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Welcome to "Career News"
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is pleased to send you the first issue of "Career News," an informative e-newsletter filled with noteworthy articles pertaining to social work career news, trends, compensation, research, and more.
Career News will be delivered to you every other month via email and you can also read it in the Social Work Career Center.
This is a free resource for social workers and others in the community and we encourage you to share it with friends and colleagues by clicking on the "Send to a Colleague" button in the right hand margin.
Headlines
"Seven Emerging Jobs Poised for Growth"
"Looking for a Job? Try LinkedIn or Twitter"
"Résumé Writing Tips—Make a Positive First Impression"
"Posture Perfect: Nailing a Job Interview Means More Than Having the Best-Looking Résumé"
"Three Days, 20 Words, New Job "
Career News
Seven Emerging Jobs Poised for Growth
CNN.com (08/05/09) Zupek, Rachel
Even many of the jobs once believed to be "recession-proof" have been cut due to the economic crisis. However, there are still a few professions in which the job market is expected to grow, and social work is one of them. Anyone who has ever had ongoing health problems or had to help take care of a loved one knows that the health care system is difficult to navigate, which is why demand for patient advocates is expected to increase. As the population ages, patient care advocates will become increasingly important.
Patient advocates ensure that patients are informed, see the right specialists, and are taking the right medicine, as well as educate family members on how to help care for the patient. Perhaps most importantly, patient advocates will help go over medical bills and negotiate fees with health care providers and insurance companies. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that health care jobs for medical and public health social workers will increase 24 percent through 2016, and salaries are expected to average $47,560.
Looking for a Job? Try LinkedIn or Twitter
Reuters (08/12/09) Zeidler, Sue
Social networking Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter are not only transforming social interactions, they also are fundamentally changing how people search for employment. Web 2.0 technologies are enabling more and more people to connect with potential employers, promote themselves and their skills, create support groups, and search for job leads and contacts. "Mobile technology and social networking has shifted the whole job search paradigm," says Job-Hunt.org editor Susan Joyce. "You don't need to stay glued to your phone or computer at home anymore." As social networking sites are increasingly accessible on mobile devices, job hunters can create résumés, view listings, and contact prospective employers using smart phones.
Joyce suggests creating a profile on the site LinkedIn, a professional social networking site that allows users to create a profile and list skills, work history, employment goals, and contact information. "The LinkedIn Profile is really the résumé of the future," she says. "The 'résumé' on LinkedIn is really the standard LinkedIn Profile, but it's very popular with recruiters looking for good candidates. You could build your whole LinkedIn presence from any Web-enabled phone." Some job hunters are using the micro-blogging site Twitter to outline their skills, experiences, and career goals, along with links to their résumés. Twitter and Facebook also can help job hunters find networking events, job leads, and tips that they otherwise might have missed.
Résumé Writing Tips—Make a Positive First Impression
Baltimore Examiner (07/30/09) Gordon, Sara
A résumé is a job hunter's first chance to make a good impression on a potential employer. A résumé full of typos and grammatical errors is more easily dismissed by companies, as it indicates the possibility of sloppy work. To create a strong, effective résumé, follow these guidelines. First, do not lump all of your experience into a single paragraph. Use bullet points to make your résumé easy to read, which enables your skills and accomplishments to stand out and allows employers to quickly scan your résumé but still absorb all of the important information. Use quantifiable facts instead of vague language. Organize information by sections, including education, work history, summary of qualifications, technology skills, training, certification, and awards.
Categorizing creates structure for the document and enables readers to find the parts that are of the most interest to them. Tailor your résumé to for each job that you apply for by moving skills that would be of the most interest to the specific employer to the top of that section to ensure hiring managers see how well you fit the requirements. Look at other résumés to see what is effective and what is not. For professional and security reasons, do not include pictures of yourself, facts about your family, your date of birth, or your social security number on a résumé. Including personal information oversteps professional boundaries before you even have a chance to meet the hiring manager and exposes you to identity fraud. Lastly, always use a spelling checker.
View our Social Work Career Center résumé and cover letter examples here.
Posture Perfect: Nailing a Job Interview Means More Than Having the Best-Looking Résumé
MarketWatch (07/24/09) Ong, Bao
The recession has made finding a job extremely difficult, and the growing unemployment numbers have allowed recruiters and interviewers to be extra careful in choosing candidates. As a result, it is more important than ever to appear and act professional in interviews. While appearances are not everything, they help make a good first impression, so make sure to have well-fitting, professional clothes, and well-groomed hair. In the interview, ask if it is acceptable to take notes, and be sure to have a professional-looking, non-disposable pen, as well as a good-looking pad of paper to take notes on.
Do not wear a strong cologne or perfume, which is one of the most common interview mistakes, and make sure you have fresh breath before going in for the interview. Ask questions about the company and the job position using specifics to demonstrate that you researched and know something about the company. The interviewer should be in charge of the interview, so do not be too aggressive, but demonstrate some knowledge and enthusiasm for the position. Lastly, display good body language to show confidence, including good posture and eye contact, but not so much eye contact that it makes the interviewer uncomfortable.
Three Days, 20 Words, New Job
Christian Science Monitor (08/07/98) Farnsworth, Amy
After trying all the usual job-search sites, newspapers, and professional networking opportunities, Dustin Mitchell turned to Twitter, learned about an opening at an Internet startup company, started twittering with an employee, and was quickly hired. "In a recession there are a ton of people applying for a job," Mitchell says. "I wanted to be the first one in, the fastest one in." In the 21st century, the traditional crisp, white résumés and cover letters are being replaced by online social-media networking, such as Twesumes, personal bios written in only 140-character tweets, and Twinterviews, interviews conducted on Twitter. Social networking technology is accelerating the hiring process and allowing some job-hunters to connect directly with recruiters and hiring managers. Although it is unclear just how many people have found jobs through social networking tools, a growing number of people are using the technology to look for work.
Since 2005, the percentage of U.S. adults that use social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn has jumped from 8 percent to 35 percent, with more than a quarter of adult users logging on for professional reasons. Twitter has even launched two job search engines—TwitterJobSearch.com and TweetMyJOBS.com. Some job seekers are creating their own promotional ads on sites such as Facebook to target recruiters from specific companies or regions. Companies also are using social networking, largely as a means to save costs. A survey of 450 corporate and human-resources professionals found that 61 percent are using social networking to find new employees, and a survey of 31,000 employers found that 22 percent use social networking sites to evaluate candidates and 9 percent said they planned on using social networks to screen candidates, according to CareerBuilder.com.
Abstract News © Copyright 2009 INFORMATION, INC.
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