If your skills have become outdated in a shrinking market, you must be prepared to retrain if you are to succeed in finding new employment. Progress will not stand still simply to accommodate your need for a job, and there is no Divine Right to employment if you are not prepared to put some effort into it.

You may feel you are too old to learn new tricks. The simple truth is that thousands of people are ding exactly this throughout the country, and the opportunities for retaining or catching up with lost education are expanding all the time. Don’t be put off by your age or use this as an excuse: you are never too old to learn - it might just take you a little longer.

Deciding to knuckle down to update or expand your skills is largely a matter of adopting the right attitude, but deciding precisely what skills should be updated or expanded has to be researched very thoroughly, and has a crucial part to play in your campaign to find the right job.

If you know your hopes of getting back into your old type of employment are slim, this is the time to begin putting your future into sharper focus and to start planning with a clearer understanding of what you are trying to achieve. To do this you will need to build on your past.

Two at Once

To juggle two objects, you first toss one into the air to about eye level, then toss number two. The same with life. Pick any two areas of focus, and only try to tackle one at a time to establish goals and a system for it in your life. Then work in the second area. And just as juggling wouldn’t work if the wrist puts too much or too little force into the toss, causing one or both objects to go too high or too low, the same can happen in life. If established goals are too high or low, not compatible with one another and your lifestyle, that juggling act doesn’t stand much chance.

For instance, if fictitious person, John Wentworth, wants to complete a doctoral program, yet only earns minimum wage, he may need financial assistance with his continued education to balance the act. Otherwise, John could have to work over time and take on a second job to fill gaps and pay bills. He may miss out on valuable family time with his wife and young son and become stressed out and exhausted. Not to mention his grades could take a dive! Student loans, grants and work-study could be some possible solutions in this case.

Where is juggling help? Instead of The Instant Jugglers’ Manual, there are many resources available to help with juggling career, family and education. Local colleges are a good place to start.

Not Being Able To Juggle In A Third

Ready to add a third factor into the equation? Concentrate on throwing ball number #3 and do not even try to catch ball #2, advises The Instant Jugglers’ Manual. Or once you have two areas of focus pretty much underway, say your career and family, add the third – education.

Get help planning your education into the mix with resources. Head to your local educational center or public libraries for help. Don’t get left dropping – or not juggling – the ball.

There are thousands of Java Scripts freely available for downloading. These range from Drop Down menus to Snow Effects, from Mouse-over Effects to Digital Real-Time Clocks.

Java Scripts are useful for introducing limited animation to your web pages without the download times associated with Macromedia Flash animations. Your page tracking and Google Adsense tracking also use Java Scripts.

People see JavaScript programming as a new and highly paid career. Universities supply the courses because the demand is there and it’s a good way for the university to make money. As these qualified programmers come onto the jobs market, the number of programmers is going to exceed the number of vacancies and salaries will fall.

When companies can outsource their programming needs to low cost countries like India and China, they are unlikely to want very many highly paid programmers on their rolls.

If you do learn JavaScript you can earn money on one of the freelancing sites, by bidding on various projects. Be aware that you will not be able to compete on price with programmers from India or China, so compete on quality and completion times. The reputation you establish early on will stay with you for a long time, so make sure it is an impeccable one.

The latest version of Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system blocks JavaScript by default, because this is seen as a possible source of security breaches. Most users have no idea how to allow JavaScript to run on the web pages they view.

JavaScript does have some disadvantages. It works differently on different browsers and it increases the download time of your pages.

Against these disadvantages are its advantages. There are sites where you can download scripts for free and many sites where you can learn at least the rudiments of JavaScript programming without paying a cent.

Check out http://www.java-programming-today.info for more information.

Why are so many of us unhappy at work? There are probably as many reasons as there are unhappy people, but there are a few underlying factors which influence many of us. Think back to your school days and the careers advice you were given by teachers, advisors and your parents. Just how useful was it?

