Some subtle changes have been afoot (or not so subtle). With those changes, an entire exchange of adjustments are required in all the many applications and associated social network profiles attached to the website, as well additions and/or corrections. Some of the changes you will find:
Welcome Monique
- Please welcome new author, writer, collaborator, and my daughter, Monique Tinsley, to Administrative Sparkle. She will be bringing a fresh perspective to our young professionals who are starting their careers and/or going to college and finding themselves working in administrative fields while they kick-start their careers.
- She has been included in the Contact tab and she is at work creating her About Monique page so you can know all about her background and experience. In general, you are invited to get to know who she is, what she’s about, and what she hopes to contribute in her writing and articles.
- I hope you will find her to be as fabulous a writer as I do. She has the gift for the “joy of writing” and now she can channel it into entertaining pieces for you.
Continue reading »
1. Craigslist. You can search for jobs in your location in “Jobs,” you can post your resume in “Resumes,” you can post your services in “Services,” “Gigs” also offers some interesting opportunities as well, as well as searching by keyword(s).
2. Be specific. Is there a particular industry or company you would like to look for? Go straight to their website. Most companies have an “Employment” page. If it is by industry, make a list of the companies in your area and find their website for their employment page.
3. Search Google for “Best Companies to Work for in [City] [State]. That’s where you put the city and state you are looking to work. In Sacramento we have a magazine called Sacramento Magazine that does an issue called Great Places to Work. Many major cities will have a similar magazine for the locals to get to know and enjoy their city.
4. Attend Chamber of Commerce events. There are events that you can attend for free and you don’t have to be a member. You will be able to get to know some of the businesses that are out there and what they do. It is also an opportunity to network. Just look up your local Chamber of Commerce’s website “Events” or “Calendar.”
5. Network with the people you know. Let them know that if they hear of any opportunities to keep you on their radar. Or if you like the company or industry they work in, ask them questions on what you need to do to apply.
6. LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals. You can join groups related to what it is that you do, you can list on your page that you are looking for job opportunities. There is a tab for jobs that relate to keywords that you list that will populate on your Home page if anyone lists a job opportunity. There is a “Find Jobs” tab to search job opportunities posted on LinkedIn. In the “More” tab you can find Events.
7. Government. Check out your local government. There is city, county, state, and federal. There is a bit of hoop jumping to these and the process can take some time, but it is well worth pursuing just to add more opportunities to your basket of eggs. You can also go to the USAJobs website. They won’t list everything available to the city, county, state, and federal, but the details of the job will provide you with links you can go to in the different areas of government service. Search Google to go directly to each government’s website by typing in, “State of [state] jobs,” “County of [county] jobs,” “City of [city] jobs,” and so on.
8. State Employment Office. California has a department call Employment Development Department that has offices where you can use their computers to take a typing test (at no charge for the speed test certificate), use their computers to create your resume and cover letter, and provide you with valuable resources for job and training opportunities.
9. Search. Two really great keyword searches is “[City] job banks” or [City] job listings.” These will provide you with a wide range of links to search.
10. Use your college resources. Many colleges have an employment department and being part of their alumni allows you to have access to their resources. Which reminds me, check out local college and business school websites in their employment section. They are not listed in the government sites and you won’t always find them in newspaper ads. I have rarely come across them in the conventional employment searches, so look up their direct websites. The perks with working for a college or university can include continuing education classes.
There is also the “old school” method by checking out your local newspaper, as well as looking at the smaller papers. Sacramento has a great paper call the Sacramento News & Review that is published weekly with information, event listings, and job ads. Also Yahoo and Monster. I wanted to give alternatives that would not necessarily have quite the volume of response, but would not discount these resources. The problem I have with using Yahoo, Monster, and newspaper ads is that, more than ever before, the ads listed are from employment agencies or temp services and wanted to minimize those in your search.
I hope this list gave you some ideas that you would not have thought of and expands your job search base. Jobs aren’t in just one place anymore, being the local newspaper back in the day. They are all over. Part of the responsibility of finding a job is seeking out and researching all your available resources. It is up to the job seeker to do their due diligence in what it takes to find your job.
Ultimately, make sure that you have your resume done well. It does not need to be done “professionally,” but it does have to be clean, organized, and error-free when it comes to spelling and sentence structure. Make it easy for the employer to scan over your resume and quickly assess the skills and experience you have to offer. Also, make every effort to have it reflect in your background what they are looking for in the position you are requesting to fill. With regards to the cover letter. A standard letter is fine as long as you have identified it well to personalize the content for the position, industry, and person you are sending it to.
