24 Feb 10 How To Run A Flight Attendant Job Search

You know that it’s the job for you. You’ve done all the reading, and you understand that working as a flight attendant isn’t all glamour and excitement. You know there’s hard work and commitment involved, and that the money - well, no one becomes a flight attendant to get rich, after all. It doesn’t matter - you’ve got your mind made up, and you’re about to embark on a flight attendant job search. Here are some tips on conducting a flight attendant job search that will help you find the jobs that you want to apply for.

1. The major airlines are only 10% of the field for your flight attendant job search.

There are over 60 small and mid-size airlines in the United States - over 80 if you add Canadian based airlines as well. While the major airlines have cut back on hiring and have even furloughed flight attendants since 2001, the small airlines are thriving. If you’re looking to work with fractional operators and charter services, the flight attendant job search possibilities are even broader. The jobs are out there - you just need to expand the scope of your job search beyond the Big Six.

2. Don’t overlook traditional job hunt methods in your flight attendant job search.

Yes, they do advertise in the local paper’s help wanted sections. You’ll also find recruitment ads for the airlines in industry publications, so if you’re serious about finding a job as a flight attendant, get yourself subscribed to aviation newsletters and magazines.

3. Harness the power of the Internet to get your flight attendant job search into high gear.

Do check the usual suspects. You’ll find listings for flight attendant open houses and job openings on Monster, HotJobs! and other Internet job sites. You’ll also find listings for flight attendant job opportunities on some of the major newspaper’s want ad pages.

But don’t stop with the job listings on the job search engines. Because aviation is so industry specific, you’ll find the biggest concentrations of job openings and listings on aviation industry specific sites. A simple search for ‘flight attendant jobs’ will pull up several job search sites specifically for those in aviation. Check them out carefully and join one or two. Even better, find a discussion forum for flight attendants and join that. You can post questions, read information from working flight attendants and keep your eyes peeled for announcements of open houses.

4. Apply on the company web site.

Many airlines now have a link for you to upload your resume when you’re doing a flight attendant job search. While they may not be hiring when you check, enter your information anyway so that they can send you an invitation when they do mass job interviews and informational meetings in your area.

5. Networking is still the number one way to find a job.

Like any other job, it’s often who you know that gets your foot in the door in a flight attendant job search. Let people know you’re looking - let everyone know you’re looking. You might never know that your great Aunt Lucy’s next door neighbor’s daughter is a flight attendant if you don’t mention that you’re looking for a job working for an airline - but it just might be your ticket into the industry.

Whatever you do, do treat your flight attendant job search seriously. Look at the ads daily, and be sure to have a professional resume and cover letter ready to send out to any job openings that you find.

Tags: Big Six, Canadian Based Airlines, Charter Services, Finding A Job, Flight Attendant Job, Flight Attendants, Hotjobs, Industry Publications, Internet Job, Job Listings, Job Monster, Job Openings, Job Opportunities, Job Search Engines, Major Airlines, Mid Size, Monster, Recruitment Ads, Recruitment Agency, Recruitment Jobs, Search Possibilities, Traditional Job, Usual Suspects

21 Jan 10 How To Succeed Without A Degree

While having a formal education is certainly a good way to break into some industries, don’t fret if you didn’t earn a college degree. There’s still hope! Let’s look at three qualities you must possess in order to get the job you want without a degree.

Soft Skills: These are skills not obtained by getting a degree. Some of these skills deemed most important by employers include the following:

Enthusiasm
Friendly personality
Punctuality
Ability to get along well with others
Professional appearance and mannerism
Genuine interest in the job at hand

Making Connections: Great jobs are handed out every day to so-and-so’s cousin or the head honcho’s friend’s grandson. If you want to meet with the same success, you will have to make and tap your connections effectively.

When you’re trying to make connections, you have to step outside of your comfort zone and come to life when you meet others. Sometimes you simply have to strike up conversations in coffee shops or grocery store lines. Make a proactive effort to find out a little more about the people who
surround you in your daily life. You never know who might be standing next to you in line for a movie or sitting next to you on a train!

And don’t neglect those contacts you already have. Take the time to analyze people you know and whom you have recently met. Who can potentially help you in your job goal search? Who have you forgotten to ask about job opportunities? If you feel at all embarrassed about networking, remember that it’s never begging if you go in to speak to someone full of confidence, high energy, and optimism. In fact, you may be doing them a favor if they can put you in touch with somebody who actually ends up hiring you—this makes your friend look good! The bottom line is that you’ll never know whether your connections can work for you until you try.