My own memories are of a half hour session with a teacher at the age of 14, when I said I wanted to be a nurse, because it was the first thing that came into my head, influenced by my parents’ opinions. When I was 18, I had another half hour session with the same teacher, who expected me still to be planning a career in nursing. What was your experience?

Parents often influence their children by trying to live their own dreams through their offspring, especially if their kids have similar talents to their own. This might work if the children share their parents’ dreams, but that isn’t always the case. Another common scenario occurs when parents are concerned for their children’s financial security and encourage them to “do something sensible”, by getting a job in an area where there will always be a demand, or where jobs are still considered “for life”.  It can be difficult to go against parents’ wishes, especially if they have provided support, either financial or in the form of board and lodging, whilst you were at college. Some families have strong traditions in a particular field – everyone in our family does medicine or teaching, for example. Did you feel pushed into a career by your family?

How can a 14 year old, or an 18 year old for that matter, know what he or she wants to do for the next 50 years? In fact, how can anyone know they want to follow a particular career, if they’ve never tried it? The answer, of course, is that they can’t be sure – at least not one hundred percent sure. So, whether you are just starting out or contemplating a career change, it’s a good idea to try out your new job before committing yourself to years of training.

Obviously, it isn’t always possible to try out exactly what you’d be doing. No-one is going to let you perform surgery or defend an alleged bank robber if you haven’t got the training and experience. So you must do the next best thing. This will vary according to the career in question, but the aim is to find out as much as you possibly can before signing up for an expensive course of study.

There are several things you can do: first of all, read everything you can find about the job, including careers leaflets, books and relevant websites. If after this you are still interested, two of the most important steps you can take are: getting as close to the job as possible and talking to people already doing it.

Work experience and work shadowing are usually only offered to students, but that is no reason to reject the possibility if you are older. Contact the HR department of a company which specialises in the area which interests you and explain that you are planning a career change and would like to find out more about the job. Ask if it is possible to spend some time with them gaining experience or shadowing a professional. Alternatively, ask if it would be possible to meet someone doing the job or if the company has open days.

In some cases, if you have experience, say in administration or computing, it might be worth considering applying for a temporary job within the organisation to help you reach a decision. This will at least give you an insider’s view of the career, even if you can’t experience it first hand. In other situations, volunteering would be a good way to find out what a job involves, for example if you want to be a surgeon, working on a hospital ward as a volunteer will give you an insight into medicine and bring you into contact with doctors and medical students. If you are able to volunteer over a reasonable amount of time – it doesn’t have to be a full-time commitment, just a regular one – you will get to know people and, in the example above, you may eventually be able to observe an operation.

No-one can ever guarantee that a career choice will be the right one and you mustn’t forget that your interests will change over time. So be prepared to change careers at some stage. However, if you do your research thoroughly, you will have a much greater chance of finding a job you really enjoy.

      In the changing job market you must both anticipate changes as well as prepare in an organized yet flexible manner.

       Flexibility , training , education  and  most important preparation with all of these factors  as well as psychological preparation  of yourself and your mindset .

      What are these changes that are occurring for you to constantly observe and anticipate in your ongoing preparation in this ever changing  employment market ?

             1)  Technology will continue to advance and will affect how, when and where business is done; the pace of work: and how people communicate.

             2)   The global economy will continue to result in some jobs being outsourced to other countries and will lead to more mergers, and management changes.  Resourcefulness, adaptability, and efficiency will be essential for workers to succeed.

            3)   International time differences will demand flexible hours and possibly extra hours to communicate to conduct business.

            4)   A complex and diverse workforce will require workers to be flexible, respect differences, and work together to increase productivity.

             5)   Workers can expect to change jobs about ten times during their working career.
Managing one’s career is a must.
  
            6)   Small businesses will prosper, and home based businesses and services will multiply.  Entrepreneurial skills and attitudes will be important.

             7)  The fastest growing occupations are computers , preventive health care , and other health and human services  , such as registered nursing , social work , police work and after September 12 security .

             Most of the fastest-growing occupations will require specific post-secondary education, on-the-job training, or a bachelor’s degree. Education and training will be especially critical.-

        To gain a competitive edge, today’s job seekers must know about changes like these and demonstrate a positive attitude that shows that they are ready, willing, and able to take on these challenges.

