job & interview

7 Reasons Job Seekers Should Volunteer

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7 Reasons Job Seekers Should Volunteer</h1>
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Plus, the best websites for finding local volunteer opportunities.</h2>
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Help your job search by helping others.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">When it comes to searching for a new job, almost everyone thinks about</span><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;"> </span><a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/06/26/how-long-is-too-long-for-a-resume" style="color: #005ea6; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/06/26/how-long-is-too-long-for-a-resume">building a résumé</a><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;"> and LinkedIn profile, networking in person and online and responding to advertised positions. Of course, these are all critical elements of your job hunt.</span></div>
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There is another, less obvious thing you should be doing: volunteering for an organization, group or cause in which you believe. Here’s why:</div>
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<b>1. </b><b>Volunteering can multiply your networking opportunities. </b>You will come in contact with people you’ve never met, and yet you'll immediately have something in common with them. As you build personal relationships, there will be a natural inclination to share information about your individual circumstances and aspirations. You may well be surprised to learn who else your newfound friend knows, or ways in which you may be able and willing to help each other.</div>
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<b>2. </b><b>Volunteering provides opportunities for you to use your skills and gain new ones. </b>When you align your volunteer activities with the things you normally do in the workplace, you can apply your talents in new areas. This can prevent you from becoming rusty – especially <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/06/03/how-to-find-support-when-job-searching-while-unemployed" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/06/03/how-to-find-support-when-job-searching-while-unemployed">if you're unemployed</a>. And when you take on new challenges, you will have the ability to turn your weaknesses into strengths as you build new skills and gain experience.</div>
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<b>3. </b><b>Volunteering can help build your </b><b>résumé</b><b>. </b>If you are employed, your résumé should have a section toward the bottom titled “Volunteer Activities.” If you are unemployed, and you volunteer at a given organization for a reasonable number of hours per week or month, it is fair to put that organization at the top of your “Professional Experience” section. Your job title can include the word "volunteer" to make clear what you do and that your compensation is nonmonetary. For example: “Volunteer Webmaster" and “Volunteer Bookkeeper."</div>
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<b>4. </b><b>Volunteering can defeat your sense of isolation.</b> If you are like many others, the need to <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/rankings">get a job</a> – and therefore the search itself – can come to dominate your life. If you are new to a community, the sense of not knowing anyone, or not knowing your way around (literally and figuratively) can be overpowering. Plus, money can be scarce, particularly if you're unemployed and searching, and you may pull back from many of your normal activities. If you’ve been job hunting for a long period of time, you may feel that you’ve exhausted your normal set of contacts, your mood may darken and you may feel isolated and depressed. Whatever the reason is that you find yourself at home alone all day, by volunteering some of your time, you will have a place to go and an opportunity to cast off your sense of overwhelming isolation.</div>
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<b>5. </b><b>Volunteering says something positive about you as a person. </b>When you volunteer, you project yourself as someone concerned with a cause greater than your own personal needs. You are seen to be a person who gives back to your community, profession or cause. And, most of all, you are seen as a person who goes above and beyond what is required of you. If you are unemployed, your volunteer activities can show you aren’t <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2014/04/17/the-psychology-of-being-fired" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2014/04/17/the-psychology-of-being-fired">just vegetating</a>. Instead, those activities become the answer to the question, “What have you been doing since you lost your job?” These traits are all highly valued by employers.</div>
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<b>6. </b><b>Volunteering enables you to make a difference in the lives of others. </b>Our busy schedules rarely permit us to do what we'd like to further the work of the organizations or causes we care about. Yet when you take the time to volunteer, you impact the lives of so many people who are benefited by the group you serve. Your time and talent count!</div>
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<b>7. </b><b>Volunteering can lead to full-time work at the place where you’ve demonstrated your skills and commitment. </b>As a volunteer in an organization, you get to know who’s who and what’s what. You can develop a relationship with the leaders and staff, and you are often among the first to know of – and be considered for – paid opportunities as they arise. After all, when your work and commitment to the cause are known and respected, what else does a hiring authority have to know before thinking of you as that ideal “fit” candidate?</div>
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It's worth seriously thinking about what you want to do and what volunteer opportunities are available to you. Consider how you can align your volunteer work with your “real” work activities. When looking for options, it is worth searching these sites:</div>
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<li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.9em; text-indent: -0.9em;"><b>VolunteerMatch </b>(volunteermatch.org): This site asks you about areas in which you are interested, such as advocacy and human rights, animals, arts and culture and more. Enter your city and state, and the site will provide a list of volunteering opportunities that are relevant to you.</li>
<li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.9em; text-indent: -0.9em;"><b>LinkedIn</b> (volunteer.linkedin.com):<b> </b>In addition to listing <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/06/04/how-to-become-a-networking-superstar" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: null">networking opportunities</a> and job posts, LinkedIn also displays volunteer opportunities. In the advanced search, you can simply fill in your zip code and specify a geographic radius within which you are willing to travel.</li>
<li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.9em; text-indent: -0.9em;"><b>Idealist </b>(idealist.org):<b> </b>This is an excellent site for the nonprofit community for both paid and volunteer activities. You input keywords for things you might be interested in, such as teaching, arts or computer aided design. For location, you can enter your metro area, supply your city and state or give your zip code.</li>
<li style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0.9em; text-indent: -0.9em;"><b>SimplyHired</b> (simplyhired.com): This site aggregates both jobs and volunteer opportunities from all over the internet. For the keywords, simply enter “volunteer jobs,” and then fill in your location. Once again, a variety opportunities will present themselves.</li>
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<a href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/08/05/7-reasons-job-seekers-should-volunteer" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></div>

