When you’re embarking on the (usually) long and arduous journey of finding a job, taking on a temporary job can seem like a massive waste of time. After all, the position usually has a finite end in sight and doesn’t pay a glamorous amount of money. But if you position yourself right and use a temp job as ammo instead of viewing it with the general distaste that so many do then you can set yourself up for a better chance of success than the people who just spend all their time emailing out resumes.

1.     Experience

One of the awful contradictions of looking for a job is that most employers require previous experience. However if you’re looking when you’re fresh out of college or you’re trying to break into a new industry, previous experience doesn’t exist,which brings on the eternal catch-22: how do you get the job if you have no experience and no one is willing to hire you so that you can gain experience? This is where temp jobs come into play: if you can find a temp job within your desired industry then you open yourself up to gaining the valuable experience you’re lacking.

2.     Networking

It’s pretty basic: you’re going to meet a lot more people working a temp job then you will if you’re sitting behind a computer every day browsing internet job boards, and meeting one person could be the difference between being unemployed or embarking on a new career.

3.     Bolster up your resume

Not only will you be able to gain experience from a temp job – and that by itself will help give your resume a substantial boost – but you’ll be able to avoid the gap in employment history that comes from being out of work for a while. This looks infinitely better than having no employment over the span of several months and will show that you’re willing to take the initiative instead of sitting around waiting for life to hand you a new job – a desirable trait to most employers.

4.     Flexible schedule

Because most temp jobs are part-time you will have the benefit of bringing in some income while still being able to spend time searching for a permanent job. This really does combine the best of both worlds in a less than desirable situation.

 5.     Temp-to-hire

Some temp jobs offer the added incentive of being a temp-to-hire position, meaning that after a certain amount of time the employer could take you on as a full-time employee. This gives you a trial run of the company, allowing you to test it out and see if it’s something you’d like to do full-time without the commitment of accepting a full-time position right away.

Temp jobs may get a bad rap, but they’re actually a great way to fill the job void when you’re searching for employment. And if approached right, it could be just the weapon you need to launch yourself into a new career.

Author Bio:

This is a guest post from Laura Backes, she enjoys writing about all kinds of subjects and also topics related to internet service in my area.  You can reach her at: laurabackes8 @ gmail.com.

A common theme amongst organizations ranking in the top 100 of “Best Places to Work” is that many of them have internal training programs offered to their employees. These organizations may offer classroom based training, training partnerships with Universities, or computer based training to those interested in broadening their skill set.

When I first started my career I was lucky enough to work for one of the “Best Places to Work” at Booz Allen Hamilton. A few months after starting in my entry level position, I was thrilled to find their online training library with extensive courses around a number of different subjects. I quickly found more technical sections of their computer based training library and started a few courses.

I was working on a technical development team but was a testing analyst at the time. I didn’t have significant engineering or development skills as I graduated college with a social sciences degree but always wanted to learn more about the work we were doing. The courses that were offered to me allowed me an easy way to find out more about javascript, html, databases, and programming languages like php.

After a few months I found myself understanding the technical discussions our team was having and was able to contribute more into the technical design of the applications we were working on. I was able to better technically explain the problems I was discovering during testing and communicate those problems to the developers.

It wasn’t long after completing a few of the computer based training courses that I was given new opportunities from management. I could easily see that my direct effort to learn more from the computer based training that was offered to me was having an impact on my career. I was given new opportunities and able to develop in the real world the skills I had learned from training courses.

How Computer Based Training Can Help You

I’m confident that participation in computer based training can have a similar impact on others careers if you elect to take advantage of it. It doesn’t matter if what field of work you work in, there is probably courses and training material readily available to help you learn and open opportunities for you and your job.

Be sure to share with your managers and co-workers the courses you’re taking. Once they know your newly acquired skills, they’ll be more likely to look for you to solve related problems and provide additional insight. Communicating with them can open your career to new heights.

What If Computer Based Training isn’t Available To You?

Not all organizations have a library of computer based training available to their employees, but there is probably a significant amount of free information or courses on line that can help you get started. Sometimes your employer may even pay to allow you to take more advanced courses online.

Another option for you would be to speak with management about the benefits of Computer Based Training and pointing them to elearning solutions companies that can help them create courses that can benefit their employees and the organizations bottom line.

If you’re not sure if your organization offers computer based training courses I’d recommend reaching out to your Human Resources department. They often will have additional information about training opportunities and what is and is not available to you. They will also be able to help point you in the direction of how to gain company funds to help you improve your skill-set.

I’m confident that Computer Based Training made a huge impact in my career. Since gaining additional training and putting that training to real world experiences I’ve been able to continue develop and grow professionally. I’ve leveraged that initial skill-set to create my own business in a similar field and realize I wouldn’t have been able to do so without the initial assistance of the training courses I took.

Has a company you’ve worked for offered training that has changed your career? Tell us about it the comments below.

