Month: August 2009

Suit up for job interview and get hired faster

Wendy Terwelp 2 Comments

In today’s JSOnline, Joel Dresang provides details on a special program to help “dress up unemployment.” Here’s the story:

A year ago, a national clothing retailer rounded up 125,000 men’s suits and other apparel to distribute to job seekers who couldn’t afford to dress for success at job interviews.

James Green, career development specialist at YWCA of Greater Milwaukee, recalls outfitting one man with a suit, overcoat, tie and shoes that helped lead the man to a $14-an-hour position after he hadn’t worked in more than two years.

“When a person comes in properly dressed, it goes a long way for them,” Green says.

Next month, the YW again will be a local partner with Men’s Wearhouse on the national clothing drive.

Starting next week through Sept. 30, you can drop off gently used suits, dress shirts, sport coats, slacks, ties, belts and shoes at any Men’s Wearhouse store. The company says it will throw in a tie for every suit donated and offer a discount coupon for each donor.

———

Another resource, this one serving women, is Bottomless Closet Milwaukee. Founded in 1997, Bottomless Closet is an affiliate of The Women’s Alliance, a national organization of independent community-based members who provide professional attire and career skills to low-income women and families seeking self sufficiency. Since its inception, Bottomless Closet provided services to approximately 10,000 women. Annually, Bottomless Closet serves nearly 1,000 women at the offices located at 6040 W. Lisbon Ave., Milwaukee.

Job Seekers: Time for a Tweet

Wendy Terwelp 3 Comments

Job Seekers, are you on Twitter yet? If not, check out these current stats:

  • 73% of Executives find jobs through Social Networks.
  • Twitter was rated the No. 3 Social Networking site by Bloomberg.
  • Twitter has grown from 500,000 to over 19 million users in the last 9 months.

WOW.

With this in mind, have you explored Twitter for your career search? If not, do so now.

Keep in mind some basics when you sign up:

1. Keep your posts short – 140 characters.

2. Be relevant. Do not tweet about how you are still looking for a job, but rather what you can do for an employer; demonstrate your thought leadership.

3. Be current. This does not mean you have to tweet 20 times a day, it does mean to tweet with regularity.

4. Be on brand. What’s your career target? What is relevant to this target? Which companies do you wish to work for? What will they find interesting about you?

5. Be personal – but not TOO personal. I do not care that you are in the bathroom tweeting, drinking coffee, opening a door or other mundane activities. I also don’t want to know about your extreme political views, religion or super negative attitude. Think about it like this, are these statements relevant to your career, job search or current employment? Would your mom like to hear about these things? How about your boss? If you think they’d be in shock, don’t tweet the info. Do tweet: relevant info from a conference, an opinion on a hot topic, interesting RELEVANT hobbies, and so on.

Go ahead! Move forward and try it out. For more ideas on what to tweet, follow people you want to know more about. You can check out my tweets at: http://twitter.com/wendyterwelp.

UPDATE: New Book – Twitter Job Search Guide! Came out 3/2010

Source for more Twitter Stats: Twitjobsearch.com

5 Networking Mistakes

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

By Nicole Williams, Works

Twitter, blogs, Facebook have made it easier than ever before to network with people who could help you gain valuable advice, insight and connections. But just because it’s easy to access people, doesn’t mean you should. Or at least it doesn’t mean you should just reach out without at least a nod to some good old fashioned etiquette rules of the pre 2.0 era.

Read on!