This is increasingly important for the young people new to the job market who have grown up using the social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.   “Often times the images and description listed on these sites is not what you want a prospective employer or client to see , people simply are not thinking about the image they cast.”, says Shakila Manogaran (founder). The transformation of your online image is accomplished through deliberate positioning of your identity online, careful use of the social networks and planned participation in subject matter specific communities.

ProfessionalRecognition.com’s first workshop will be held in Bellevue, WA on May 14th.  Additional dates and  cities for Managing  Your Professional Identity are scheduled. This workshop   is an affordable half-day introduction to the tools and approaches for managing your online identity.  Each workshop is taught by very experienced technical coach/trainers, this workshop includes a personal domain name,  web site hosting for a year, a workbook to help you track your progress and map your pathway and a book about creating and maintaining your personal web site using the wildly popular blogging tool, WordPress.   Most importantly, each workshop includes a registration to MyProRec.com where individuals can register their experiences to be 3rd party validated and be time sealed  by the staff of Professional Recognition.com.

Paul Hill, the President of JSI, states, “Job seekers have been led to believe that the sky is falling, and in a few industries it truly is. However, job seekers should not be misled into thinking that wage deflation is broad based. The media continues to publish worst case scenarios, without balancing the horror stories with a proper overall assessment of wage trends. This causes problems for people seeking employment as they will, in many cases simply settle for whatever salary is offered, rather than negotiating from an informed position.”

Data provided by JSI shows that the general trend for wages is still upward, although the rate of growth has declined by approximately 50% from what we have seen in recent years. Since the mid 1990’s, the US labor market has seen annual wage growth of about 3% to 4% annually. When comparing March of 2008 to March of this year, wage growth for the entire labor force is 1.5%. When you analyze specific industries, you will certainly find that compensation for manufacturing workers of durable goods is trending down. The same is true for those employed in the retail sector.

UCLA Professor, Daniel Nathanson added, “With the JSI salary data, job seekers can know in advance what kind of market they’re stepping in to. This program shows clearly that if you’re in health care, education, and most industries for that matter, you’ve still got some bargaining power.”

Dr. Nathanson continued, “The disruptions in the labor markets are unprecedented. Historically, 1 out of every 25 occupations would see real wage declines. Now, our data is showing wage deflation for about 1 out of every 10 occupations.”

As project managers look for jobs in the current economic conditions, having a good resume is important, but the ability to visually present past accomplishments truly sets applicants apart. Like artists, architects, and other professionals, project managers should create portfolios of their work. Project portfolios are a great way to communicate past successes, and highlight abilities.

Chronicle Graphics recognizes this need in the project management community. For a limited time, Chronicle Graphics is making 60 day OnePager licenses available to any project manager that wants to augment their resume with a portfolio of past projects.

The program is open to all project managers, regardless of whether they are unemployed and looking for a new job, or employed and wanting to be prepared for the future. For more information, or to sign up for the program, project managers are encouraged to visit the Community section of the Chronicle Graphics web site.

In a rough job market, it takes more than a foot in the door.  More than a distinguished degree.  More than a new suit.  In fact, it might take all of these and more to land a new job.  From the resume and manner of speech, to attire and grooming, men need to prepare for scrutiny from potential employers, job recruiters, and networking contacts alike.

Although there is no magic formula, the following tips and resources could help give a man a leg up on the competition when it comes to a job search:

1. Refine the resume. A resume should be more than a list of job positions and degrees.  It should convey successes and contributions made to companies or organizations.  Monster.com and TheLadders.com offer guidelines for resume writing, as does Men’s Health magazine in this straightforward advice:  http://tinyurl.com/cs3n9z

2. Look the part. When you get your foot in the door, make sure it dons a freshly polished and well-soled shoe.  Have shirts ironed with starch to make them crisp at the collar and cuffs.  For ways to cut corners without cutting style, glance over “How to Look Like a Million Bucks For Under $200,” found at http://tinyurl.com/cyxudq.

3. Put the best face forward.  Make sure the beard shows no signs of razor burn or razor bumps.  To eliminate and prevent such skin problems, use Bump Patrol Aftershave Treatment for two days leading up to an interview.  Depending on skin type and condition, select from Extra-Strength, Original, or Sensitive formulas.  It works within 48 hours — no if, ands, or bumps.  www.bumppatrol.com

4. Comb over everything. Comb over the company’s marketing materials to prepare for the pitch, and then comb the hair for the meeting.  Sounds obvious, but use a comb, not your fingers.  It is not time to be casual.  For those who prefer the bald look, eliminate chances of nicks and bumps by following the Bump Patrol Directional Shave Method; a demonstration is online at www.bumppatrol.com.

