by cjxpadmin | Aug 27, 2012 | September 2012 Magazine
By Sheena Williams
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, bloggers are all social media sites. Let me reiterate, they are social media sites. If you break those three words down, it means a site that uses media for you to be social. You can share 
pictures, thoughts, songs, and videos to let others know what you’re doing with and in your life. It can let you keep up with literally hundreds of people with a click of a button. If you have family in Aruba, you just have to log on to see if that hurricane missed them. Have a daughter in the army? Well, your Facebook can bring you that much closer to seeing her.
With all of the convenience of social media, it isn’t any wonder that many companies have now jumped on the bandwagon! Not only do they do this to advertise their product or service, but to conduct hiring practices. Think about all of the information that is on your resume can now be on LinkedIn. Employers can screen you, get your email address or telephone number, and hire you within a matter of minutes!
Unfortunately, however, with the good, comes the bad. You’re a conservative? Guess what? Your future boss 
may be a liberal. Don’t like chicken soup? Well, the office administrator in charge of hiring may love it and thinks that anyone who doesn’t like it is un-American! With these kinds of pitfalls, someone could easily fall through, so, it’s easy to just say “Forget social media altogether.” However, more and more jobs are requiring a Facebook account or some such application. People are losing out on jobs because the employers cannot connect with them. You didn’t hear about that job on 4th Street? That’s because the company released the information on Twitter instead of spending the money for that pricey ad in the newspaper. In an effort to keep you from ignoring the job networking power house that is Social Media, we are going to give you some rules of thumb to follow when working with and posting on the World Wide Web!
Are you ready?
Create yourself a separate account or page for work purposes. Yes, I know, you already have a 
Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter page. But do yourself a very large favor and create another one with your work e-mail address that you can keep completely separate from your personal social media page. This not only allows you to get your face and resume out there, but it also allows you to post freely on your personal page without having your boss seeing you do the Captain Morgan pose in front of their building. As funny as it may be, the picture has a time stamp on it and now you and your boss know that your picture was not taken during your lunch break.
Learn the Terminology
Your boss asks why you don’t post anything on your Twitter. What? You have a Twitter and you were supposed to post? What is a post? Okay, so you’re creating the requested post. It tells you that you put in too 
many characters. What are characters? It’s little things like these that you will need to look into that will make your time on any social media site easier before you even log on. A little research will let you know that a post is the content that you put on your social media page. You’ll find out that characters are the words, letters, numbers, and spaces that fill up a post. Being savvy about the things that you are about to undertake before you get on with it, will make your day a lot easier.
Securities Securities are what you allow others to see when they come to your page. You don’t mind letting John Doe check out your daily posts, but Jane Smith seems a bit suspicious. With many social media sites, you have the power to block, hide, allow, un allow, and show only who or what you wish to share. Maybe you took some before and after pictures of your weight loss journey, but you don’t want others to see your progress before your high school reunion. Set the picture folder to private and only your friends and family can see it. Going to the hospital to have a very personal surgery? Make sure that your securities reflect those who you want to see it. We always recommend that if it is something private like the previous example that you don’t put it up on your media site. Call those you need to know that information so that it will stay private.
Know What To Post
In life, you will find that not everyone will agree. In fact, in much of life, you will find that not everyone will agree. You have every right to post your opinion on any given topic that you see fit. However, by putting it on a social media site, you are giving everyone you have allowed access to your page to view and talk about it and
come back with a rebuttal. If you are hoping to have a future employer hire you based on your information, then, you will have to keep the information you post to a minimum. Nothing negative, political, religious, racist or generally too opinionated should go onto your page. You want employers to base their decision to hire you based on your work, not how you feel about the Red Sox losing that big game.
Be Choosy About Who You Allow On Your Page
You love your Aunt Gertrude. You want nothing but good things and happy days for your Aunt Gertrude. 
However, Auntie G has a bad habit of telling really embarrassing baby stories about you on your page. Your best friend, Buddy, has a nasty habit of criticizing you on your page. Your social media page is not the place for him or Aunt G to be doing any of that. Maybe it’s not even a case of you doing anything. Maybe Jessica likes to take provocative pictures of herself next to a car. It may be innocent, but if she tags you on the pictures, they will show up on your page, and it’s not something your employer needs to see. Don’t ignore any of these people, by any means. If you followed the above directions and have two separate pages, then, put them on the personal page and move on… except for that friend who criticizes you, having toxic people in your life isn’t good, no matter how funny he is, posting those pictures of those crazy kittens.
Do Not Post Your Personal Business
I cannot stress enough that it is potentially dangerous for you to put seriously personal things on your page. No one needs to know that your husband cheated on you. No one needs to know that you were chatting up some hottie on websites with questionable names. For the love of all that is heavenly, do not fight with your significant other on Facebook. As stated earlier, you are posting to a social media site. Yes, it is your business
what you post there, but by posting it there, you open yourself up to criticism, complaints and judgment from all who can see your post, including your future boss. Your words can be used against you in a court of law, and there have been custody battles won on things posted on social media sites, don’t think I’m kidding. Think of social media as an interactive diary. You post your personal thoughts, but instead of the thoughts just being kept, the pages respond back to you.
