Bridging the Gap: Musings of a Career Librarian: June 2012

28 June, 2012

State Small Business Development Centers

27 June, 2012

Small Business Development and Entrepreneurship

As I alluded to in my last post, I am beginning a series of pieces that will provide detailed summaries of information freely available for start ups, small businesses and entrepreneurs. To get this series rolling, I will state the obvious, government resources will/should become your best friend. The grandfather of these is the US Small Business Administration.

Every state has at least on district office for the SBA, and numerous college and university resources guides. My next piece will attempt to provide links state level resources for small businesses, that come from sources other than these federal district office or colleges and universities. Also most states have regional offices within them. I am attempting to link to the state level offices to manage the length of the list... but here are some quick web searching tips:

search for:

name of state AND "small business development"
should result in these regional and college sites
name of state AND "small business grants"
should result in sites focused on funding small business development

The remaining pieces will then get into specific resources for the specific aspects of starting and running a small business: writing a business plan, industry and market analysis, demographic information, competitive intelligence, funding.

I welcome thoughts, suggestions and comments.

20 June, 2012

The F-word entrepreneurs love to hate.

As I mentioned about a week ago I am working on a series of pieces to cover resources for entrepreneurs. These resources will run the gamete from demographic and market research sources to covering the basics for writing a business plan. While I finish these posts up I heard this story yesterday on NPR's All Things Considered, it covers failure and start-ups, how it is more common than we would like but is a driving force for the spirit of the entrepreneur.

14 June, 2012

Long term unemployment rolls on.

This piece from CNN/Money covers the increasing problem of the long term unemployed. This hits close to home, since I have now been out of work for twenty months and counting. Lets recap some of the general advice for dealing with long term unemployment:

consider additional schooling/training
maintain a strong professional network
start you own business

I am friends with one new business owner, and thought I would spend the next few posts discussing resources that any new entrepreneur should be aware of for their budding start-up.

12 June, 2012

A value proposition letter approach.

A value proposition letter is a concept from the business world, and this piece from the Just Jobs Academy explains how to use the concept from stronger cover letters. I like this concept, and it is similar to the advice from the Guerrilla Market book (covered here in parts 1 and 2.)

As my unemployment grows longer I have begun to worry... but my two concerns with this style of letter are

1) will my ideas be used without hiring me?
2) do companies respond to this style yet?

What do others think?

09 June, 2012

Job interviewing strategies.

Now I know if may feel like I cover interviewing a lot and I suppose I do... but for most of us it is the hardest step in securing a job. Second it is one of the most blogged about topics within career development/career services. Well here is another piece I would like to point out and discuss: 10 Best Job Interviewing Strategies.

Image Credit: ithire.org

First the hyperbole, this IS a good list, but the best... is a bit of a stretch. How would you prove that anyway?

I am glad to see two of their 'best' strategies include researching/fully understanding the company and position your are interviewing for. The rest however are common sense, which is not to say they are bad strategies. If you feel you need help with the research don't forget to check out my posts about company research and free resources for career development/research.

What do you think about this list? Good strategies?

07 June, 2012

Networking with LinkedIn

While I and many other career related blogs have extolled the importance of using LinkedIn to network, here is an article with tips on things to avoid when reaching out to for connections. "Who are you and why should we connect?" offers insight to all the options with in LinkedIn's connection wizard and how you should use them to the best effect. It also discusses the four common types of LinkedIn user, and why they might not what to accept your offer to connect.

I personally only connect to people I have worked with in the past, or those who are in my field (librarianship) and in my region (Indiana/Midwest). How do you use LinkedIn?

06 June, 2012

Networking mistakes to avoid.

This article by Ruth Mantell of the Wall Street Journal covers common networking mistakes. Now several of my posts on Social Media have covered the importance of these tools in developing your network... but I feel that I may have neglected to discuss networking and it's importance fully.

Here is the entry from the Riley Guide on Networking, which I reviewed in an early blog entry. As they point out it is consistently cited as the #1 way to get a new job. I can't say that it has directly led to a job opportunity for me personally, but I can say that it has helped keep me connected to my profession during my search for a new job.

If you have stories, good or bad, I would love to hear them.

05 June, 2012

How bad was it? May jobs report...

The May jobs report was released on Friday June 1st, and it appears to be bad. For full details and the possible outcomes I suggest this CNN/Money Magazine article. The keys for me, and I presume many of you, was the official unemployment rate went up to 8.2% and the underemployment rate went up to 14.8%. Hiring, especially in the public sector has not been stellar. I have blogged in the past about these two numbers and what it means to be unemployed. As I have stated in the past I will always try to remain apolitical... but if this trend continues, especially with the European economic troubles, the fall campaign season is going to be unpleasant.

For anyone out there still trying to find work (myself included) just remember to keep your chin up, follow the advice of myself and others regarding putting your best foot forward in all searching/career encounters. If you fully research both the job and company before applying/interviewing it should improve your chances. Please share any stories good or bad about your search or ask questions. Hopefully I can provide advice, perspective and/or words of encouragement. And if I can't maybe others will.

03 June, 2012

Advice from a toddler.

This piece which was originally posted on the Examiner covers some career advice from a toddler. This mother relays some career advice she learned from her child. I particularly like the fourth and fifth points: dust yourself off and play again and keep on learning. All of these tips are useful but these two stick with me.

As I approach my second year of unemployment I try and keep these with me everyday. Look for opportunities to grow and learn both within your profession and outside of it as well. If anyone else has any advice, whether you learned it from a toddler or not... please share in the comments.

01 June, 2012

Making Employers FInd You.

In this piece originally from theundercoverrecruiter.com provides 7 Secrets to Making Employers Find You. When I first encounters this article on a listserv I thought it would make a good piece to blog about myself. As most of you know I try to link to relevant career related articles and blogs and provide my own commentary.

As I read the tips I thought to myself these aren't secrets. They seem geared towards professional careers more then manufacturing and service careers. Also I have written previous blog posts about similar articles dealing with the importance of Social Media on the career search. Now before the comments come, I freely admit and acknowledge that not all of these seven secrets are not all about social media... but more than half of them are directly tied to social media and the others are related.

Now even if we concede that these are oft written about, and maybe even common sense we shouldn't just ignore them. HR personnel do use LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media tools to find and screen candidates. By being proactive as a job seeker you can help improve their opinion of you as a future colleague.

Thoughts?

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