another assessment called the Skills Matcher to assess your level of expertise in 40 different skills. In addition to better understanding your strongest skills to share with prospective employers, this assessment can point out less developed skills that need improvement to help you gain better employment. After completing this assessment, review your full list

Life is too short to be spent doing work you don’t like. While we all need to pay our bills and save for our futures, and while no job is perfect (even people doing their dream job don’t like it some days), we spend too much time working to accept being miserable there. If you can get a job that’s in the top 20% of what you’re good at, top 20% of what you like, and top 20% of what you can get paid for your skills, that’s a win! Not that you shouldn’t aim higher than that goin

The next step to take toward finding a better paying job is to compare the skills you already have to the skills required for other jobs. Today’s CareerForce assessment is intended to help you compare skills in your current job to skills required for other jobs; jobs that are in demand, jobs that best align with your current job’s required skillset, and comparing your current job skillset to a career of interest, if you have one in mind already. After considering this, it’s a

Continuing the Job Seeker series from the previous two posts, using CareerForce assessments as examples, this post will guide you through the CareerForce Employment Readiness Assessment. This is a simple 12-question survey that makes today’s assignment seem light. However, be sure to plan on time to review the results of your assessment, as CareerForce makes some helpful recommendations based on your answers. Many recommendations will have links to other pages that you shoul

Now that you’ve set up a job seeker account to help you land a better paying job, spend the next several days exploring the different resources available to you. As shown in the two pictures below, start by logging into your account and then look for job search tools: Plan to spend one day on each relevant item listed; for example, those using a CareerForce account should take one day for the Employment Readiness Assessment, one day for the Compare Skills assessment, and so o

This post begins a series of concrete steps for you to take toward finding a better paying job, the first major milestone of the ALRS! You should plan to spend about 15 minutes setting up an account with the economic development agency in your state; the links for all 50 states are provided at the bottom of this post, which will go through setting up an account with Minnesota’s CareerForce as an example. Why Set Up an Account Setting up an account like this gives you access t