IT’S COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS SEASON, AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS. THE REAL WORLD AWAITS, BUT IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE TERRIBLE. HERE ARE WAYS TO SHARPEN THAT POST-COLLEGE JOB SEARCH.

It’s graduation season and employment is weighing heavily on the minds of college grads across America–some, in fact, have said they’ve already given up on the job hunt.

For those worried grads, the job outlook is mixed. The good news is that despite the tough job market, unemployment for college graduates in April was 3.9 percent–nearly half of the overall unemployment rate of 7.5 percent, according to the Labor Department report released last week. However, there is evidence that the reduction was driven by high-skilled job seekers (those with Bachelor’s degrees) moving into low-skill jobs, such as file clerks, waitresses, and, of course, baristas.

Certainly, the intended profession that you selected in college may be more difficult to land these days and the career path may look a little differently than you imagined freshman year, but great opportunities are still out there for the savvy job seeker. Here are five common mistakes new college grads make in their quest for a job and smarter ways to navigate a post-graduation job search in today’s market… [Read more]

The above article is StartWire’s guest post at Fast Company. Continue reading at Fast Company.

Sara Sutton Fell, CEO of FlexJobs, which provides legitimate, professional telecommuting and work from home jobs that promote work-life balance.

Are you considering a transition to or looking for resources on work from home jobs? Where do you begin the search, and how do you find safe, reliable job listings? We got a chance to conduct a follow-up interview with Sara Sutton Fell, the founder and CEO of FlexJobs to learn more about telecommuting roles, tips on how to spot spam listings, and the dynamic of work from home jobs today.

To recap, Sara Fells first started FlexJobs when she was pregnant with her first child and searching for a job that would allow her to balance her home and work life. Finding a number of telecommuting scams instead, she was inspired to find a resource for others that would allow reliable, legitimate job offerings. Thus, FlexJobs was born and is the helpful resource it is today for many job seekers searching for telecommuting roles. Find part one of the interview here.

1. How has the environment of work from home jobs changed from the start of FlexJobs to its current day?

Back in 2007 when we founded FlexJobs, working from home was just starting to become part of most people’s professional worlds. People may have known someone (or knew someone who knew someone) who worked from home, but it was still relatively new. Today, working from home is a common strategy used by companies looking to recruit and retain the best professionals, and the chances are very good that we all know someone who works from home at least part of the time. To give you some perspective, in 2009, we regularly posted about 4,000 available job listings on our site (including telecommuting and other flexible jobs). Today, we’re consistently posting over 13,000 available jobs.

2. Work from home jobs change the traditional office dynamic. Instead of spending all of one’s working hours in a group of co-workers, a person working from home has more flexibility in when and how to connect. What are some ways to maintain strong communication while working from home? How does this flexibility benefit workers?

I honestly think that communicating with coworkers when you work from home is very similar to when you work from an office. At least over the last several years, office-bound workers communicate through phone and email most of the time, with in-person meetings and impromptu stop-bys also included.

So the main trick is to figure out what parts of communication are missed when you work from home, and figure out ways to supplement those. Informal conversations in hallways and break rooms are a good example. Instead of this, telecommuters have to consciously make the decision to start “small talk” conversations with each other. Good managers of telecommuters are, on a daily basis, looking for ways to start these casual conversations.

Tools like instant messenger, company message boards like Yammer, and traditional tools like phone and e-mail are all great ways to encourage these types of conversations. At FlexJobs, our team talks regularly through Yammer and has lively discussions about food, movies, family, vacations, and other water-cooler topics. And we manage to fit in some great, collaborative, work-related conversations, too!

3. What would you describe is the main benefit of changing to a telecommuting role based on your personal experience?

There are two answers for this – one for employers and one for employees.

As an employee, I have to say the main benefit is freedom or control. The ability to trade your daily commute for a home office means more time for whatever it is you want out of life- family, hobbies, friends, you name it. It may not seem like much, but because I work from home, I’m able to bring our two young sons to school, and pick them up when their school day is done. These moments are priceless to me and it’s because I work from home that I get to enjoy them.