7 Reasons Job Seekers Should Volunteer

7 Reasons Job Seekers Should Volunteer Plus, the best websites for finding local volunteer opportunities. Help your job search by help...

How to Avoid the Résumé Black Hole

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How to Avoid the Résumé Black Hole</h1>
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What you should know about applicant tracking systems, and how to get them to work in your favor.</h2>
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Where did it go? Keep your online application in orbit – not lost in space.</div>
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<i style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">I’ve applied online to numerous positions, and I never get a response. My résumé just gets swallowed up in some black hole, and it never even gets seen by a recruiter or </i><a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/02/27/court-a-hiring-manager-without-seeming-like-a-creep" style="color: #005ea6; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/02/27/court-a-hiring-manager-without-seeming-like-a-creep"><i>hiring manager</i></a><i style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.5;">.</i></div>
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This a common complaint from frustrated job seekers.</div>
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Imagine, however, that you are on the other side of the hiring desk. You advertise a job and receive anywhere from 50 to 200 or more applicants. Each submits a two-page résumé with dense prose depicting complex sets of skills and experiences. That’s easily 100 to 400 pages to sift through in order to find an initial set of 10 or 15 candidates who you might want to contact. Then, remember that every human resources staffing person typically deals with 15 to 30 job requisitions at any given time, so he or she needs to contend with literally thousands of pages of résumés.</div>
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That's a daunting task, which is made even more complex with the need to document Equal Employment Opportunity Commission compliance and to track candidates' interactions with various HR staff, hiring managers and department personnel.</div>
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The solution is known as an applicant tracking system, or ATS. This kind of software has become integral to the hiring process for companies of all sizes, as well as for external executive <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/07/30/3-types-of-recruiters-and-how-to-impress-them" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/07/30/3-types-of-recruiters-and-how-to-impress-them">recruiters and headhunters</a>. Say you're applying for a job on the company website. There's a good chance you're actually accessing the outward-facing portion of an externally run ATS site that's branded to look just like the company site.</div>
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There are many companies that provide hundreds of competing of ATS software products for employers. Some are simple and stand alone, while others are far more complex with greater abilities. One of the significant players in this arena is iCIMS, with more than 2,000 corporate clients. Susan Vitale, the iCIMS chief marketing officer, spoke with this author to debunk myths that surround the supposed "résumé black holes.” She also provides valuable tips for job seekers about how to best gain the attention of internal HR personnel and external recruiters.</div>
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Vitale contends that ATS companies like iCIMS make every effort to meet candidates’ needs for convenience. For example, they often allow one to submit information using their login from social media sites, such as Facebook, Google Plus and LinkedIn.</div>
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This way, she points out, “a candidate doesn’t have to create yet another username and password.” She provides the assurance that logging in using social media credentials does not give the ATS the ability to search one’s timeline or other posts.</div>
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When asked if <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/02/18/7-tips-to-ace-a-phone-interview" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: null">screening questions</a> posed by ATS systems automatically knock out certain candidates, here's how she replied: “Absolutely not! It totally varies. Some companies use the screening questions as knockout questions, and some do not.” Vitale points out that – particularly in regard to EEOC compliance – companies have to define requirements of positions and show that they didn't pick a candidate because he or she didn’t meet the minimum qualifications.</div>
