Boolean Resume Searching: Some Quick Tips

When searching for candidate resumes on CollegeRecruiter.com, you will notice that the search screen includes an option to search by keyword. One of the options under keyword searching is Boolean Searching. Boolean Searching can be very useful in specifying what information you want. Boolean Searching consists of 3 functions: and, or, and and not.
Boolean ‘AND’
When using the and function, it requires all terms joined by it to appear somewhere in the document, in any order. Using and narrows a search because it augments the number of matching words required for a document to meet the search criteria. The more words you enter connected by and, the fewer search results you will receive.

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Overcome a Talent Shortage: Create a Gen-X Friendly Workplace to Retain Key Talent

The 75 million Baby Boomers who make up forty-five percent of the workforce are now starting to retire; in 2007 that rate is expected to hit three million people. And the mass exodus of Boomers from the workforce will only increase over the next ten years. So the question is: Who will replace these retiring workers?
While logic would dictate that the next generation (Generation X, as they’re called) will simply step in and fill the newly vacant roles, that is simply impossible. Why? Because the Gen X population-those born between 1964 and 1977-totals a mere forty-five million people. That’s a deficit of 30 million workers. As one economist from the Office of Labor Statistics noted, “over 500 occupations will be adversely affected by the boomers’ departure.” It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a worker shortage is on the horizon.

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New Refresh Button for Job Postings

We are pleased to announce that we have recently developed and deployed new features within the Recruiting Desktop. You will notice that we have added a “Refresh” button and link to “Refresh All Jobs” within the My Job Postings area of the Recruiting Desktop. These new options allow you to either refresh an individual job OR refresh all jobs in order to allow these jobs to be sorted towards the top in date sorted search results. The more often you refresh your jobs, the more exposure you’ll get with the candidates you are trying to reach so the more resumes you’ll receive from them.

Making lemonade out of lemons and hibernating mice

By Pete Johnson, Nerd Guru
Wired magazine recently had story about DARPA’s string of human enhancement projects that contained the epitome of taking a bad situation and making good out of it. We all have down times in our careers and a key to advancing is to learn from how we got there and how we can dig ourselves out.
Recall that the folks at DARPA are the same good people (not Al Gore or even Tim Berners-Lee) who brought us the Internet. There is some very cutting edge stuff going on with enabling field soldiers to function more efficiently. The article focuses on two specific projects. The first has to do with regulating body temperature and how it is really heat, and not chemical buildup as is commonly thought, that fatigues muscles over time. The key then becomes finding a way to cool those tissues in order to improve endurance.

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Can My Old Employer Tell Potential Employers That I Was Fired?

Recently I have been asked a lot of questions about what employers can and can’t disclose about a former employee’s performance and reasons for leaving the company. So, I decided to find out what the law says as well as what in-house counsel would generally advise an HR department about disclosures. I consulted with my attorney friend Carole Jurkash, a fellow University of Chicago graduate who went on to get her law degree from Yale Law School to find out what the law says about this topic. Carole really knows what she is talking about because she has 17 years of experience advising various corporations on general business matters as an in-house attorney.

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An Introduction…

Hello all!
As the newest member in this blogging community, I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself to all of you job seekers out there, as well as give you an idea of what you might be reading in the upcoming days/weeks/months.
As any good introduction starts with, my name is Chris Hollis. I am a 23 year old Publicity Agent in (mostly) sunny Orlando, Florida. I work for a great company, one that has offered me a world of opportunity.
Now I know some of you are asking, “Why should I care about this Chris Hollis guy who already has a job and isn’t dealing with the stress of graduating and finding a place in the workforce?”
Fair question. However, my goal here is not to tell you how wonderful my life is because I have found a job that I enjoy and don’t mind waking up for every morning. I’m here to be a supportive force for those who are trying to do the same: land that first job.
I hope to offer some insight, some anecdotes and some degree of understanding to each of you that decide to read what I have put on the screen in front of you. I graduated from school 12 not-so-distant months ago, and the memories and lessons of the job hunt are still fresh in my mind.
So feel free to read this and agree/disagree/or just not care. For those that are interested in what I am putting out there, I’d love to hear from you. I would love to listen to the ups and downs of your job hunt. I would love to support you when an interview goes badly and congratulate you when you knock em’ dead. And I would enjoy to no end to hear the satisfaction in your voice when that day comes and you find yourself in that first job you have worked so hard to get.
That’s it for now. I’ll leave all of you job seekers with a great quote from Oliver Wendall Holmes:
“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand,
as in what direction we are moving.”
-Chris

Making Self-Promotion Easier

Dear Sue:
It has been suggested to me, more than once, that I am holding myself back from getting where I want because I am not doing a good enough job of promoting myself. I admit I am uncomfortable with the whole idea, but then I am not even sure I know what I should be doing. What do I need to do to do a better job of promoting myself to help me get where I want?
- Uncomfortable with self promotion

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Make the Right Career Move

Dear Sue:
At present I am self-employed. I work with a partner selling properties worldwide. My partner carries out all of the communication work and I do all of the isolated administration work. I hate the fact I have no communication with the outside world apart from the odd telephone call here and there. I am totally unchallenged in my current job and I fear that if my partner decided to leave that I would not be able to run the business on my own.
I want to move out of this type of work and do my own thing in order to regain my confidence and independence. I am thinking of setting my own business up, but I don’t know what I want to do. This has been the story of my life.
When I left school I wanted to pursue my love of music and become a singer but I was told to get a “real” job. Since then I’ve worked in a variety of industries and positions. I’ve been thinking of going back to school to train in music production, however, if I do, I would not earn any money for at least a year.
How do I determine what is the right move to make? If I start this music course, but never get the business I dream of off the ground, I will regret the move. Yet, I’ve been thinking about doing something for some time and fear I will still be talking rather than doing something if I don’t. I am 31 years old and time is ticking. I need to make a decision and commit. Please help.
- Stuck in a rut

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Promotion Not All It Was Promised

Dear Sue:
Help! I am in a situation that is reaching its boiling point. I work in a doctor’s office and have been working with most of the same people for about five years now. I thought I knew them until recently. Our Administrator left the company (not by choice). His assistant was re-assigned to a different department and has been there for little over a year.
About four months ago I was approached and offered the job to work along side her. This is the research department and is a very difficult and tedious job, but a very good opportunity for me to further my career. This person was to train me. That has yet to happen. I am her gofer. I run errands, make copies, set appointments, etc. She is treating me like I am her assistant! I feel like she doesn’t want me to learn the job for fear that I may be better at it than her. She is 10 years older than me but acts like we are still in high school! She’s very paranoid and makes me feel uncomfortable.
I did go to my new administrator and discussed this but I’m not sure what will happen. This particular lady is friends outside the office with the head doctor. I’m a little scared to return to the office on Monday for fear of retaliation from her. Do I stand up to her? Do I continue to stay in her shadow? I’m a quiet person and at times pretty shy. She is the opposite. She knows she intimidates me and she thrives on it.
I want this job and I need it. We have to work together so I have to figure out how to respond to her and her ways. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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When writing a resume, don’t be too honest

By Penelope Trunk, author of Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success
The advice, ‚ÄúDon’t lie on your resume‚Äù is useless. If you don’t know lying is bad then you’re not qualified for any job. The problem is that most issues of resume truth are not so black and white.
A well-written resume to one person is a pack of lies to another. Make sure yours falls somewhere in between, which is no small feat. We all know there is such a thing as stretching the truth too much. But there is also such a thing as being too honest. Here are three ideas to guide you in this process. These ideas are adapted from my new book, Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success.

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