For employers, the benefits have to do with productivity and cost-savings. Several studies have come out over the last couple years clearly showing that telecommuters are more productive, more efficient, more satisfied, and less likely to quit than office-bound professionals. And employers, by letting their workforce work from home, save huge amounts on real estate, technology, turnover, and missed productivity.

4. Spam and false advertising are one of the biggest complaints of job seekers looking for work from home positions. How can they spot a bad job listing? How does FlexJobs help job seekers find quality jobs?

Scam jobs take many forms, so it’s important for job seekers looking for telecommuting or work from home jobs to do their homework and stay aware. Here are some of the ways to spot a scam job:

1. Be careful of the keywords you use to search. “Work from home” is a phrase associated with lots of scams and pyramid schemes. Instead, try safer words like “remote work,” “telework,” and “telecommuting.”

2. Be aware of the warning signs of scam jobs: Jobs are almost certainly a scam if they promise easy money for easy work, if they require you to “invest” or pay a fee to get the job, or if they use all capitalized letters or lots of !!! and $$$ punctuation.

3. Know the most-used scams: Common work-from-home scams include repackaging products, survey taking, stuffing envelopes, and building crafts. If it sounds too good to be true, it is.

4. Be cautious about unsolicited e-mails: E-mails from unknown sources that promise to find you work-from-home jobs should be ignored completely, and of course deleted.

5. If you think you’ve found a scam, ask yourself these questions to be sure:

• Is the hiring company’s name listed in the job listing?
• Do you need to pay to get the job?
• Does the job listing sound too good to be true?
• Does the company ask you to provide your social security number, driver’s license number, credit card number, or bank information?
• Does the job sound like any of the following common work at home scams? Unsolicited contact, wire transfer, stuffing envelopes, data entry, assembly work, multi-level marketing or pyramid scheme, shipping manager, rebate processor

FlexJobs’ mission is to provide job seekers with a safer job search experience while they look for telecommuting jobs and other flexible jobs. We have a team of job researchers who spend a combined 50+ hours every day searching for legitimate telecommuting jobs. They weed through scams to find new job listings and employers, then screen each employer to make sure they’re a legitimate company offering a real job. Only then is the job posted to FlexJobs, so job seekers who use our site are guaranteed to find only legitimate telecommuting and flexible jobs.

5. How have employer attitudes changed towards work from home jobs in recent years? What has caused more employers to offer flexible jobs to their employees?

For one, technology has advanced by leaps and bounds so it’s much easier for employers to have a remote workforce. Internet speeds are much better, personal computers and business networks are very advanced, and the average professional’s knowledge of and competence with office technology has greatly improved.

Management styles have also changed which is necessary for a thriving at-home employee base. Employers rely less on the “I need to see you working to know you’re working” model and managers are better prepared to manage employees remotely.

And finally, employers are seeing huge cost benefits to offering flexible jobs. The Telework Research Network has an inspiring list of the cost benefits of letting employees telecommute – http://www.teleworkresearchnetwork.com/resources/costs-benefits.

Your resume is an important tool in your job search. Think of it as a marketing tool that markets your value to employers. Before employers get a chance to meet you face-to-face, your resume gives off the first impression…and first impressions can make or break it! Therefore, it’s important that you use your resume to increase your visibility to employers. StartWire emphasizes the importance of a resume because not only does it help your job search, but it’s also necessary to use some of StartWire’s best features:

1. Your resume unlocks Express Apply Jobs. Ever feel tired of filling out the same job applications when the details on your resume should be sufficient enough to fill in those blank fields? Express Apply Jobs eliminate the long application process, and once you’re interested in applying for a job, click “Apply” and we’ll send your resume straight to the employer. (We can only do this if a resume exists in your StartWire profile.)
2. Your resume in a resume database increases your visibility. 80% of employers search resume databases to look for new hires. StartWire offers free resume distribution so that your resume will land into the hands of employers seeking for employees like you. Employers prefer to search for candidates in resume databases because sometimes, unqualified candidates apply to posted positions. Finding candidates in a database helps them ensure they’re getting the right match. Increase your visibility and chances of being found by having your resume be a part of databases that employers are searching.
3. Your resume unlocks StartWire Mobile. Many people are searching for jobs on the go and through their phones (or wishing they could!). Therefore, StartWire now offers mobile job searches. Once you locate a job of interest, click apply and your resume will be sent to the employer. In order for StartWire Mobile to work, make sure that a resume is attached to your StartWire profile.