5. Breathe easy.  Breathe a sigh of relief when there is an appointment, and don’t forget to freshen your breath for the first face-to-face.  Pop a Tic Tac or two. No gum.  However, if halitosis is possibly a bigger problem, try these tips from the author of The Bad Breath Report: http://tinyurl.com/d6vjxo.

6. Aspire to be Jerry Maguire.  Make potential employers think, “You had me hello.”  When you first meet, keep your head up, speak clearly, extend a well-groomed hand (clean nails, not shiny), and keep eye contact with your interviewer, the receptionist, and employees walking down the hall.  The goal is to make a connection worth remembering and one worth calling back for a second interview.

For all the men who are looking for a new job in this tough time, the maker of Bump Patrol wishes a hearty “Go get ‘em, and keep it smooth!”

offers a tool that has long been used by human resource professionals to assess the specific skills, knowledge sets, and mental and physical capacities needed for various jobs and find which local companies might be potential employers.

ERI Economic Research Institute’s Occupational Assessor™ (http://www.erieri.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=eDOT.Main) is an easy-to-use program that provides information concerning 99 characteristics of work for over 10,000 unique jobs found in the US today. The software helps assess abilities and interests and matches them to the requirements for actual jobs. When a user finds jobs of interest, the software then locates employers within commuting distance that employ people in these specific jobs, provides job availability statistics, and even links to online job postings within the commuting range.

According to ERI’s founding director, Dr. David Thomsen, “Job search at the personal level is all about minimizing rejection. ERI’s software identifies jobs that fit and local employers likely, or visibly, posting openings for these jobs, while providing contact names, emails, addresses, and phone numbers. Because this program increases the odds of a successful job search in these tough times, ERI has decided to make this program available at no cost.”

You can use ERI’s Occupational Assessor for many tasks:

* Identify your education, achievements, skills, present residence, and any limitations on physical and mental capacities;
* Review the jobs found nationally or locally for which your capacities and past training might qualify you;
* Receive three estimations of the number of these jobs within your area, region, or state;
* Generate a list of employers within commuting radius and a list of employers that are most likely to have the identified positions within their workforces;
* Review a list of job board postings by matched employer, area, and/or industry to see if any of these employers might now have “the right job at the right time in the right place”;
* All this, at no cost!

Increase the possibilities for success in your job search by going to the ERI web site at (http://www.erieri.com) and downloading the Demo Edition of the Occupational Assessor. Enhanced versions of the software for consultants and vocational experts are also available for purchase.

The key destination will be the exhibit hall that features booths from companies such as Google, AT&T, eBay and many other industry leaders that Three Stars wishes to forge new relationships with. Past ad:tech events generated dozens of new contacts that have led to numerous partnerships that greatly benefited the company’s growth.

Three Stars’s team will also be attending the keynote addresses by Digg CEO Kevin Rose and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales who will be discussing the future of consumer generated media and social networking sites, exploring how they will drive internet marketing for the next decade. As a leader in online markets, Three Stars will be expanding their business model to include social media to open up new markets and revenue streams for the company.

Ad:tech will be held April 21st through the 23rd at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco.

Promoting yourself with a career brag book has been industry standard for pharmaceutical sales reps for many years. It’s a proven method to showcase your achievments and let you shine above your competition.  The question has been asked by many as how  to promote your success more efficiently and to be seen by more  hiring eyes?  The answer is BragFolio.com.

Bragfolio has brought the sales brag book to the electronic age.  Now a job candidate can create a profile that details job history along with personal photo and the ability to display career accomplishments.  The idea is for medical sales reps and pharmaceutical sales reps to gain the interview advantage by showing more than just the standard resume. Creator of BragFolio Jeff Stahl has received many positive comments since the site launch late last month. “We are pleased with the response thus far.  I have had comments of gratitude from users whom claim gaining interviews and positive attention by employers and recruiters alike.”

The open network of BragFolio.com allows a user to create a custom url which can then be attached to all job search agents both on BragFolio.com and beyond. Job searchers are encouraged to create a profile on BragFolio.com then immediatley start the search on indeed.com to gain access to the most employment postings listed in one place.  ”We will have job post capability soon at BragFolio.com.  But we want and encourage our users to promote their profile on as many job search agents as they can.  We want to see people get hired!” says Stahl.

BragFolio.com is a very easy to navigate site with lots of positives.  Take a look for yourself at BragFolio.com and give yourself the power of BRAG!