        There are nine success strategies to follow to help you achieve your full career potential.  These success strategies profoundly affect career success at every step/

             1)   Positive thinking and behavior
             2 )  Visualizations
             3 )  Positive self talk
             4)   Affirmation self-talk
             5)   Dynamic goal setting
             6 )   Positive action
             7)   Assertive behavior
             8)   Self-esteem builders
             9)   Proactive habits

          These nine success strategies and behaviors are major career enhancers that help transform goals into realizations.  Pay close attention to any that are new ideas for you. They provide wide-ranging benefits; you can use them to

- Create and sustain your inner drive
-  Increase your confidence
- generate mental and physical energy
- Guide you toward your goals
- Improve your performance

         It is shocking but true:  The most qualified person is not always the one who gets the job or promotion.
        The person hired is the one whom the employer perceives to be the most qualified. Your experience, skills, resumes, and more - your entire job search package – are greatly enhanced when you practice these key job search success strategies.
 
    The employment scene is changing worldwide in a major ongoing way.
   
    Prepare for your employment career with both analytical skills as well as psychological prepeartion  thoroughly .

You will find that international resumes are often referred to as a CV. So if you get this word thrown at you, don’t worry, it is just a fancy word for resumes

The next thing that you need to do is create your international resume. This is vital to your career success overseas. Without a good international resume you will not stand a chance of getting hired anywhere no matter what your qualifications happen to be. This resume too will depend on to county in which you are searching for a job.

Before you send out your CV make sure that this is really what you want to do. Moving to another country and getting work is a huge step and it is one that is going to cost you a fair bit of money. Do you have the money for all of the moving expenses and the travel expenses? If not then your CV, no matter how good it is will not get you very far. Think about what you are doing and see if it is really what you need to do in order to further your career. There are many ways to make life better and this may or may not be the right choice for you, just make sure that you have thought it through well before you make any big changes.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there are more than 700,000 professional companions or caregivers, making this one of the fastest-growing occupations in the nation. The Bureau projects more than a 27 percent growth in this career category over the next 10 years.

According to Home Instead Senior Care CEO and founder Paul Hogan, an aging population and longer life spans are indicators of an increasing demand for not only health care, but also in-home assistance. “The help and companionship afforded by a caregiver can keep seniors in their own homes longer and enhance their quality of life,” says Hogan.

Seniors are not the only ones to benefit. For example, after relocating to a new city with her husband, a woman named Muriel Phelps decided she wanted to meet new people and take on new challenges. She had managed an office for 20 years and wasn’t necessarily looking for a job when she discovered a hidden talent for caring for seniors. “In this day and age, people can have several careers,” says Phelps of her newfound caregiving vocation. “It is one of the most fascinating periods of my life.”

She has now been a professional caregiver for Home Instead Senior Care for three years and says the satisfaction of caregiving is being able to reach out and give other seniors the care they need. She and her seniors share many interests-a love of gardening, music, food-and they even shop together.

“I have been so blessed in my life,” she says. “If I can share and make someone’s life more interesting and fun, right until their last breath, I’ve accomplished something and made my life worthwhile.”

Dear job seeker here is 25 years of collective business experience and wisdom boiled down into this piece of advice.  Don’t prepare for the interview, IF you don’t want the JOB!

Having an employer ask you to interview is not the ultimate goal; it’s the second to last step in the overall job search process.  The candidate interview is only one of several steps along the way. Being the very best candidate during the interview will typically result in the candidate landing that dream job offer.  Many professionals make the same mistakes during the job search process.  Amazingly, these well educated, highly skilled and experienced professionals keep repeating the same mistake and yet, expect different results or outcomes from candidate interviews. Often professionals treat the interview as something that is a forgone conclusion.  Somehow the confusion develops from thinking that the interview is the same as the job offer, let me reassure everyone taking a few minutes to read this article, in a word WRONG!  So, if your goal is not landing the job of your dreams, then all you have to do is make the same critical errors outlined for you below.  I promise you that if you consistently make all of the common mistakes listed the only job you land is the one you don’t want; an eternity of searching for your next job.