How do you upload a resume to your StartWire account? Option 1) You can actually upload a resume to your StartWire account by forwarding an email with your resume attached to resume@startwire.com. The system will automatically attach your resume to your StartWire account. Option 2) Log-in at www.startwire.com and click on your name at the top, right-hand corner to view your profile. From there, you can either choose to attach or copy & paste your resume. Let your resume increase your visibility to employers—Upload your resume today!

Are you tired of filling out the same applications when applying to jobs? First Name, Last Name–All the standard fields that a glimpse of your resume should reveal. Time is important in a job search. Ideally, a shorter job search is a better job search.

If you’re like me, there’s only a set amount of time each day where I can keep myself seated to go through the process of: 1) finding a qualified pool of jobs to apply to, 2) filling out the applications that go with these positions, and 3) making sure my resume looks crafted enough for that specific position.   Therefore, while I still have my initiative and focus of the day, I want to make my time count!

Filling out the same applications for different job positions in a time-constrained job search can be very redundant and unnecessary.  My time could be put to better use if I filled out less paper-work related applications and spent it both finding and applying to more relevant job listings.   At StartWire, we realized this and decided to make this process easier.  As a result, we came up with… Express Apply Jobs.

First, we scour our database (daily!) for jobs that match your skills and experience, and deliver them to your StartWire account. What determines the type of Express Apply Jobs you receive?  We search StartWire’s database of over 100,000 jobs to find openings that are right for you. If you’ve taken a look at your Express Apply Jobs and wish to see something a little different, click on your name in the upper right hand corner of your account and edit your job search profile to help us understand what you’re looking for.

Now you have Express Apply Jobs job listings you can apply to in under a minute.   How does this work?   They cut down on the time you would have spent filling out applications by making sure that there are no applications to fill out!  Once you’ve read the job description, have interest in applying, and click to apply, your resume will be sent straight to the employer.  This is a great way to save time and avoid filling out extra paperwork.

Where can you find your Express Apply Jobs?  For your convenience, the first few Express Apply Jobs you qualify for can be found in your homepage after you’ve signed into your StartWire account.  The rest can be found in the Express Apply icon (that looks like a clock) at the top, right-hand corner of your page.

Lastly, Express Apply Jobs are free, so put this resource to great use.  Let us know what you think of this tool and what you’d like to see for the future.   We’re always brainstorming newer tools to make the job search process a better and easier one for you.

If ‘recruiting’ is one of the biggest touch points companies have to those outside of the company, then why do job seekers not receive treatment that customers would? In this year’s Recruiting Trends Conference, Chris Forman, CEO of StartWire is presenting on: Why We Need to Treat Job Seekers Like Customers.

At StartWire, we believe not only that job seekers deserve to be treated like customers, but that companies who do so will benefit from this consideration.  Job seekers, in applying to positions, see the human side of companies that they may not have otherwise. Their experience will often define how they view that company’s entire brand. If you want a good brand image, start with treating the job seekers your organization deals with respectfully. Furthermore, someone may not be a good fit for the open position today – but the perfect candidate for a later opening. They have already shown that they WANT to work there. Treating a candidate well today, even if they aren’t hired, means you may have your next hire already in hand. We all wear many hats, and someone who is a job seeker today, may have a number of chances in the future to interact with your company and their brand. Treat them kindly today, and reap the benefits down the line.

