Career Tips Guides

There is an end to the job search tunnel!

It has been a long, hard road: layoff, unemployment, fear, depression, and occasionally panic or despair. Beyond the trauma of losing your job stretches the uncomfortable, stress filled nightmare of looking for work. Emotionally reeling from the blows of joblessness, you picked yourself up and cast yourself out into the mind-numbing, ego-destructive, judgmental world of the job seeker.

Now the nightmare is over. The offer has been made and accepted: you are going back to work.

Do you feel elated? At times, probably so. Do you also feel deflated? Again, probably so. When we are actively involved in looking for work, we tend to feel that once we are offered a position, all will be right with the world, the long-borne burden will be off our shoulders, and our mental outlook will be bright and positive.

Don’t be surprised or upset if you don’t experience an unalloyed sense of joy and optimism. It is not unusual to encounter feelings of disappointment and apathy, Your family and friends are totally delighted for you, so you develop feelings of guilt for not being as happy and relieved as everyone else appears.

Be kind to yourself. Become aware of what you are experiencing so you can accept it for what it is and become your own primary source of support. Consider these events:

1. You have just been through a harrowing ordeal that required you to marshal all your resources to focus on one goal: finding employment. You harnessed your anxiety by pouring out adrenaline to keep yourself active and fighting fit. You buried your concerns about other aspects of your life in order to concentrate on one single priority.

Now that you have attained your goal, there is no more focus for your emotional and physiological energies, they simply swirl around in disarray. When such an all-encompassing goal is accomplished, there is suddenly a temporary vacuum. For the moment, you don’t know what to do with yourself, a predicament that leads to mood swings, a sense of loss, a vague but powerful restlessness that is as unpleasant as it is unexpected.

2. Although most of us abhor the agonies and drudgery of looking for work, there are emotional elements that are provocative and pleasant. We may hate being jobless and yearn to have a known routine and a specific position, but the unknown with its endless possibilities and immense potential can be seriously seductive. No one job is ever going to fulfill all of our fantasies. It can only circumscribe our limitless dreams.

It is rather like planning a major vacation trip. The excitement is in deciding where to go and what to see, as if the whole world were our personal oyster. Once we have selected our destiny and then completed our trip, we look back in enjoyment and treasure the memories but never quite recapture the level of excitement of that initial anticipation.

Confronting the unavoidable limitations that any one position will impose on our inner vision leads to a nagging sense of having been cheated out of some of our expectations. No matter how wonderful the Christmas present we receive may be, it never quite matches the thrill of seeing it sitting under the tree, brightly wrapped and incredibly desirable because it could be absolutely anything.

3. A period of time without work destroys much of the ordinary structure of our lives. Despite the unexpected free time it provides, we tend not to make productive use of much of it. One reason we lose time is our emotional distress which leaves us drained, listless, and disconnected. Another cause is that there are no time pressures or deadlines. If we don’t get it done today, there will be time tomorrow. We no longer have to squeeze in extra chores between the demands of work and our everyday lives so we don’t fit them in at all.

If we reproach ourselves for our lack of action and poor motivation, we rationalize that our energy needs to be conserved for the demands of job search. Once the job hunt ends, we are confronted with the knowledge that we have squandered vast amounts of time and will now have to take action when our available time will be limited by work demands. Guilt and self-disgust further deflate our mood.

Give yourself time to gradually wind down. Allow yourself to get rid of the tension by refocusing on relaxation: sleeping, exercising, shopping, walking, meditating, just doing nothing-whatever seems to work for you. Accept that your intermittent distress is a natural consequence of your unemployment experience.

Watch your changing emotions with understanding and affection. View your inner turmoil with patience and compassion and with the sure knowledge that your own industrious efforts led to your success and have earned you a well-deserved period of self-indulgence. As you gradually regain your physical and emotional balance, you can start to truly bask in the enjoyment of reconnecting with the world of work.

A Licensed Psychologist and Rehabilitation Counselor, Dr. Bola developed emotional coping strategies and job search skills for clients and has served as a recognized Vocational Expert in court. Visit her at: http://www.unemploymentblues.com

Career planning while you are still in college has many advantages. Ideally, you should start your career planning by choosing the right kind major suitable for the career that you have chosen. So, we start this discussion by identifying the job that is best for you.

Identifying The Job That Suits You

This first step calls for organized thinking on your part. Basically, at this stage, you will be full of ideas and have a wide range of fields to choose from, making your choice more difficult. Here are some crucial steps you must take to identify your ideal career:

1. Most people make the mistake of thinking about all of their options at the same time. As a consequence, all of them appear attractive. But you should consider whether you possess the right attitude and what subjects you were best in when you are in college.

2. Evaluate each option one at a time, discarding those that may not be financially or personally rewarding. Have clarity of thought by assigning the most weight to those that match your attitude and flair.

3. Give serious thought to how you want to spend the rest of your life. For example, a teacher’s job entails the least physical work and lots of vacation time, while a traveling salesman’s job requires you to travel for long stretches at a time.

4. Consult campus career counselors who will help you identify and improve your aptitude in your weak areas.

5. Setting priorities in life is important. You may find that your parents are your best resource in this area.

Acquiring And Honing Your Skills

Your next step is to arm yourself with appropriate skill sets:

1. Choose a major which will best prepare you for the career that you have chosen. For example, a career as an accountant calls for formal education in those subjects. You may want to start with accounting subjects for careers such as Financial Controller or CPA.

2. Subscribe to industry journals to keep abreast with current events in your field. Many associations have student chapters and enrolling in these gives you many opportunities to interact with industry leaders.

3. Submit an article to industry journals or participate in seminars. Take a part time job that will add to your experience.

4. Studying hard and getting top grades are a must.

Getting Ready For The Final Step

It is when you are in your final year or semester in college that you begin the real quest for a job. Now is the time that you will find out where you really stand in the job market.

1. Gather job advertisements in your focus area; separate the ‘must-have’ and ‘preferable’ skills within them. This shows whether you are lacking skills, and if yes, in what areas.

2. Only a good resume gets interviews. An HR professional, student counselor and Internet resources can help you develop one. Nevertheless, creating a good resume is about successfully presenting and highlighting your skills, abilities and experience.

3. Attending interviews is another major test. Learn interview etiquette, be crystal clear in your thoughts and speech and if at all possible attend mock interviews conducted by your college career office.

Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution’s Six Sigma Online offers online six sigma training and certification classes for lean six sigma, black belts, green belts, and yellow belts.

As a medical transcriptionist, I do get asked several times a month, how I got started in this business. So many people nowadays want to work from home, especially mothers with young children. That’s the primary reason I started my home business ten years ago, so I could be there for my daughter. I didn’t want someone else taking care of her after school instead of me.

It’s really not hard to start a medical transcription business. The start-up costs are low compared to many other home-based businesses.

You need a form of education, via home study courses or by attending your local community college. You do NOT need a degree in medical transcription to start a business either.

In a short amount of time, usually nine months or less, you can be working from the comfort of your own home, just like me.

You will need some equipment, such as a computer, a printer, a transcriber, and some reference books. All of which can be purchased second hand if need be. The latest and greatest equipment is not necessary to get started.

Now, there are some special skills you will need, outside of the education, which include:

* Excellent grammar skills

* Good Listening Skills,

* Basic computer skills with a word processing program

* Research Skills

* Ability to type - your speed will increase with experience

* Must be detail oriented

* Ability to work on your own

* Ability to maintain work deadlines and be a self-motivator

You will also need some computer programs such as a medical spellchecker and a word expander utility to cut down on the amount of actual typing you do. Some programs, such as Microsoft Word