Market Research: Employers appreciate applicants who “do their homework.” Market research can also help clear up any confusion. When you discover how the industry you’re interested in works with other industries, you may find that some of unlikeliest contacts are the ones who can help you the most. So don’t wait around for a job to find you. Go out and do you research, talk to your contacts, and bring the job to you!

Your ability to successfully tap and utilize the three qualities above depends on how well developed your job market skills are over all. So start off by analyzing your competency level by taking this FREE Job Market Performance Assessment.

Tags: Bottom Line, Coffee Shops, College Degree, Comfort Zone, Conversations, Cousin, Formal Education, Genuine Interest, Grocery Store, Head Honcho, High Energy, Homework, Job Opportunities, Mannerism, Market Research, Neglect, Optimism, Professional Appearance, Punctuality, Recruitment Agency, Recruitment Jobs, Research Employers

26 Nov 09 How To Survive A Bad Performance Review (And Move To Your Dream Career)

Q. “I wasn’t happy with my last performance review.  Should I dispute the review? Write a letter for my file? Talk to a lawyer? Or just let it go?”

A.  Most professionals feel you should offer some kind of response.  But whether to respond, and the way to respond, will depend on your company’s culture, the unwritten message and your own career goals.

1. Assess your report in light of the company’s culture.

In some cultures, anything but glowing praise will be viewed as negative. In others, tough reviews are the norm.

Often your boss will be expected to come up with at least one point of constructive criticism. After all, nobody walks on water.  But if you’re being attacked or unfairly criticized, you must explore further.

Sometimes you’ll win more points by taking the review in stride than by fighting.  But in some cultures, a single negative review means you need to start job-hunting right away.

2. Calculate your boss’s strategy.

Sometimes your performance report has nothing to do with you or your performance.  Your boss might honestly want to see you leave the company or make sure the next promotion goes to someone else.

Your boss may be a new hire who is still learning your company’s culture.  She may combine good intentions with weak implementation.

Or maybe your boss wants to get your attention: he’s dropped hints and you’ve ignored them.  Or he wants to help you progress but doesn’t know how to communicate tactfully.

3. Listen for unwritten messages.

Does your company have a category where a low score means you’re headed for disaster?  Does your boss try to tell you, “It’s a great review!” when you know otherwise?

Suppose you’ve been getting terrific reviews – and now you get slammed with a truckload of criticism.  Maybe you really did have a bad year. Or maybe there’s an agenda you need to understand.

4. Get the facts without getting defensive.

Ask your boss to explain each criticism.

For example, if your boss said your project was delivered late, get dates and times.  If you’re criticized for interpersonal skills, ask for specific instances.

But give your boss a chance to save face.

Anyone can make mistakes. An overworked, harried boss can skimp on her own data collection.  You can say, without confrontation, “My records show I managed six projects, not four. Can we go over this point?”

5. Delay your response.

Ask for a second meeting, explaining calmly that you need time to think. Use the time to collect your backup file. Consider a consultation with an outsider: career coach, consultant, human resources professor – even a lawyer if the situation warrants.

Do not discuss your report or your decision to seek help with your peers. Ever.

6. Back up a rebuttal with facts, not emotion.

Assemble your own evidence of performance. Collect letters of appreciation, dates and times of project completion, statistics showing how you helped the company.

Often simply placing a rebuttal letter in your own file will defuse the impact of a negative evaluation.  When you’ve had a strong track record, your company will ignore an occasional negative, unless someone has introducedå a new agenda.

Your boss may be ordered to grade on the curve, i.e., assign some employees the “low” category even if everyone’s doing great. And, being human, he may assign those ratings to those who are least likely to speak up.  A strong, carefully written rebuttal will clarify your strength of purpose.

7. Avoid jumping to conclusions – or to a new job.

When clients ask, “Should I look for a new job?” my answer will be, “When you work for any organization, keep yourself marketable. Maintain your network. Identify reputable recruiters and build ties with them.”

It’s rarely a good idea to share your career change plans with your colleagues or boss until you have a written offer in hand.  And it’s rarely a good idea to accept a counter-offer from your present company. (Over half of all workers who accept a counter-offer are gone within six months, one way or another.)

But if your company wants to send a “Go Away!” message, they may be happy to give you a good reference that reflects your real contribution.

