In today’s highly volatile and ever-evolving job market, job security is fast becoming a thing of the past. Hundreds of thousands of people are laid off each year, and this figure is on the rise, so you are not alone! But depending on how long you were at your last job, you may find that you are somewhat rusty when it comes to how to look for a job in today’s environment.

The first thing is to realize that being laid off is really not the end of the world. In fact, it might even turn out to be a blessing in disguise – a mandatory career change! Utilize it as a chance to reflect on why you were laid off and what the next stage is. Getting laid off can happen to anyone, of course, but if you want to turn the situation into a productive, positive one, you will need to face the facts and understand why this happened to you. Go through a self-analysis of why this happened to you: Could it have been avoided or not? Could you have gotten out on time or not? All this is required to ensure that your next move and job market strategy has a realistic and factual foundational. The last thing you want to do is keep at an industry which is becoming extinct!
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Setting up a home based business doesn’t have to be intimidating, expensive or time consuming. When you decide to make your living working from home, you simply need to go through a basic set up process to ensure you are ready.

Here are the steps for setting up your home business for success:

1. Attitude

- The key to your business success is your attitude.
- Treat your business like a business.

This is critical whether you are working part-time or full-time. For example, the mom who works from home around her family. She always puts her family first, at the same time developing her business. She says, “I may work part-time, but I have a full-time attitude.” To put another way, “Have a hobby attitude, get a hobby income, have a business attitude get a business income.”

You can be successful working part-time and you can be successful working full-time but it is unlikely that you will be successful just working in your “spare time”.

2. Describe Your Business

Be able to describe your business concisely; a powerful one or two sentence description that someone can repeat in describing your business to others.

A unique and memorable tag line can also be invaluable for promoting your business. This is often referred to as your “elevator pitch” or “audio logo”. Think about it, if you ask someone about their business and they describe it as “a errr, well, I kind of take care of, you know, well in as much as…” would you be impressed? Would you think that you should really hire that person? It’s much better to be able to speak briefly, confidently and memorably about your business and what makes it unique.

3. Know Your Product or Service

Once you have chosen the product or service to sell you need to know your product intimately. If you are selling e-books for example, then know the content and its value. If you are selling software then use it and know it “inside out”.

You will develop a reputation of providing quality information and because of your product knowledge, you can become the preferred supplier.

If it is not practical to use certain products (for example a woman may choose to sell man’s shoes or vice versa) then you won’t be using the product, however you can still know the benefits and features of the product intimately.

4. Get a Domain Name

Welcome to the twenty first century, you need a domain name for your business! You’ll need an account with a reputable hosting company who will provide a “space” on the web for your domain name and site. The fees can be as low as $4.95 per month and go up from there. If you do not have any knowledge of HTML there are hosting companies that provide “site builder” software via the web. This can be a great option but be sure you like the application before you plunk down your money as you will probably be using it a lot!

5. Email

Once you have your own domain you will have one or more email accounts for that domain. This can assist in the promotion of your business and promotes a more professional business image.

Using email smartly can help you in the task of organizing your business communications. For example, sales can arrive via sales@your-company.com, support and help requests via support@your-company.com and so on.

By setting up some basic rules in Outlook or other email program you can have the mail conveniently sorted into folders for you as soon as it arrives.

6. Payment Processing

You will probably need a way to process credit cards. You could use services such as:

- PayPal https://www.paypal.com
- StormPay http://www.stormpay.com
- 2 Checkout http://www.2checkout.com
- Clickbank http://www.clickbank.com

Paypal now has a Pro level of service that includes a virtual terminal, helping to keep the costs low. Once your business picks up you may need to look into your own merchant account for credit card transactions but any of the sites listed will certainly get you started and may be all you need for the life of your business.

7. Computer Protection

Your computer is the lifeline to your business dealings and must be protected including the data that is stored. You will need a virus scanner, personal firewall, anti-spyware and anti-adware and preferably an email scanner with the ability to delete suspect of spam email from the server before it is downloaded to your computer.
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With the world constantly expanding its horizons, more and more buildings are being constructed and rules and regulations are getting tighter. Your construction resume will reflect your technical skills and advanced knowledge.

Basically a construction resume should contain your full name, permanent address, telephone numbers and email addresses. Apart from that a construction resume should include the following information.

A clear cut career and job objective which shows your sense of direction to the employer.

Your construction resume should have the names of each of your employers and your corresponding job titles.

Give a brief description about the employer like what they are doing, if they are not well known.

Highlight any community activities and membership with professional organizations.
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A job interview is stressful. The person who hasn’t made a lot of changes isn’t practiced at what is involved (nor should they want to be), and the person who has made a lot of changes doesn’t have any idea as to what’s involved either, or they wouldn’t be making so many changes!

Preparing for the interview de-stresses the situation considerably. Yet, 78% of all candidates – regardless of the level for which they are interviewing – wing it! And frequently cause themselves to be weeded out in the process.

Like so much of the interview, seemingly innocent questions can trip you up. You think you are answering them in a way that puts you in the best light, but you’d be surprised at how many people completely miss the boat. Merely to hope an interview has a positive result is not enough. That’s basically forfeiting your ability to drive up the percentage of a positive outcome.

For instance, in response to the question, “Why do you want to work here?” some people will say things such as:

“I’ve worked in this industry for 15 years and been very successful. I feel I can make a difference in your organization. I have a proven track record of leadership. I’ve read in the paper that your company is having some problems, and with my experience as a Director of XXXXX, I can help straighten those out.”

That answer may sound good and appear to suffice, but on a scale of 1 – 10, it ranks about a 4!

Why? The answer shows no research, no thought, no consideration. It sounds stock and could suffice for any number of companies. Overall, unimpressive.

In my experience as a recruiter, I’ve found that while mid level management tends to UNDERanswer the question, upper level management will often OVERanswer the question. One group doesn’t provide enough information because of a limited lack of experience. The other group has been around, worked their way up the ladder in more than one company, and in their attempt to sound thoughtful, intelligent, and wise, end up saying very little at all.
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