plus 2, Can job hopping wreck your career? - In the News

Can job hopping wreck your career? - In the News
Free career expo for job seekers Wednesday in Phoenix - AZCentral.com
Tri-State Career Fair connects employers, job seekers ... - Herald-Dispatch

Can job hopping wreck your career? - In the News

Posted: 31 Mar 2010 04:33 AM PDT

Wednesday, 31, Mar 2010 12:00

Do you change jobs frequently or find it difficult to stay with one company for longer than a year? You may have been labelled a 'job hopper', but that doesn't mean that you've spoiled your chances of finding the perfect career.

While regularly switching roles has been discouraged in the past, the current labour market makes it difficult to stay with one company for life.

The rise in redundancies has forced many people to leave roles that they're committed to. And with more temporary positions available than permanent ones these days, workers are moving jobs more frequently than they would like to.

A cause for concern

However, there is a point where recurrent job hopping does raise suspicions that an applicant is incompetent or unreliable.

If you have moved jobs numerous times in the past few years, hiring managers will want to investigate your career history to find out why you left these roles after such short periods. They may wonder whether you get easily bored, find it difficult to adapt to work situations, or even worse, left these jobs to avoid being fired.

On the other hand, they may surmise you have simply been moving up the career ladder or searching for the ideal position.

It depends on your line of work

Some industries understand or even welcome job nomads. In the IT industry or creative fields such as advertising or journalism, candidates are expected to move around in search of better opportunities.

In more corporate fields such as finance or law, however, job hopping is not accepted as the norm. Companies in these industries offer their workers plenty of internal advancement opportunities and loyalty is valued.

Your age makes a difference, too. Someone who has just graduated can be easily forgiven for trying out several roles before settling on a career. By contrast, if someone has been working for ten years and held down more than ten jobs during this time, hiring managers are likely to question their dependability.

Be outspoken about your motivations

If you are concerned that your CV portrays you as a job hopper, it is best to be candid about your career history in your resume and covering letter. If you left a job after a short period because it was a temporary or project-based role, explain this clearly in your CV.

Prepare yourself for potential interview questions about your reasons for leaving past employers. Aim to persuade your interviewer that you are not only a qualified and skilled candidate, but also one capable of being loyal to the organisation.

Convey the right message and your potential employer may come to view your complex career history as a valuable learning experience. It certainly shows that you have made an effort explore a variety of job roles in order to figure out what you are good at and where your true passion lies.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Free career expo for job seekers Wednesday in Phoenix - AZCentral.com

Posted: 30 Mar 2010 11:01 AM PDT

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Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Tri-State Career Fair connects employers, job seekers ... - Herald-Dispatch

Posted: 30 Mar 2010 08:55 PM PDT

HUNTINGTON -- Amanda Parsons has been on the job market for months. Every day, she checks the job ads in The Herald-Dispatch, and has looked into different opportunities here and there, but has had a hard time finding something.

"It's so hard to find anything right now," the Huntington resident said. "It's a drought for everything."

So she headed over to The Herald-Dispatch's Tri-State Career Fair Tuesday afternoon at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena.

She was among about 150 job-seekers who attended, which is fewer than at previous job fairs, said Amy Howat, director of advertising and marketing for The Herald-Dispatch. Seventeen businesses and organizations had recruiters at the fair, representing the fields of health care, financial services, call centers and education.

"The attendance was down some, but we had good, qualified candidates," said Zoe Lopez, human resources consultant-recruiter for DirecTV in Huntington. "We ended up with three potential new hires."

The job-seekers were a mix of younger, entry-level applicants and experienced employees looking for new opportunities or career changes, Howat said.

"This event is valuable for employers because it brings a good number of candidates into a single place, and it's valuable for job-seekers because they're able to meet multiple employers face-to-face," she said.

"It's a little slow, but we've seen people for installation jobs," said Steven Niedbalski, outside events marketing manager for Bath Fitter's Poca, W.Va., location. Bath Fitter was looking for installers and sales reps on Tuesday.

"We're constantly recruiting," he said. "Our company is expanding, and we're looking for people to fill jobs."

Melissa Mitchell, human resources generalist for Prestera Center, said job fairs are a good opportunity for Prestera to get its name out there and let people know that it's hiring. She was looking for direct care providers and workers to fill other clinical positions.

"We've talked to several people here today. Some filled out applications and some took them home to fill out," Mitchell said. "It's helpful to get our name out and let people know that we're hiring now. I think they don't know that we have jobs they may qualify for. Not everyone we hire is a counselor."

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.