There are still a lot of opportunities out there. Don’t take it personally if you are not selected. Keep going and keep your confidence intact. I never see it as a competition, its about finding the right opportunity and fit that is as individual as each one of us.
If you know someone who would love some additional ideas to get them motivated, take time to send this over to them. They’ll appreciate it. Also, I encourage your comment to give others ideas on what you have found helpful in searching out job opportunities. And, if you could use someone to look over your resume and give you suggestions, it is a service I provide and would be happy to discuss.
I just finished reading an article about whether or not blog comments are essential to a site, such as this, or not. The biggest issue that comes up from having a comment section on a site has to do with controlling spam, self-advertising, and just random crap. I take a couple of precautions for this. One is that I moderate comments seeing that it reflects what is written, as well as information that contributes to others using a plugin called Diques Comment System. I also use the WP-SpamFree plugin. I have found these two tools to be very helpful in managing the degree of random comments and allows me to focus on the quality comments. It is an extra step, but it also allows me to stay on track and respond in a timely manner.
I don’t plan to discontinue them at this time because I believe there is more than one point of view. This allows others with similar experience in what I write about to contribute or an alternative way of doing the same task. It also allows a person to disagree and detail why, an alternative point of view. I use Feed Reader to manage quite a few blogs that I like to keep up with that provides me lots of ideas and suggestions, and some purely for entertainment. Personally, I find the comments entertaining and informative.
It could be viewed as self-aggrandizing that is if you are merely looking for a “pat on the back.” I appreciate the comments for two reasons, the opportunity for someone to give their feedback and the opportunity for others to provide their experience and suggestions. Personally, I comment on someone’s blog when I feel I have something of value to contribute. Many times, as I generally read through my Feed Reader, I don’t get to view the comments, but can quickly read through the articles. I will click on the article link if I am interested in what comments others have made or would like to contribute a comment myself.
At this point, I don’t believe that a comment section is a “make or break” option for a website. However, I believe it is the quality of the content that dictates a websites traffic. If you provide quality content that is written well, your followers will come. I must admit that I don’t believe I get that much commenting. I don’t know if that is good or bad, but do find my website traffic increasing over time. This I track with both a Google Analytics plugin and FeedBurner. If people find your information interesting, they will keep coming back and will refer others who may enjoy it as well. As you will see on my sidebar, I share many of my favorites to you as I love sharing really great things, opportunities, and ideas. As if you couldn’t tell by the information that I write on here to share.
I would love to know your view on comments, whether you use them or not, and your personal experience with them. So feel free to share your experience on both the commenting and the moderating sides of commenting.
Have you ever had something staring you right in the face and you just don’t get it. It happens when you buy a car. All of a sudden the car you buy is everywhere, before, you rarely saw it. Now they are EVERYWHERE.
Let me just say, I didn’t mean for this to be so long. After going through the information, I really wanted to provide the details of what you would see and get. So with that said, I hope you enjoy the post and check it out for yourself.
That brings me to my challenge for today. I work on three different computers: the office, home, and the laptop. I don’t lug my laptop around with me wherever I go. So I was looking for technology that met three criteria:
- My work has become more collaborative, requiring the necessity to be able to share documents with people who are not on my network or server;
- I would need access to the documents when working on a different computer, once again, not on the network or server; and
- I need to be able to work the document in the program I created it in and others can use as well.
There you have my dilemma.
It dawns on me that I have been reading a lot in my “feeds” about Google Docs. So I dove in to see if this was the answer I had been seeking. I work on resumes and require access to the most current version of the document when preparing a mailing series. The document is in Word, complete with graphic lines and WordArt Text.
Google Docs failed my qualifications. Google Docs strips it down to its basic elements. Looks nice, but anything graphical is eliminated. I suggest this as a simplistic method of sharing information. One great use is for students. Kids who are living between two houses and juggling homework between the two. This option eliminates carrying a flash drive in a bag full of books.
My conclusion for Google Docs is a glorified word processor and hard drive in the clouds. Nothing fancy, but it does store your documents for retrieval wherever you are and available when working on various computers.
My second option, Office Live Workspace. As soon as I executed the desired workspace, the Job Search Workspace, loaded the Word document, and then executed the saved document, I got exactly what I wanted. Microsoft Word executed and the exact replica of the document slid onto my desktop. Now I had to test the second criteria: sharing the document. I sent off the invitation to my client to see if she was able to access her documents.