Don’t Be Afraid Of Social Media. It’s meant as entertainment and can be an excellent tool for finding work. It allows you to network and meet new people whom you wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to meet. Just practice caution and some good common sense and you will be fine! △
by cjxpadmin | Aug 22, 2012 | Job Club Heart of Texas, Job Search
The Grammar Income Test
UNIVERSITY OF MOTTSBURGH OCCUPATIONAL INVENTORY OF GRAMMATICAL KNOWLEDGE
As demonstrated in the research of Dr. Edward McCormick, an individual’s habits of grammar correlate with her or his income. Test results indicate that one can predict with 80 percent accuracy the income of an individual based on his answers to the questions below. Use this quiz to see what income level your grammatical patterns place you.
Instructions: Mark each sentence as C if it is grammatically correct, I if it is incorrect, or ? if you are uncertain. Wrong answers count as a minus two. A question mark, indicating you are uncertain, only counts as a minus one. Keep in mind that errors may be of any variety: spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or usage.
- 1Her choice will strongly effect the outcome.
- We have alot of work to do.
- Mottsburgh is a busy industrial city, thousands of cars and trucks move through it every day.
- “I suppose”, she remarked “that success comes only with time.”
- The company should receive the package tomorrow.
- Its impressive to hear what she has done.
- She was late, however, she did make the presentation.
- Give the book to whom?
- When the ship arrives we can begin the journey.
- We rafted down the grand mountain river.
- The name of the book was “Outbreak.”
- There were four in the group: Ann, Jim, Theo, and Amanda.
- He sings good.
- You shouldn’t lie on the wet grass.
- He paid all the interest on the principal.
- I wish to go irregardless of his decision.
- He doesn’t know history very well. As you can see from his answers in class.
- He imagined that Hawking would have all the answers but he just posed more questions.
- Spiraling in the Andromeda Galaxy, Dr. Vilhelm insists that there is alien life on the Andromeda planet called Lanulos.
- We packed all of our luggage, then we were on our way to the airport.
For your scoring to this test, please check here tomorrow. For results showing the effect of your salary, refer to the article “Grammar Test” in the September Issue of CampusJobXpress.com.
- How well did you do?
- How well do you think you did?
- Do you feel you need assistance with your grammar?
- How important do you feel grammar is to your salary earning capacity?
*From Noden H. (1999). Image grammar: Using Grammatical structures to teach writing (pp. 195-196) Portsmouth, N.H: Heinemann.
Please DO NOT post your answers or corrections to these sentences.
SCORING Answer Key:
1. I 2. I, 3. I, 4. I, 5. C, 6. I, 7. I, 8. C, 9. I, 10. I, 11. I, 12. C, 13. I, 14. C, 15. C, 16. I, 17. I, 18. I, 19. I, 20. I.
For the projected salary that goes with your score, check out the article, Grammar Test, in the upcoming September issue of CampusJobXpress.com.
by cjxpadmin | Aug 15, 2012 | Job Club Heart of Texas, Job Search
What IS the big idea, we ask. So far Job Club has been a hit, but we want Opinions. What do you think would improve Job Club? What would you like to see added or talked about. Tell us Your Big Idea.
Just another serious reminder, many of you are not making at least one comment. This comment is critical as it documents you as participating in Job Club. You must say something in job club to be marked as present. Your participation in job club is one job search!
We welcome your comments.
Rachel Rudd Job Placement Specialist Campusjobxpress.com
by cjxpadmin | Aug 8, 2012 | Job Club Heart of Texas, Job Search
We have asked everyone to be ready to do a one minute presentation on the ultimate interview question: “Tell me about yourself”. Everyone assumed they were ready to do that, but after hearing some individuals this is not the case. All answers to every question should always be work related and kept positive. The below questions are major examples as to what employers normally ask during an interview. How would you answer some of these?
- Tell me about yourself.
- What is your greatest strength?
- Can you describe a situation in your past where you learned from a mistake?
- What is the most difficult situation you have ever faced?
- Is there anything you would like to improve about yourself?
- What is the most important thing you are looking for in a job?
- What are your career goals?
- What motivates you?
- Why would you like to work for us?
- Why should I hire you?
by cjxpadmin | Aug 1, 2012 | August 2012 Magazine, This Issue's FEATURE
Am I Too Old To Change Careers?
You said you want to change your career at this stage of the game? Well, let me tell you that you are never too old.
