CAREERS NOW 03-07-07

Finding Good Blue-Collar Jobs

DEAR JOYCE: I've been looking for a resume book for blue-collar workers but haven't seen one. Help? - J.P .H.

The late resume great Yana Parker wrote such a book a dozen years ago which stood alone until this month: "The Blue-Collar Resume and Job Hunting Guide" by Ron and Caryl Krannich, PhDs (Impactpublications.com; $15.95) does for blue-collar workers what legions of advice givers have done for white-collar workers for many years - help them succeed as job seekers.

In addition to 40 excellent sample resumes, the new guide addresses such issues as best jobs and apprenticeships, marketing and networking, job interviews and offers, salary negotiations and job survival skills.

DEAR JOYCE: My father says I should change jobs to a company that promotes from within. My current employer seems to always to bring new bosses in from the outside. Are the days of promoting up the ranks gone? - H.H.

No. A new study of 40 large, high-profile, name-brand companies with a combined total of nearly 1,282,000 employees shows that one third (33.9 percent) of all 188,000 open positions last year were filled by internal transfers and promotions. The CareerXroads 2006 Sources of Hire Study also cites the emergence of re-hires as a big trend. Sometimes father does know best.

DEAR JOYCE: I am about to interview for the kind of job I've been looking for. I was told to expect "behavioral" interviewing questions. And that is - ? R.C.

Behavioral interviewing assumes past behavior predicts the actions an employee will take and the results the employee will produce in the future under similar circumstances. The questions will focus on how you handled actual situations in the past instead of how you might handle a what-if situation in the future.

For every skill, trait or competency you claim, think of a reminiscence that validates your claim. Speak of the PAR of the situation: problem, action taken and result.

DEAR JOYCE: Out of college six months, I want to pay off my student debt as quickly as possible. I plan to take a second job waiting tables four nights a week. Do I have to ask my employer's permission to take a second job? - E.O.S.

Not unless your employer's in the same business. But if you start showing up tired for your day job, your employer could ask you to make a choice between the jobs. Lots of people have two jobs - and sometimes more - and survive just fine. If your moonlighting comes up for discussion, present it as a character plus - you want to get your obligations out of the way as quickly as possible because you're expecting managerial responsibilities in the future (hint, hint) that will require additional amounts of your time.

DEAR JOYCE: My son, 13, was asked to do a report on the career he wants when he grows up. I wanted to be Wonder Woman at that age so I suppose he'll change his mind but now he says he wants to be a video game designer. Can you help? - A.F.

Maybe not. It's a fun job and somebody has to do it. And a recent television feature claims that playing video games is good training for surgeons who do robotic surgery.

Get the scoop in "Paid to Play: An Insider's Guide to Video Game Careers" by David Hodgson, Bryan Stratton and Alice Rush (Prima Games/Random House, 2006, $19.95).

The book describes 40 different game-playing occupations inside top gaming companies.

DEAR JOYCE: Besides LinkedIn.com, what other social networks are popular that can be used in job search? - T.G.

Among the seemingly countless social and business networking sites, some of the popular ones include Plaxo.com, Jigsaw.com, Spoke.com, Friendster.com, Orkut.com, Myspace.com, Facebook.com and Windows Live Spaces (spaces.live.com).

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