Tags: Agenda, Boss, Career Goals, Company Culture, Constructive Criticism, Cultures, Disaster, Dream Career, Good Intentions, Implementation, Job Hunting, Last Performance, Lawyer, Norm, Performance Report, Performance Review, Recruitment Agency, Recruitment Jobs, Score, Terrific Reviews, Truckload, Write A Letter

29 Jun 09 Recruiter split - Share income or split relationships?

A particularly unique job order needed some ‘tweaking’. Couple of us recruiters and our good client met over coffee. We could not help over hear the next table - also recruiters (is this cafe a recruiter hang out or what?) were on to their banter. Their conversation was getting hotter than the brew. Long story short: Your job order, my resume, how do we split the income.

Our client asked, does that happen all the time. We volunteered a guess, on the negative. Heading back, we googled out “recruiter splits” and you would be surprised to a lot of dirty linen in public (IPs - so to say).

Green opportunities beckon - you have the job order, I have my resume archives gathering dust. We jump in, all in good will. When there is income to share, goodwill is under stress and, relationships split. What’s a good method:

1. The side that brings the opportunity takes the larger share (The risk is taken by this recruiter in dealing the business)
2. The person sending resumes is usually pulling out of the archives - not that there were hot hot resumes
3. If there are niche skills, or the recruiter is going out of the way to source resumes - discuss costs then and there
4. Basically agree on the split before sharing the resume

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone started job order sharing service? Apparently, somebody did…
www.gorecroot.com - truly a service to go recruit

Our friend here has a good story. They almost lost a client in the process of splitting earnings.

Tags: Banter, Coffee, Consultants, Dirty Linen, Earnings, Employment headhunters, Executive recruitment, Gathering Dust, Goodwill, Guess, Headhunters, Heading, HR Recruiters, Ips, Job Order, Management consultants, Management Recruiters, Niche, Professional Recruiters, Recruiter, Recruiters, recruitment, Recruitment careers, Relationships, Resume, Resumes, Risk, Split Share, Splits, Stress, Tweaking

25 Mar 09 How to Search for a New Career Before Giving Up Your Old One

Are you thinking about changing careers but scared to blindly jump into something new?  Are you not sure where to start? Most people are unhappy and frustrated with their current job, but don’t know how to create a plan to move into a new career.

If you are lost about where to start, and not sure what career would interest you right now, think about your hobbies.  What did you love to do when you were a kid? If you love books, maybe you would like to work in a library or bookstore. If you are good at math, consider an accounting position.  Thank about how you would spend your time if you didn’t have to work to earn a living.

Taking a class to learn a new skill is now easier than ever.  Most colleges offer online courses that will allow you to work at a time convenient for you.  You will have specific deadlines to meet just as if you were in a classroom, but you are able to work at your own pace and within your own weekly schedule.

Try something new, even if you’re not sure if you would like it.  Learn photography, update your computer skills, or take a yoga class.  Even if you wind up hating it, you won’t know if you don’t try.

If you have an idea about what you would like to do, why not work at it part-time?  Suppose you work in the medical field now but think you now want to work with animals.  You could get a part-time job working in a veterinarian’s office or a kennel.  There are plenty of part-time gigs you can do at night or on the weekend.  Of course, you’re giving up some of your free time, but isn’t this a small price to pay to test the waters before making the plunge to full-time? Starting out part-time for an employer is one of the best ways to work into a full-time position later.

Volunteering is always an option.  While you are helping others, you are also finding out if something is right for you.  How about coaching a sports team at your kid’s school? Could you tutor someone who doesn’t know how to read?

Maybe you won’t wind up changing careers after all, but instead build a part-time business that allows you to be creative and express yourself.  If you play the piano, could you give personal lessons? If you are good at crafts, why not sell yours online? If you love dogs, maybe you could be a pet sitter for your friends and neighbors.

The possibilities are endless if you just use your imagination. As long as you are doing something that feeds your soul, you are spending your time on a worthwhile cause- yourself.

Tags: Accounting Position, Bookstore, Changing Careers, Colleges, Colleges Online, Computer Skills, Doe, Free Time, Full Time, Helping Others, Hobbies, Math, Medical Field, Own Pace, Part Time Job, Photography, Plunge, Recruitment Agency, Recruitment Jobs, Sports Team, Time Position, Tutor, Veterinarian, Yoga Class