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For example, perhaps a job requires a certain certification. If a candidate doesn’t indicate that he or she has that certification, he or she could automatically be put in a "doesn't meet minimum qualifications" category.</div>
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Vitale acknowledges that it is “uncomfortable” for applicants when companies require an answer to the salary question in order to submit a résumé. She understands that people, “don’t want to go higher than they should or lower than they need to.” Industry best practice today is for companies to provide an option for candidates to decline to answer any screening question, but each company decides for itself what questions to pose and whether or not answers are mandatory for a candidate to be considered.</div>
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According to Vitale, these points are key to making the ATS system best understand candidates' résumés as intended.</div>
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<b>1. Any ATS system these days can easily work with Word or PDF file types</b>. It will parse out key pieces of information and populate the database with your name, address, skills, <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2013/09/18/5-red-flags-in-your-job-history--and-how-to-combat-them" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2013/09/18/5-red-flags-in-your-job-history--and-how-to-combat-them">employment history</a>and relevant keywords. It will also preserve the résumé in the form you submit to be viewed by the recruiter.</div>
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<b>2.</b> <b>Lines, text boxes and color can be be handled by almost every ATS today</b>. Use these elements judiciously.</div>
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<b>3.</b> <b>Be careful about using graphics.</b> Different ATS systems vary in their abilities to deal with images. Regardless, words embedded in graphics won’t be recognized or parsed out. If you submit a graphic-heavy résumé, it may lose the visual appeal for which you strive. Instead, it may be seen as gibberish on the other side.</div>
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<b>4. ATS systems look for certain items to be in particular places on your</b> <b>résumé.</b> For example, your name and contact information should be at the top – not placed in a vertical text box along the side of the page. Use appropriate headings for the various sections of your résumé and have them formatted logically.</div>
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<b>5.</b> <b>Don’t try to game the system</b>. For example, don’t needlessly repeat the same <a class="" href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/11/05/why-you-dont-want-to-pack-your-resume-with-keywords" style="color: #005ea6; text-decoration: none;" title="Link: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2012/11/05/why-you-dont-want-to-pack-your-resume-with-keywords">keywords in your résumé</a> just to get a better keyword-scoring match. It doesn’t work that way. It may be noticed, but recruiters generally take a negative view of this practice.</div>
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<b>6.</b> <b>Make sure your </b><b>résumé</b><b> demonstrates that you are well suited for the positions for which you are applying</b>. It is not the fault of the ATS if you are continually rejected for positions for which you don’t qualify.</div>
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<b>7. Use common sense</b>. Don’t apply for widely different positions within the same company. And don't go for positions at significantly different expertise or experience levels within the same company, either. Keep in mind that your entire profile will be seen by anyone in the company who is looking at your résumé.</div>
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Happy hunting!</div>
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<a href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/08/12/how-to-avoid-the-resume-black-hole" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">View the original article here</a></div>

How to Avoid the Résumé Black Hole

How to Avoid the Résumé Black Hole What you should know about applicant tracking systems, and how to get them to work in your favor. W...

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