Best Career Blog

I'm thinking about hosting a contest for the "Best Career Blog" in 2008.

In surfing around the web, I've found a number that I think would be excellent candidates. I'm looking specifically at blogs written by professional resume writers and career coaches, for clients.

Among them:

Blue Sky Resumes (Louise Fletcher)
Career Assessment Goddess (Susan Guarneri)
Careerhub
Executive Resumes (Laurie Smith)
Jan Melnik's Blog
Resume Boutique (Randi Lewis)

Do you have a blog to nominate? E-mail me at RWDigest@aol.com.

Poll: Quality Jobs Hard to Find

According to a new poll from The Gallup Organization, respondents say now is a difficult time to find a quality job.

A Gallup Poll conducted Jan. 4-6, 2008, found 6 in 10 Americans saying now is a "bad time to find a quality job." This is up 13 percentage points from January 2007 and is the highest percentage since early December 2005, when 60% of Americans also held this view of the job market. Even so, it is well below the 81% who said it was a bad time to find a good job back in March and August 2003, during the buildup to and early stages of the war in Iraq.

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,023 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan. 4-6, 2008. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

Career Directors Conference Will Include Free Certification

Attend the 2008 Career Directors International Conference in Seattle Oct. 15-18, and receive a 360º Reach™ Assessment Certification for free ($377 value). The 360º Reach Assessment Certification Program certifies you to use the 360º Reach Personal Brand Assessment System. It provides you with the training and support you need to perform the detailed analysis of 360º Reach feedback. You will also learn how to coach clients to use this information.

Before attending the CDI conference, registrants will access and use the 360ª Reach™ assessment and access online training for the preliminary assessment training. Then, at the conference, participants will receive the last training module via a live presentation from Susan Guarneri, MS, NCC, CERW, CCMC... aka the "Career Assessment Goddess."

Super Early Bird registration ends May 1, and the conference is only open to the first 100 registrants. For more information, contact Career Directors International.

New Rules for Defining a "Job Applicant"?

Thanks to Irene Marshall of Tools for Transition, for finding this article from 2006 that outlined new rules for defining job applicants.

While I had heard some rumblings of the implications of this change back in 2006, the reality of the situation is that the changes have not had the impact on job seekers -- or careers professionals -- that might have been expected because of its limited scope so far. Currently, it only applies to companies with a federal contract.

You can find more information about it in this article from the Electronic Recruiting Exchange (ERE).