CAREERS NOW 02-16-11

Top Job Trends Counted By Keyword

DEAR JOYCE: I teach a continuing education class in career development and job search, and anything you can share about the trends in these areas would be appreciated. - F.T.

What's happening in the job world can be viewed through multiple camera lenses. But here's one take that's definitely PBS-Special worthy - the analytics of employment posts by keywords used to recruit candidates on a major job search engine, Indeed.com.

Indeed.com - which collects virtually every job opening posted on the Internet - gathered the fastest growing keywords. from millions of job postings in 2010, Conclusion: The demand for information technology and social media skills is rapidly emerging.

The top keywords in descending order: HTML5, mobile app, Android, Twitter, jQuery, Facebook, social media, iPhone, cloud computing and virtualization.

Find the runner-up and industry keywords on Indeed.com. Why you care about knowing the keywords in vogue:

1) Write keywords in your resumes and other self-marketing documents. Employers use screening and tracking software to vacuum keywords as though they were particles of gold dust.

2) Speak keywords in job interviews. They're a clue to both screening and selection hiring professionals that you've earned a seat at the interviewing table.

DEAR JOYCE: I've heard the term "hidden job market" but never knew exactly what it means. Please explain. - N.N.D.

The first time I heard about the "hidden job market", the term was used by pioneering author Tom Jackson in a 1981 book describing unpublished jobs that seekers can find through networking and serious outreach. Over subsequent decades, I've heard the percentages of jobs in the hidden market numbered at 60, 70, 80 and 85 percent, depending upon who's talking. No one really knows.

Connecting with employment in the hidden job market is a lot of work, and typically doesn't bring fast results. But digging in the hidden market is a viable option, especially in today's world, that any job seeker should at least know about and be primed to use.

A new concise book by career guru Donald Asher has just appeared on my desk: "Cracking the Hidden Job Market: How to Find Opportunity in Any Economy" (Ten Speed Press).

Asher, who always writes books worth reading, presents the latest findings in how to uncover jobs that are never posted anywhere, and how to get complete strangers to help you pounce on a job. Two thumbs up!

DEAR JOYCE: I'm not as bad off as the man I read about who lost his job as an accounting manager a year ago, and since then has had to work on a series of short-term jobs. But I've been looking for four months now, can't sell my house and move, and, if my wife loses her position, we're in deep trouble. How badly will it hurt my resume to take temporary jobs until I get a full-time offer? - I.M.

The temp market is also highly competitive. While the change-to-temp direction won't gild your career, it won't be as risky as becoming a long-term unemployed person, who becomes increasingly unemployable. As you may have read, some snooty employers are refusing to hire unemployed applicants. People in temporary jobs are at least maintaining ties to the working world.

If you're a professional or manager, you may want to check out a far more sophisticated answer to your dilemma in "Consulting to the Rescue," an article available only on RiteSite.com, a marvelous subscription website that costs $94 a year.

You'll be inspired by the remarkable true story told in a letter written to RiteSite owner John Lucht by a 60-year-old manager with no college education. In it, the manager describes in detail how he recently landed on his feet after months of crawling around on the bricks. His success in connecting with a good full-time job wasn't so much what the manger did, but how he did it.

-

Email Joyce
Sorry, the volume of mail makes personal replies impossible.