Companies who understand this problem often feel it’s an insurmountable obstacle because they simply have too many applicants and too little time. However, new technologies are being developed to help recruiting departments provide good experiences to job applicants. StartWire’s own ApplicationConnect helps make the application process user-friendly, without adding extra work for recruiters. It’s time to realize that providing a good candidate experience is both important and possible.

The Recruiting Trends Conference features world-class recruiting leaders who will be sharing ideas to address this topic and other key ideas in recruiting to better the recruitment sphere. Here’s to changing the world of recruiting for job seekers, one presentation at a time! Thanks for all of your support StartWire fans!

StartWire is excited to announce that our newly launched product for employers, ApplicationConnect, was chosen as one of the 2012 TOP HR PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR by Human Resource Executive for its unique contribution to the field.  This award recognizes “excellence and innovation in the HR vendor community” and we are honored to be part of such a high performing group.

With Application Connect, StartWire supports the importance of the candidate experience.  Application Connect is a tool devised to encourage businesses to treat applicants like customers.  Applicants can receive status updates on their job applications and have a space to give employers feedback on their experience. This allows businesses to create positive branding practices, which support customer perspective towards their product or service and a better recruiting experience.

As we attend this conference, we will be keeping our ears open for advice from top HR professionals on how to better improve the job search experience for job-seekers!  Thank you to all of your support!

The StartWire team is off to Chicago on October 8-10 to attend the 15^th Annual HR Technology Conference & Expo and support the 2012 Candidate Experience Awards as a sponsor. 

The Candidate Experience Awards encourage businesses to improve the candidate experience.   Searching for a job is a stressful situation and the Talent Board, a non-profit research organization who is behind the CandE Awards, recognizes this.  Their mission is to help employers and candidates have a more effective and humane experience during the recruiting process.  For this goal, StartWire is proud to be a sponsor of the CandE Awards.

The HR Technology Conference explores how technology is bringing about change in HR practices and some new ways of implementing technology to improve HR practices.  Attendees from 27 nations, senior HR executives, the top six most powerful software executives in our world, and HR technology consultants make this one of the most anticipated HR conferences of the year!  More about the HR Tech Expo from their main page.

StartWire’s team is excited to be attending the conference, and proud to be supporting an improved candidate experience. Let’s all keep working to make the job search and hiring process better!

Asides from having a standard font and a clear format, your resume should have these 5 must-haves!

1) Have the right verb tenses.

For many, the common rule in writing is to keep the tenses the same.  Even when we have a conversation, we don’t suddenly switch from past tense to present.

Interestingly, that doesn’t always apply to resumes!  “Wait, why?” You may ask.  It’s good to keep the tenses the same, apart from two exceptions:

#1: You currently hold this job 

Experience

Feb. ’11 – Present    Microsoft Corporation, NY

Sales Coordinator

• Processed Processing 100 orders daily to meet end-of-day sales review

#2: You currently hold this job, but you’re describing a role that you’ve already finished

Experience

Feb. ’11 – Present    Microsoft Corporation, NY

Sales Coordinator

• Processing 100 orders daily to meet end-of-day sales review
• Trained 5 new interns in the sales division

2) Save the creative email addresses for friends.

Does your current email address look something like this?

bakingoddess5299@example.com

Showing your creativity and personality is great, but save that for the interview.  Don’t be the candidate an employer wants to contact, only to be discarded from consideration due to a non-professional email address.

Similarly, this also applies to emails you use for job search sites or job search tools, such as StartWire.  It’s simple to just create one professional email address for all employment search purposes.

What should you do? Use a combination of your first and last name, along with numbers.

3) Listen to your voicemail.

Many people list their cellular number as a reference for employers to reach them.  What they forget to double check and re-record is the casual and maybe amusing voicemail previously recorded for their friends.

We all get moments where we can’t take the call or fail to hear our ringtones.  If an employer were calling, he’d be redirected to leave a voicemail, so make sure your voicemail leaves a good first impression.

Don’t let your amusing voicemail be the deal breaker!