She was floored with what she was presented. She had her resume and cover letter, but she was also greeted with the following: Interview Preparation Notes, Interview Schedule, Interview Thank You Letter, Job Contacts, and Informational Interview Request. I had just prepared her with the perfect “workspace” to keep everything organized, managed, and manageable. And, she could access all this information anywhere.
She divides her time between the office, the place she lives at during the workweek, and her home 100 miles away. She prefers to keep her travel light, so eliminating the need to transport her computer back and forth every week definitely simplifies her life. However, she does travel with a plethora of flash drives and my work doesn’t have to be included when she is searching for all her job search documentation. I just made her computing life easier, arrangement of all her job search information in her workspace environment, and now whenever she needs changes, I have access to all the necessary information at once.
Needless to say, our previous method of manipulating the information was emailing back and forth. When the next round of resume submissions came, I had to request her most recent information. There just had to be a better way. The “cloud.” Now, we are on the ground running.
In the Workspace I have provided her the following documentation:
- Resumes;
- Cover letters;
- The Interview Schedule, listing the company, job position, the event the company is attending or attended, location, the start time, the end time, job description, the interviewer(s) name(s), the interviewer(s) title(s), and the interviewer(s) phone number(s);
- Interview Preparation Notes where she can contact the department in advance to prepare for her interview. She works for the State and is seeking a promotional position. If you have been asked for an interview, you can request their interview questions in advance and they will email it to you. I know, that was weird for me when I first found out.
- The Interview Thank You Letters;
- Job Contacts where she can enter information from their business cards to send their Thank You Letter and follow up; and
- Information Interview Request. It was an option that she had not even considered and may consider in researching what it might take to get the position she wants.
Office Live Workspace comes with a variety of workspaces that preload with various templates just for that subject. Here are the choices of workspaces and their preloaded templates you have to choose from:
- Class Workspace
- Class List with Contact Information
- Class Notes
- Essay Outline
- Important Dates
- Syllabus
- Essay Workspace
- Paper Milestones
- Team Paper Outline
- Term Paper Template
- Thesis Template
- Event Workspace
- Business Event Flyer
- Directions
- Event Agenda
- List of Invitees
- Notes
- Party Invitation
- To-do List
- Household Workspace
- Announcement Board
- Emergency Contact List
- Grocery List
- Household Event List
- Household To-do List
- Job Search Workspace
- Cover Letter
- Informational Interview Request
- Interview Preparation Notes
- Interview Schedule
- Interview Thank You Letter
- Job Contacts
- Resume
- Meeting Workspace
- List of Attendees
- Meeting Minutes
- Meeting Notes
- Meeting Presentation
- To-do List with Owners
- Project Workspace
- Participants
- Project Notes
- Project Overview Presentation
- Project Post-mortem Presentation
- Project Proposal
- Project Schedule
- To-do list
- School Workspace
- Graduation Requirements
- Notes
- Semester Schedule
- Sports Schedule
- To-do List
- Useful Contacts
- Sports Team Workspace
- Announcements
- Directions
- Season Schedule
- Snack Schedule
- Team Roster
- Study Group Workspace
- Announcements
- Event List
- Meeting Notes
- Report Template
- To-do List with Owners
- Travel Workspace
- Business Trip Itinerary
- Packing List
- Personal Data Form
- Travel Checklist
On the left sidebar you have “My Workspaces” where you can view and select from the various Workspaces you are working with. On the right sidebar you can view “Activity,” “Comments,” and your list of “Shared” persons for the selected Workspace. The preloaded templates use the various Microsoft software applications, but Workspace is not limited to just Microsoft applications. Because you can upload your own documents, you can have access to any of your program documents as long as you have the program application on the computer.
It’s easy and it’s free.
If you found this article interesting, I hope you will share your thoughts and ideas of what you do in resolving sharing issues in an age where sharing information has become essential. How have you simplified your sharing challenges? I look forward to hearing your experience.
I’m always looking for the bigger and better deal. I am a huge advocate of any product or service I use that meets my needs in an exceptional way and I tell everyone I know about it. This article being case in point.
Some history on my mobile use. First of all, that is all I use for both personal and business. At this time, I see no reason to have two or three phones, phone services, or lines to do this. There is the home phone line, the business phone line, the fax line, and the mobile phone. My mobile phone is used for everything except for fax. I actually prefer sending and receiving information via PDF rather than by fax and thus far have not found the need for it. When and if I ever do consider a fax line, I will choose to do that online.
