10 Ways to Make Career Gaps Positive

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When you apply for a new job, potential employers are going to look at your resume and they may notice a few career gaps. These gaps occur when you go through a period of unemployment. While this happens to almost everyone, it’s what you do with those gaps that matters.

Employers are going to ask you about career gaps and how you spent your time. You want to project that you working towards improving yourself during those times you were out of work. Did you spend your time learning? Traveling? Volunteering? Moping around? Turning these career gaps into a positive experience will not only help you personally, but will increase your chances of landing your next job. Below, you’ll find 10 ways to turn your career gaps into something positive:

Take a Class
More than likely, your field of work is constantly changing; using this gap period to enhance your knowledge or learn new things can give you a competitive advantage when it comes to finding your next job.

Volunteer
Whether you decide to help out at a local animal shelter or tutor kids, being able to place volunteer experiences on your resume is a real differentiator. Potential employers will see this and recognize you as having empathy and a strong work ethic.

Join a Professional Organization
Go beyond being a “member” of a professional organization. Be engaged in activities and take initiative to be a leader. Not only with this help you branch out and expand your network, it will give you valuable skills for your future job.

Network
Mentioned above, your career gap can be a great time to meet new people and expand your professional network. By doing this, you can make great connections that could end up helping you both personally and professionally.

Become an Intern
No matter where you are at in your career, an internship can be a great experience. This could be your chance to learn a new skill, humble yourself, or just ensure that you are building your resume experiences.

Teach
Do you have a lot of experience in your field? Take this opportunity to teach others about what you do. Maybe you just want to share one of your hobbies with others- no matter what, a teaching experience can help you become a better communicator, establish yourself as a leader, and allow you to meet new people.

Start a Business
Have you always dreamed of owning your own business? Do you have an original idea or innovation? This gap period could be exactly what you need to start your business. Take a chance and see what happens. Just make sure you think everything through first.

Freelance
If you don’t want to start a business, but need to keep working, then you should consider freelancing or consulting. As an expert in your field, businesses may be looking for your expertise. Start small and build your way up. Be sure to use your professional network to get a few accounts.

Travel
If you have money saved up, you can use this time to travel to a new place. Doing this may not seem like it has much impact on your career, but when you travel somewhere new you are stepping outside of your comfort zone, being independent, and being detail-oriented.

Relax and Refresh
Sometimes, these resume gaps are the perfect opportunities to relax and refresh. Maybe you feel a little burnt out and you need to recover. Take this time to do that. Rediscover why you love your field of work and get your passion back.

Remember, career gaps don’t have to be a negative thing on your resume. In fact, you can make career gaps into a positive and rewarding situation. Instead of moping around because you don’t have a job, you can do something to better yourself, your community, and your career.

What have you done to fill in your career gaps? Leave your stories and advice in the comments section below!

 

Image Credit: freedigitalphotos.net 

Using Facebook to Recruit

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Over the last few weeks, we’ve discussed how to best use social media to find your next hire. While there are a lot of methods and several networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, one of the best ways to recruit your next hire is to use Facebook. Using Facebook to recruit is actually a lot simpler than using some of the other social networks. However, there is still some work involved.

Build Up Your Following

Before you can expect to see any results on Facebook, or any social network for that matter, you have to build up your following. In order to effectively use Facebook as a recruiting tool, you need to have an audience to share content with. Without followers on Facebook, you’ll be sharing content and job postings to no one.

Create a Careers Tab

With a Company Page on Facebook, you have the opportunity to create different tabs. Through these tabs, you can hold contests, share content, and even post your job openings. By creating a Careers Tab on your company page, you are providing followers and those who visit your page with the opportunity to see what positions you have open.

Share Content

With Facebook, it’s all about being real, which means sharing content that your page followers actually want to see and read. Don’t just share your own blog posts, but share content from other sources, post pictures, share quotes, and encourage your followers to reach out to you.

Engage Your Followers

Being on any social media site is about engagement. It’s about making connections with people, which means you need to be monitoring your social sites. It also means you need to be asking questions, answering questions, and talking to the people who follow you and the people you follow.

How do you use Facebook to recruit? We’d love to hear your stories and see how we can help! Leave your questions and stories int he comments section below.

Using Facebook to Find a Job

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Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about using social media to find a job. We’ve talked about building a personal brand, sharing content on Twitter, and keeping it professional on LinkedIn, but there’s one more network you need to know about. Using Facebook to find a job may seem like a strange concept, but it works. You just need to know how to go about using the site to your advantage.

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Using Twitter to Recruit

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Last week, we discussed how you can start using LinkedIn for your recruiting efforts . This week, it’s all about using Twitter to recruit. With all of the social networks, it can become a little tedious to monitor them and keep up with everything. Using Twitter for recruiting doesn’t have to be quite as time consuming as some of the other networks, but that’s not to say you should be passive. Here are a few ways you can start using Twitter to find your next hire:

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Using Twitter to Find a Job

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Using social media sites like LinkedIn can open up a whole world of possibilities, even if you aren’t actively seeking a job. But with sites like Twitter, you can access even more resources in real time. And engagement is even simpler.

When you start using twitter, it’s best to think of it as a micro blogging site. Every tweet you send is like a tiny glimpse into who you are. Using Twitter to find a job takes your search to the next level. Not only are you able to find companies and possible job opportunities, but people are able to get a glimpse of who you are and why they may want to work with you. Here are a few things you need to do to make using Twitter to find a job most effective for you:

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Using LinkedIn to Find a Job

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Last week, we talked about how social media is a great way to search for a new job. This week, we’re focusing on LinkedIn and the benefits of the site in your job search.

Of all the social media sites out there, LinkedIn is regarded as the most professional, which means you need to keep it professional when it comes to creating a profile and seeking job opportunities. There are several ways to put yourself at an advantage when it comes to using LinkedIn to find a job. Below, you’ll find some helpful tips that can go a long way during your job search process.

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Using Social Media to Recruit

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It’s next to impossible to not be on social media today. Whether it’s your personal accounts or company accounts, you probably have some sort of interaction with social media sites on a daily basis. The use of mobile devices is on the rise and that rise is driving the importance of social media. Many companies are now using social media networks as tools for recruiting top talent.

While this sounds like a fantastic idea (and it may very well be) there are certainly right and wrong ways to go about using social media to recruit talent. Here are a few things you need to think about before launching into using social media for recruiting:

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Using Social Media to Find a Job

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In today’s world, it seems almost impossible to not be on at least one social media network. You probably have some friends on Facebook. Maybe you have a couple of followers on Twitter. You may even have connections on LinkedIn, but did you know that you can use social media to find a job? You have unlimited resources at your fingertips every time you login to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Using social media to find a job is all about knowing how to connect and put yourself out there.

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Finding and Keeping Top Talent

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A lot of thoughts and theories exist out there when it comes to finding top talent for any industry. You have to choose from dozens of different online job boards. Then there are traditional postings like newspapers. And in today’s world, many companies are turning to social media to find talent. But at the end of the process, you need a specific type of talent. You need to find and keep top talent.

Wanting the best of the best is not enough to actually get you the best of the best. It takes time and effort to succeed at finding and keeping top talent. However, the efforts you make will be worth it in the end because you can reduce your costs and turnover rates by finding top talent in the first place.

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