What should you do?State that the caller has reached [your full name] and that you’ll be in contact as soon as possible.  Example: “Hi.  This is [first and last name].  I’m unable to take your call at this moment.  Please leave your name, number, and a brief message.  I will contact you as soon as possible. Thanks.”

4) Show/Describe/Quantify.  Don’t just state your skills.

Employers and recruiters shuffle through countless of resumes.  They are used to seeing “excellent communication skills” and “diligent worker”.  Instead of saying it, try showing it.

When you’re convincing a friend to go to the movies, you wouldn’t say:

“It’s a good movie.  You should come.”  You would go into details to really convince him/her that it’s a must-see, “It’s action packed with a car chase scene that was filmed off Bay St.—a block from where you live!”

What should you do?

Avoid: Responsible for product marketing in field events

Use: Marketed company product to 1,500 customers at field events and sold 35% of monthly inventory

5) The right keywords make a difference

Before your resume even gets skimmed by a person, it might go through an Applicant Tracking System that only selects resumes due to specific keywords.  If your resume is missing those keywords, it won’t make it to an employer’s desk.

What should you do?  Look at the job posting and take relevant keywords from it.  The job posting is your biggest clue on what keywords the company’s applicant tracking system are looking for.  Read more about this on  The Two Sides of the Resume Black Hole

In the attempt to create work life balance, more and more people are looking for jobs with the option to work from home.  Sara Sutton Fell, CEO of FlexJobs experienced that issue herself before she decided to do something and help others encountering this problem.  Today we interviewed Sara Sutton Fell to see how she is helping people find job opportunities that offer flexibility.

1. To start, tell us a little of your background and what lead you to create FlexJobs.

Well, I started out by co-founding my first company, JobDirect, as a 21-year-old junior in college. JobDirect was a job search website geared towards entry-level jobs and we were able to grow our team to 100 people in four years before selling to Korn|Ferry International in 2000. It was an amazing, challenging and hugely rewarding experience, and I realized how much I enjoyed helping to create an idea in which I truly believed. Which leads me to FlexJobs…

In 2007 I was pregnant with my first child and searching for a job that would provide a flexible schedule and the ability to work from home but still allow me to pursue my career. I was overwhelmed at the number of scams in the work from home job niche and this experience gave me the idea for FlexJobs, a place where job seekers could find pre-screened, legitimate, and professional-level telecommuting jobs that offer work-life balance. I knew these types of jobs existed and thought that other job seekers would appreciate being able to find them in one place, with no scams or junk mixed in.

Largely in part of my previous experience in the online employment industry, and as an entrepreneur, starting a company to help solve this job search problem seemed to be within my reach.  I’m thrilled to say that five years later and FlexJobs is the leading job service of its kind!

2. What kinds of job seekers does FlexJobs cater to?  Who are your most predominant users?

Really, FlexJobs caters to any job seeker who wants flexible work options in their career;  some of the most common reasons are work-life balance, reduced commutes, economic and/or environmental reasons, among many others.  People who want jobs that offer flexible schedules, part-time schedules, freelance contracts, and telecommuting options are the ones coming to FlexJobs. Specifically, we often see working moms (and dads!), people who live in rural areas or economically depressed areas, retirees, military spouses, people with health issues, and people looking for supplementary income.  Our job-seekers really come from all different walks of life though, and people want work flexibility for all kinds of reasons.

3. Telecommuting and having a flexible schedule seem like a dream for many people, but it can be a big transition from a traditional office environment. What are some of the challenges you faced in transitioning to a flexible work arrangement? What advice would you give to someone looking to make this change?

Absolutely – some of the biggest challenges I found myself grappling with included time management, creating a clear line between work and home, not staying too isolated, and communicating with my team. Luckily, technology makes it incredibly easy to deal with most of these challenges. To set boundaries between my work life and home life, I actually created a home office above my garage so that I “go to work” every day. And when I leave the office at the end of the day, I really do leave the office. I would recommend that people who work from home set up an office that is away from the busy parts of the house – a spare bedroom, for example.