Far more interviews are lost than won. There are things that will work to your advantage in an interview, and then again there are things that will absolutely kill your chances. Here are some of the biggest mistakes to avoid, if you want that job. Your chances for success vastly improve by not doing what others do.

1. Don’t Conduct Any “Pre-Flight” Planning!

This is the single biggest mistake you can make.  There is a direct correlation to preparation and performance.  Many professionals are walking into their interviews ill-equipped and unprepared and expecting to make the right impression.  These professional are not walking away from the interview with job offer and unfortunately become doomed to repeat the process until the lesson is learned.

Good preparation means doing intensive research so that you know what you need to know about the hiring authority, knowing your capabilities and what you specifically can offer the hiring authority in the position they seek to fill.  You must prepare and then practice so as to be able to respond to nearly any question thrown in your direction.

2. Don’t Be Dynamic, Be Passive During The Interview!

You do not need to conduct the interview. However, this is your time to shine. You are in the spotlight. It’s your opportunity to prove that you are the best candidate.  It is not the interviewer’s job to pull the information from you. Many people mistakenly believe that it’s up to the hiring authority’s interviewer to figure out if you’re the best candidate. As the candidate, it is your responsibility to make the interviewer aware of your capabilities and why you are the best candidate to fill the open position.

Your goal is to make certain as you complete the interview, the interviewer knows all of your qualifications and how you will make positive and powerful contributions in your new position. By taking responsibility for your actions and accepting that you must convey your skills, experience, talent and persona in the most positive manner, it changes the way you prepare and how you conduct yourself during the interview.  It separates your candidacy from the competition.

Often professionals “wing it” during the interview process. The problem is, if you do that you are leaving your career to chance and letting someone else take control of your destiny. If you want to succeed in an interview, you have to be proactive and think on your feet. An interview is the starting gate of a competitive race - there’s only one winner. You should be thinking about what you need to say and do during the interview to be recognized as the best candidate to fill the position. What does the interview seek to find in a candidate? What do they want to hear from me? How can I be the candidate they select? Don’t get caught up in the mindset of not preparing for the interview, think it through and plan for all possibilities so that you can beat the competition.

3. Why Make A Good First Impression? I Can Always Make A Second One, Right?

Wrong!  Here’s the fact - it only takes a few minutes for the interviewer to assess his/her first impression of you. You only get one chance to make a first impression. If you make a great first impression, the interviewer will automatically look for more positive contributions throughout the remainder of the interview to justify their first impression. The reverse is true.  If you make a bad first impression, the interviewer will look for bad things to justify their first impression. It is either a Win-Win or Lose-Lose proposition with no middle ground. Your first impression must be good.  You must start out strong and maintain the strength.

Starting strong means greeting the interviewer with confidence, being personable, and conducting yourself professionally at all times. No matter how formal or informal the interviewer may appear during the interview process, you must exude confidence and professional demeanor.
Maintaining strength means nailing the first couple questions and all the subsequent questions thrown out at you. One of the most difficult questions can also be one of the easiest to answer.  Most interviewers want to hear a strong answer to these four words, “tell me about yourself”.  Often these four words may be the most important question asked during an interview.  Consequently, the question becomes the most important one you need to know how to answer.

4. Value? Value?  We Don’t Know Our Stinkin Value!

Knowing your specific value relative to the hiring authority is a big part of your preparation. More important is the ability to articulate your value in a concise, professional and intelligent manner. It boils down to good verbal and non-verbal communication skills. A couple of different ways to improve your communication skills in an interview: 1) prepare yourself - know your value, memorialize it through documentation and then practice. 2) ask for help -a professional sounding board being either a qualified (recruiter) friend or career professional, i.e., search recruiter or career coach, and 3) reflect on your self figuratively and also in the mirror (remember to smile and relax your words will flow smoothly) and then practice some more.
You will leap ahead of other the other competing candidates as they will most likely stumble their way through the interview process. You will be the coherent, articulate, intelligent candidate clearly expressing why you are the best choice. You’ll be remembered for all the right reasons unlike your competition.

