Who's Still Hiring in Today's Ecnonomy?

As of the beginning of February, the unemployment rate increased from 7.2% to 7.6%, indicating that approximately 11.6 million people are unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Given the lingering economic volatility, many unemployed people and those graduating are searching for their next employment opportunity.  Moreover, even those currently employed cannot help but wonder what may be out there for them in the job market.  So a timely question is - who’s still hiring in today’s economy?  

According to Tara Weiss of Forbes.com, a recent survey reveals the following are the “10 Most Recession-Proof Jobs”:

1. Sales Representative

2. Software Design and Development

3. Nursing

4. Account Executive

5. Networking & Systems Administration

6. Administrative Assistant

7. Business Analysis, Software Implementation

8. Business Analysis Research

9. Finance Staff

10. Accounting Staff

 

 

 

 

 

Is your degree or current job not in one of these fields?  No problem.  No matter what your degree, there are still ways that you can position yourself as a more attractive job prospect and distinguish your strengths, such as :

• Resume :  One of the problems individuals face in the job market is that they have not updated their resume in recent years.  Therefore, it’s often harder to remember your specific accomplishments.  Try keeping a folder or log of projects and achievements that you can quickly reference to update your resume.  

• Network: It sounds cliché, but remember the old adage: “It’s not what you know, but who you know”.  Thus, having an established network already in place will make your job prospects easier in the long run.  A site that helps you to network is LinkedIn:

  • LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) – this is essentially an adult version of the familiar Facebook dedicated to professional networking.  LinkedIn defines its site as “a business oriented social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003”. 

 

• Research: All too often, potential employers complain that the job prospect knows nothing about the business where they are seeking employment.  Before even sending your resume, research the company and conduct news searches so that during a preliminary phone interview, you can distinguish yourself by being familiar with current events and illustrate a keen interest in the company. 

• E-Persona: Last, but certainly not least, if you have a profile on Facebook or MySpace, or any one of the other social networking sites, and you are actively pursuing a job, it is in your best interest to remove any picture or comments that might be deemed by your company as less than professional.  We could go into more details about the definition of “less than professional”; however graduates should be trusted to use common sense.  A good exercise is to google yourself and see what comes up.  Potential employers may be googling you, so you should see if your e-persona creates a good first impression.

Best of luck to all of you!