Communicating with coworkers just means setting up a variety of ways to chat, meet, and talk – message boards, instant messenger, email, phone, Skype, the possibilities are endless! And to get your people fix, try working from a coffee shop or library every once and a while, or scheduling lunch with a friend or coworker (if you live in the same area) regularly. Or, if you have a flexible schedule, schedule an activity in the middle of the day that gets you up, out of the office, and interacting with other people like a gym class or volunteering.

4. Many of our readers are struggling with long term unemployment and having difficulty finding work near where they live. How could they use FlexJobs to improve their career prospects?

With so many pockets of the country dealing with poor employment prospects, FlexJobs is able to offer job seekers a way to find employment that isn’t being offered in their geographic area. For example, we had one job seeker who didn’t want to leave her small town in Idaho, but couldn’t find work. Through FlexJobs, she was able to find work with a company based in Florida. (http://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/found-a-job-telecommuting-from-small-town/)

Telecommuting opens up economic opportunity for sure. In our job search section, job seekers can narrow their search results by state, region, or country. They can also select “US National Jobs” which can be done from anywhere in the US, or “Anywhere Jobs” which can be done from anywhere around the world. These are the easiest ways to locate employers who are willing to hire people outside of their physical location, and they can certainly help people who are unemployed and living in a place still reeling from the recession.

Stepping into the job search zone can in some ways find unwanted similarity to walking around blindfolded.  They both evoke similar feelings of uncertainty, instability, and…you really just want it to be over with!

There are proactive steps you can take to remove yourself from this grind.  You can take that blindfold off and unveil a clearer view of the job search process.

1)      Adapt to Change

If you’ve served your time and energy—applied to many jobs, sent out your resume and cover letter—but you still aren’t getting any responses to your application, take these as signs that you need to change what you’ve been doing.

2)      Find job openings before they’re posted

Though we don’t have the ability to be psychic, you can get a few steps ahead by utilizing resources that will alert you to who’s hiring.

Create Google News alerts for companies you are interested in working for.

• Scan the local news regularly for employers you may not have considered. Positive announcements (like moving to a bigger space) generally mean companies are hiring. When you see the signs, be ready to apply!
• LinkedIn allows you to follow employers you’re interested in.  Get information on events they’ll host or even a name to contact.  Remember: Unlike those automated email responses, if you reach out to an employer through social media, there’s actually a person maintaining and responding from their social media channels.  Take advantage of this.

 Note: 75% of new hires applied to a job within the first 2 weeks of it being posted.  If you apply later, you’ll have decreased your chances significantly.

3) Learn about the company from the INSIDE

• With Glassdoor.com, people are posting about a company they’ve worked for or are working for, and what this means is, you’ll get real, honest, and insightful comments from ACTUAL employees.  You’ll show that you understand what the company is really about—the good and the bad.  What better way to give yourself a hook that will grab the hiring manager’s attention when they skim cover letters and resumes!
• Glassdoor.com even gives you an idea of salary expectations, company culture, and interview questions, among other details.  It’s an efficient way to learn quick facts about a company before you think about how to customize your cover letter for that company.

4) Read the hiring manager’s mind.

Utilize the resources you have.  Find your connection to the hiring manager’s mind through the resource he’s freely given you: the job posting!  Use the job posting to glean important insights.   Use the employer’s own words from the job postings to describe your skills (as long as you really have those skills!). This will increase your chances of being picked out by a computer as a potential candidate, and move you on to the oh-so-important interview stage.

So there you have it—nifty little tips you can utilize to get a few steps ahead—and as always, if you have any specific comments or thoughts, feel free to send them along!

About StartWire™

StartWire™, a game-changing Internet job search organizer that launched in early 2011. StartWire closes the “résumé black hole” by providing job seekers with automatic application status updates from thousands of employers. Over the past 12 months, StartWire has received rave reviews and write-ups in US News & World Report, About.com, AOL Jobs, CNN, ERE, and HR Executive Magazine.  Glassdoor.com, is a StartWire Advertising partner.