MCG Partners, a premier provider of leadership, talent and organizational effectiveness, announced today the launch of Career Transition Advisors, a prominent provider of career transition, career search, career management, and outplacement services.

“Our clients and the marketplace have for some time been asking for a change in how career transition and outplacement services are provided, and we have addressed that need”, said Chuck Mollor, MCG Partners’ Managing Partner and the President of Career Transition Advisors.  ”We created a fully dedicated organization that delivers higher quality, more tailored services, while improving client results and satisfaction.”

Chuck Mollor states.

For more information on what makes Career Transition Advisors a different and improved service compared to what is currently offered, or to schedule an interview with Chuck Mollor, contact Adrienne Kravitz at (508) 279-9900 or e-mail akravitz@careertransitionadvisors.com.

About Career Transition Advisors:
Career Transition Advisors is a consultancy specializing in career transition, career search, career management and outplacement services. Career Transition Advisors offers unlimited and one-on-one career consulting and coaching with experienced, qualified and passionate consultants, who dedicate the time to tailor a program for immediate impact and long-term results. Our years of experience and best practices with downsizings, restructures, mergers, acquisitions, and managing change allow us to customize an approach for our client organizations and each individual effected. For more information, visit www.careertransitionadvisors.com or call 508-279-9900.

Employment references should be like the information reported from a credit reporting agency.  If you paid your bills on time, they should report that information as such.  If you paid your bills on time and they report anything other than that, the information would not be accurate.  The real question is, even if employment laws said employers couldn’t give a bad reference, how many people go through stop signs every day.  That law is very clear in every state!  However, most people don’t make a complete stop, roll through the sign or ignore it all together.

The next issue is, did the person who gave the reference violate company policy when saying something about you?  More than likely, your employment references aren’t following company policy or state law when giving out information.

The simple fact is, if you want to protect yourself from a bad reference, you need to know what your references are saying about you.  If you find out that your former employer is saying things about you that you do not agree with, you have remedies.

The fastest way to cure a former supervisor giving you a bad reference would be to contact the Human Resource department and ask them to verify the company policy on reference checks.  Most Human Resource departments will tell you they verify your dates of employment, title, confirm ending salary.  Ask them how they would handle a supervisor in the company that is deviating from the company policy.  Depending on what is being said, it might be best for you to take this information to a local attorney and get a legal opinion on your case.  Having proof is the smoking gun!  Finding a lawyer to take your case becomes a lot easier once you have proof that your old boss is giving you a bad reference.  The best way to protect yourself from a bad employment reference check is to know what your former employer is saying about you.

For information about laws in your state about employment references, please email customerservice@

checkmyreference.com

“DHResumes provides fast, professional resume writing and job research services that win jobs,” says Alan Leon, President of DHResumes. “We are receiving droves of resumes from college and graduate school students, who are seeking resume editing and writing that wins interviews and paying jobs.”

Surprising clientele: “DHResumes is receiving clients from all backgrounds. What may be surprising is that 80% of our clientele come from competitive colleges and top graduate school programs. We believe that students and parents are seeing how competitive it is in the job market, and they are choosing to make the career investment to order professional resume writing and job research services that give them a competitive edge. We provide documents that get in front of Hiring Managers, enabling our clients to get interviews and win paying jobs.”

Return on Investment: “When you look at the cost-to-benefit ratio solely in the first year, the cost of using a professional resume writing service is less than 1% of our happily employed clients’ salaries. It’s worthwhile to have earnings and job security, especially in light of the other option,” says Leon.

What DHResumes does differently:

“DHResumes recognized the desperate and growing need before anyone else. We specialize in creating winning documents for students and recent graduates. Our writers and researchers ask plenty of questions, we do in-depth research of the students’ interests and career pursuits, and we work with our clients to make sure that the finished product meets their needs. DHResumes is offering a
FREE Assessment of Your Work, Training and Interests. DHResumes is also running a $30 Sale for clients who register using a valid .edu email address.” Leon continues, “Students made the right decision getting higher educations. DHResumes does the writing to get them hired. We’re helping the next generation use the talents, skills and training that they’ve invested in for the future.”

To learn more about resume writing and job research services at DHResumes, check out http://dhresumes.com.

To order and save at DHResumes, go to http://dhresumes.com/page25.php. Students save $30 when registering with a valid .edu email address. Non-students save $20 for a limited time only.

Media, please email media@dhresumes.com or call 847.204.2564 to schedule an interview, ask questions or get quotes.