I like to keep things simple and keeping all my communication using one phone and online keeps everything in one place. I still need to consolidate my email addresses to select accounts. No matter what you use, the point is using what works for you, with the features that are important to you, meets your needs, and is cost effective.
As you know by now, there are some services that I absolutely rave about. Some being Sony for my electronics, HP for printing, Finesse for my shampoo and conditioner, Verizon for my mobile phone, Google Reader to keep all my RSS feeds organized, you get my point.
Some services have a timeline for renewing or expiring. These are the times when I start researching what new products or services have become available, as technology is always changing and companies need to keep up with the change. When using Verizon, I tried the BlackBerry. Having used the Palm Treo, I was extremely disappointed in the web interface that BlackBerry provided and found using the web on my phone nearly impossible. So I changed my service (which reduced the cost), replaced my phone, and went without web on my mobile. BlackBerry has since changed how you view the web and now the Palm Treo is not even found in the Verizon store as an option. BlackBerry improved on what was already an outstanding product and eliminated the competition from the store.
I knew that my Verizon contract would be completed soon and considered whether to keep them or find an alternative that met my needs sufficiently. The priority for me in my mobile phone is the ability to have service wherever I am. I’ve used various services, AT&T and Metro PCS. When using AT&T years ago, I wasn’t able to get service at a location where someone on Verizon could, and the location was in an area of the office where I worked. So I thought I would switch to Verizon. I even loved it then. When I was looking to cut on my expenses, I switched to Metro PCS. When I moved to Minnesota from California, Metro PCS wasn’t an option. Turns out it was only in California at the time. So I switched back to Verizon.
Fast forward to NOW. My Verizon contract is up and I started researching carriers. I thought about going back to Metro PCS considering cost and the fact that I don’t travel like I used to. The reception and service was a little spotty, but it met my needs in reliable communication. Researching Metro PCS, I discovered that they had expanded their service and gave them a second look. Then a friend suggested a service that I hadn’t yet heard about, Straight Talk, a registered trademark of Tracfone Wireless, being supplied and distributed by Walmart.
I’m a predominately visual, see, and touch person. So off to Walmart I went to talk to a customer service rep to get the details, while comparing all the other service providers. Although the Straight Talk and PCS Metro appear to be comparable in many ways, there are two things that stand out. Dependability of coverage: it appears Straight Talk is ahead of Metro PCS on this one. Phone selection: Straight Talk is still very limited in your selection of phones and Metro PCS has included a BlackBerry in their selection. The cost: They both seem to be pretty much equal.
I did make the switch to Straight Talk, which is a month-to-month provider with no contracts. I have found the dependability in my calling on target and no issues there. The phone I bought was the most expensive, a Samsung with a QWERTY keyboard, has a bit of weight to it, fits nicely into my hand, and slides open with ease. I need to read up on the “lock” feature and use that feature as you will find that because the cover buttons protrude above the faceplate a bit, your phone will be making calls or rotating through the features if placed in your purse or pockets.
So, with a week in, I love my phone and I love my service. Like I said the phone selection is still pretty limited, but wouldn’t be surprised to see it evolve over the next year. The BlackBerry and much talked about Droid phones are a lot more fun, have all the bells and whistles, but if you are looking for something that stands out in giving you the basic necessities of what you need with calling, texting, picture texting, and web capabilities, this will fit the bill.
I do need to make one other note. There appears to be a limitation on the amount of phone numbers you can store in your “Contacts.” There are five Groups to choose from: No Groups, Business, Colleague, Family, Friends. In saving contacts, it appears that I can only store ten contacts in each group. That would allow for a total of 50 if I am correct with that. This generally wouldn’t be a problem for me, but, when using my Verizon, I could save the number without considering how often I really need to access it. Also, if someone calls me from a saved number, their name displays on my phone. So this particular limitation can be a bit annoying. The one perk is I don’t have to remind myself to go through my phone on occasion to clean up my phone directory. Who knows, maybe this is something they will change in the near future.
If you are looking to reduce your cost and are able to live without some fancy bells and whistles, this is a great option to look into. I’m saving $300 a year and access to the Web when I need it.
Would love to hear your input on who your provider is, why you like them, why you don’t, phone and provider features you can’t live without, and any thoughts you may have on this new provider Straight Talk and others.
You almost have to love at the fight going on between AT&T and Verizon!
