The Business Insider released an article this week listing the top ten states with the lowest unemployment rates. The lucky top 10 are:
1) North Dakota
2) South Dakota
3) Nebraska
4) New Hampshire
5) Vermont
6) Hawaii
7) Kansas Wyoming
9) Minnesota
10) Iowa
The article included information on the particular industries in each of these states that contributed to its position among the states with the lowest unemployment. And although medical industry was not featured as a key driver of employment in any of these states, there’s no getting around the fact that wherever there are people, there will always be demand for medical services. So if you’re setting out, new certificate in hand, looking for a new place to start your life and career, think about some of these places where the good employment outlook surely means the local economies are vibrant.
By now, the whole country has seen the story of the disgruntled Jet Blue flight attendant who literally pulled the cord and ejected himself from his job after a particularly stressful day. I am sure he will be seeking a new job shortly. If you’re about to graduate and ready to leave your crummy job behind to begin your new career in medical billing and coding, you might want to purchase this useful item – the Slipquit – when it’s time to tell your current boss, “sayonara”.
We continue to be unsurprised by report after report confirming what Allen School Online students already know – that jobs serving the healthcare fields are never in short supply. This is probably one of the main determinants that factored into your decision to pursue an Allen School Online diploma. True to form, the latest report, courtesy of Investopedia.com (which is one of my favorite investment/financial educational resources by the way) confirms that indeed, healthcare industry jobs top the list of safest, most recession-proof jobs. Read the full report here. We’re #1!
Most of our reporting on how to succeed in the job hunt has focused on resume writing and interview skills/practices. However, as many of you online students are all too aware, there is a lot of job hunting that goes on over the Internet. Wouldn’t ya know it, there are etiquette mistakes to be made in the online job hunt just as sure as there are in the real world. Here’s a link to a great article about how to avoid common online job hunting gaffes, SNAFUs and faux pas.
Kaboodle.com had this great list of common grammatical blunders that you really should avoid when writing resumes and cover letters. The takeaway message here is that spell check is not enough because sometimes misspellings form other actual words that are not spelled wrong, but mean something entirely different. Here (over the fold) are some examples from the Kaboodle.com article. (more…)
Manpower, a leading staffing services organization, released its report on the top 5 strongest job markets in the US. This year, with unemployment at very high levels, it is even more critical than ever to know where the jobs are. The top 5 markets are:
For the details on each market including information on what sectors and individual organizations are hiring in each of these metro areas, click here to read the full report.
One of my other jobs involves working with thousands of staffing companies. As a result, I have regular contact with hiring managers across the United States. When I saw this article in US News entitled, “21 Things Hiring Managers Wish You Knew”, I was impressed with how spot on it was. Hiring managers have seen it all when it comes to people’s ideas of what is appropriate behavior in the pursuit of that “perfect job”. If you’re about to embark on a job hunt, with your Allen School diploma in hand, have a quick read of this piece so you can get some idea of what hiring managers are looking for in today’s difficult employment environment. Remember, there are 6 job seekers for every available job today. So it pays to be as well prepared for the critical interview process as you can be. Never before has it been so important!
Clearly, it won’t happen this way to everyone. But there is a lesson to take from the story of Bob Croak, the man responsible for making “Silly Bands” a household name. You see, Croak was a bar owner/operator who ran afoul of the law. As a stipulation of the judgment against him, he was ordered to refrain from being in the alcohol sales business. In effect, he was pushed out of his career. Did this sink him? Did he end up destitute and living beneath an overpass? No. Quite the contrary, he struck off in a new direction and ultimately discovered what would become 2010’s hottest kiddie craze, the ubiquitous “Silly Bands”. If you haven’t seen the colorful silicone bands in different shapes that adorn the wrists of nearly every American kid from ages 4-14, you should get your eyes checked. Croak is sitting atop a toy empire and is making far more money than he ever could as a bar owner. The moral of this story — especially for those who decided to enter the field of medical billing and coding after losing their jobs in other fields — is that the loss of a job is not always a negative occurrence. Sometimes, unscheduled changes on the career path are just what a person needs to give them the time and space to explore entirely new horizons. Sometimes, those horizons are at the edge of successes beyond their wildest dreams.
Okay. I know we usually keep the content on this blog toward the highbrow end of the spectrum. But I felt like being a little silly today. View this awesome video of a two year old Brazilian boy who Sambas better than I ever will. Beyond the cuteness factor and the giddiness of propagating a viral video sensation, it occured to me that this kid’ll probably grow up to be a professional dancer. And if he doesn’t, it’ll be a shame because he could make a fortune doing something he so obviously enjoys. So let that be the lesson from today’s blog post. Continue to study hard and develop your skills in this area you’ve chosen. If you truly love the work, you will most definitely succeed.
Every so often, I post on ways to enhance your resumé or to at least avoid some common job-hunting mistakes. These posts always generate alot of interest. So here’s another installment in the “how not to botch your resumé” category. Below are some comical errors culled from hiring managers in diverse fields in an article by Maria Hanson at LiveCareer. Needless to say, none of these people were called back for an interview.
Avoid Careless Mistakes like these:
“Speak, read, and wright English/Spanish.”–seen by Angie Beauchamp, Charm Factory manager.
A candidate actually misspelled her own first name, writing “Barbara” as “Barabara.”–Mark Gollihur, who managed a video store when he received that application.
Bad Ideas
Email address: Bostoncutiee22@example.com.–seen by Stacey Schmidt, a recruiter at Vistaprint.
A job-seeker used a free return-address sticker from an endangered-wildlife nonprofit on his resume instead of typing his contact information out.–seen by Philip Farina.
For the whole article and a longer list of resumé gaffes, click here.
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The Business Insider released an article this week listing the top ten states with the lowest unemployment rates. The lucky top 10 are:
Wyoming