Today, most of us are finding ourselves having to work much longer than we ever imagined. The days of an early retirement have been thrown out the window, so to 
speak. However, working in our later years provides an opportunity to re-invent ourselves, to re-discover our hidden talents, and to pursue new ventures. This time in our lives gives us the chance to pursue the dreams that were left untapped, those things that we really wanted to do, but couldn’t because you all of a sudden find yourself with a family and obligations. Now, we are much wiser, have a lot of experience, and have gained skills that can be utilized by an employer or by yourself to start your own business. We should, after all, be challenging ourselves.
According to the Kingston Business School, older entrepreneurs are more likely to be successful than their younger counterparts. Why? Because the older we get, we become more confident about our own self-worth and are more aware of our strengths and weaknesses. This is a major advantage over a young person fresh out of college who is pursuing their first career. Working for yourself allows you to become dependent on yourself versus solely relying on others to give you a job.
Even if you aren’t interested in starting your own business, use this time in your life to re-assess your career and identify the areas that you truly enjoyed. Evaluate your life and job experiences and find the direction you want your career to take.
The Colonel Sanders Story has been told so many times. It’s a well known story. Colonel Sanders was 65 years old when he began franchising his infamous chicken. Prior to that, the Colonel was a gas station owner where he fried chicken for weary travelers. This story is often repeated to show that it’s never too late and one is never too old to come up with career changing ideas. However, things were different in the 1930’s. When Colonel Sanders starting serving fried chicken at a Kentucky gas station 80 years ago, he probably didn’t have as many health department hurdles to overcome as that same gas station would today. How do you know what you want to do?
CareerPath.com offers online resources that determines the same answers for free. If someone wants to change careers but is having trouble deciding on a new career path, these online resources can really help. Also, the website will even suggest actual jobs worth applying for.
Always remember that there are ways to transfer the skills you have gained so far into your next career. This is your opportunity to establish your real passions, interests,
strengths and goals into your next career. However, do not forget what you have achieved or accomplished so far. None of it is irrelevant. You are simply building and growing from what you have done, even if you are taking a slightly different direction now. There is a connection there; — you just need to find it.
No one ever stated that we were only allowed one career path. It’s never too late to make a change. Start now. Don’t focus on your age but rather on the skills and experience you are able to offer to others. Empower yourself with this knowledge and pursue your new career path.
Choose a new you! △
“When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”
~Benjamin Franklin
may be a liberal. Don’t like chicken soup? Well, the office administrator in charge of hiring may love it and thinks that anyone who doesn’t like it is un-American! With these kinds of pitfalls, someone could easily fall through, so, it’s easy to just say “Forget social media altogether.” However, more and more jobs are requiring a Facebook account or some such application. People are losing out on jobs because the employers cannot connect with them. You didn’t hear about that job on 4th Street? That’s because the company released the information on Twitter instead of spending the money for that pricey ad in the newspaper. In an effort to keep you from ignoring the job networking power house that is Social Media, we are going to give you some rules of thumb to follow when working with and posting on the World Wide Web!
Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter page. But do yourself a very large favor and create another one with your work e-mail address that you can keep completely separate from your personal social media page. This not only allows you to get your face and resume out there, but it also allows you to post freely on your personal page without having your boss seeing you do the Captain Morgan pose in front of their building. As funny as it may be, the picture has a time stamp on it and now you and your boss know that your picture was not taken during your lunch break.
many characters. What are characters? It’s little things like these that you will need to look into that will make your time on any social media site easier before you even log on. A little research will let you know that a post is the content that you put on your social media page. You’ll find out that characters are the words, letters, numbers, and spaces that fill up a post. Being savvy about the things that you are about to undertake before you get on with it, will make your day a lot easier.
come back with a rebuttal. If you are hoping to have a future employer hire you based on your information, then, you will have to keep the information you post to a minimum. Nothing negative, political, religious, racist or generally too opinionated should go onto your page. You want employers to base their decision to hire you based on your work, not how you feel about the Red Sox losing that big game.
However, Auntie G has a bad habit of telling really embarrassing baby stories about you on your page. Your best friend, Buddy, has a nasty habit of criticizing you on your page. Your social media page is not the place for him or Aunt G to be doing any of that. Maybe it’s not even a case of you doing anything. Maybe Jessica likes to take provocative pictures of herself next to a car. It may be innocent, but if she tags you on the pictures, they will show up on your page, and it’s not something your employer needs to see. Don’t ignore any of these people, by any means. If you followed the above directions and have two separate pages, then, put them on the personal page and move on… except for that friend who criticizes you, having toxic people in your life isn’t good, no matter how funny he is, posting those pictures of those crazy kittens.
what you post there, but by posting it there, you open yourself up to criticism, complaints and judgment from all who can see your post, including your future boss. Your words can be used against you in a court of law, and there have been custody battles won on things posted on social media sites, don’t think I’m kidding. Think of social media as an interactive diary. You post your personal thoughts, but instead of the thoughts just being kept, the pages respond back to you.