5. Fake It Until You Make It?

Everyone going through a job search and interview process experiences a time when there may be at least one qualification that you don’t have - maybe its lack of industry experience, lack of a degree or a specific accreditation they’ve asked to see from you, it could be anything. If you do lack something they want or need, you need to be ready to address it and do so with confidence. Whatever you do always be direct and honest.
 
Unfortunately, during interviews we are often times screened out for something we lack rather than the other way around. So interviewers need to convinced that if you don’t have exactly what they seek, you can learn it quickly, or you’ll get it, or you have another skill that makes up for it. Don’t give them the opportunity to make a big deal out of something you lack…be poised and confident without showing any signs of being nervous.  Find an answer that eliminates their concern and most likely they’ll select you based on what you can offer rather than eliminate you for something they deem important that you don’t possess.

Remember, a superior resume is valuable because it gets you the interview…but superior interviewing skills will get you the job! Improve your interviewing skills, learn the best practices and strategies to succeed, and you will consistently get the offers you want.

Wishing You All Job Search and Interviewing Success!

Fortunately, for many women-and their families-that can describe many of the jobs available in the skilled trades. Trade occupations can include aviation technician, automotive painter, construction equipment operator, welder, carpenter, decorator, chef, horticulturist, IT support analyst, florist, electrician, tool and die maker and water-well driller, to name a few.

Why The Trades?

Careers in the trades can offer a chance to contribute to society and the opportunity to be your own boss. Skilled trades touch every part of Americans’ lives, from roads and homes to hospitals and schools. You can get hands-on training and a chance to “earn while you learn.”

What Does It Take?

Some jobs need modest physical strength and endurance but most do not. Virtually all require intelligence and creativity as well as good reading, math and analytical skills. Thanks to technology, skilled trades are not “dirty,” as they once may have been. Knowledge of computer software and mechanical systems is increasingly important.

Opportunities On The Rise

This nation faces a looming shortage of skilled tradespeople. As the baby boomers retire over the next few years, the construction industry alone will be short more than 1 million workers.

What About Pay?

The salary ranges vary by job, location and experience but a skilled electrician can easily earn $70,000 a year. Apprentices and others may get less and the work for some is seasonal, while union members are often paid more than nonunion workers, report the experts at the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC).

The organization was founded in 1955 to create a support network and enhance the success of women in the construction industry. It now has thousands of members around the world and has advanced the causes of all women in construction, from trades-women to business owners. According to the group, educational and career resources play an integral role in facing the challenges of this evolving industry.

If you’re taking the plunge and switching careers, can you convince an executive search agency that it’s all for the best? How do you demonstrate that you haven’t lost any of your abilities?

Switching careers is a brave thing to do. It can affect your income, your working hours and even where you live. It’s not a decision that people take lightly, and it’s one that’s viewed differently by everyone. If you take a career break to travel or to study, you should be prepared to turn that experience into positive ways you can contribute to your new company.

Executive search firms look for the right candidates for the job. If you have switched careers or taken a break and want to sign on with an executive search firm, then it’s a good idea to make an appointment to go and see them. This will allow you to sit face-to-face with the consultant and explain why you took a year out, or why you decided to change from medicine to law. Whatever your experience, you should be able to use elements of it to illustrate how you could be valuable to a company in a senior position.

For example, if you spent your time volunteering for a charity and working in Africa, you will have gained better communication and diplomacy skills than most people. If you were involved in a building project, you can illustrate how you managed to project, getting people to work together as a team to achieve a common goal. Whilst sorting out a problem business area isn’t the same as building a school, the things you learned from your project can be applied in any situation.

It’s not whether you have changed careers that interests an executive search firm; it’s why, and what you’ve learned that could benefit their clients. It could be that your career switch gives the client exactly what they’re looking for. It’s up to you to turn it into the positives that could win you your next job.