Dan Hinckley is a partner at MangoCo, a Virginia Based Website Design Company

The past year hasn’t exactly been kind to the unemployed, but towards the end of 2011 the situation looked a little more promising. The Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the U.S. job market added 200,000 new jobs in December, resulting in a further drop in the unemployment rate from 8.7 percent to 8.5 percent. Compared with the 9 percent employment rate of the summer of 2011, these new figures indicate a very favorable future for the unemployed in 2012. Although the odds may be leaning toward your favor, it’s still important to focus on keeping up with the competition and improving your strategy for your 2012 job search by adopting the following new tactics.

Objectively evaluate your resume

You should never underestimate the power of a good resume when it comes to your job search. Your resume should not simply be scribbled out, copied several times, and submitted to every employer within reach. Instead, take time to evaluate and customize each resume according to the position for which you are applying. Always write a personalized cover letter for each position as well. Both your cover letter and your resume should directly indicate why you are the best fit for the job for which you are applying.

Further your education

The job market is filled with stiff competition in the form of graduates fresh out of college, holders of advanced degrees and well-experienced workers with a wide range of skills. To keep up with these highly valuable candidates, it might be in your best interest to further your education by going back to college or considering an online mba program. An online program would give you the unique opportunity to extend your degree without sacrificing valuable time for job searching.

Improve your online image

According to CareerRealism.com, 88 percent of employers will search for your name online to find out more about you. If your online presence is shabby or non-existent, it could cost you a job. Take advantage of the opportunity to show off your skills and credentials to potential employers by enhancing your professional appeal on Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, LinkedIn,and other online platforms. Look at these accounts through the eyes of an employer to determine what is appropriate and what isn’t.

Go where the competition isn’t

Sometimes your problem with finding a job is that you are looking in the same place as hundreds of other people, which dramatically reduces your odds. Instead of browsing the listings on Monster.com (where thousands of other people will be looking), take a more creative approach to determine who’s hiring. Watch the news often to see which companies recently received stimulus funds, signed a huge contract or had an otherwise highly successful year. These factors usually indicate that the company will create new jobs and be looking for new employees as a result.

Stay organized

Searching for a job can be a busy and stressful endeavor in general, but a failure to organize and plan appropriately can often exacerbate the situation. To avoid adding more stress than necessary, create schedules and track your daily activities to ensure better follow-up on the jobs you have applied for. Doing so not only reduces your stress levels throughout the process, but helps you more effectively balance several applications and interviews at once.

Today’s job search has evolved in multiple ways. The scenario is completely different from what it was like 5 or 10 years ago. Competition, at the same time, is increasing with each passing day. That clearly means you need to closely review the situation and adopt strategies that can guarantee your success in today’s job market. If you want to boost your job search process, you need to know how you can conduct an online or digital job search.

Since millions of jobseekers are applying for jobs online, you need to use some tactics to stay ahead of the competition. Given below are some useful tips that you can use to enhance your digital or online job search.

#1. Brand Yourself

The first most essential piece of advice that you need to follow is to brand yourself. There are multiple tools and strategies that you can use to build your professional brand. Branding yourself is vital as it immediately attracts the attention of employers. Branding is a way of allowing others develop a view about you, your talents and skills. The more professional brand you can build for yourself, the better chances of attracting employer’s or recruiters’ attention you have.

So, create your unique professional brand to stand out in the crowd.

#2. Get Found in Google

Today, employers are most likely to Google an applicant’s name to find more about them. One major problem with this is that other people with a similar name can also appear in Google searches. However, you can use some smart tactics so that only your name appears in the searches. This entire process is known as online reputation management.

By creating your online profile on various popular social networks, you can increase your visibility in Google as well as some control over the listings for your name. If you want to know more about, all you need to do is enter your name in Google, hit the search button and analyze the results.

#3. Start a Blog

A surefire way of setting yourself apart from others is to start a blog of your own. There are many web designers, writers, painters, artists, photographers and travelers that have their own blog. Through a blog, you can showcase your unique talents to the world. You can easily impress employers by having an ideal blog and gain an edge over your competition. To start a blog, you need to think of a domain name, get it booked, get it hosted and start publishing posts to the same on a regular basis. Whether you are looking to establish your expertise, build important connections or get noticed by employers, blogging is just the perfect option.

#4. Use LinkedIn

Though you can join various popular social networks to boost your digital job search, you can never afford to ignore LinkedIn. The social network is the largest collection of professionals including including employers, recruiters, small business owners, industry experts and tech geeks among others. Among other key features, LinkedIn offers groups which you can join to expand your network and connect with professionals who might be interested in hiring you. Just remember to genuinely spend some time while connecting with people and building relationships with them.

Are you getting the most out of your digital job search? Please feel free to share your views, opinions and other strategies you may have in mind.

James Tomerson writes regularly on career, education and latest job trends. To read more from him, you can visit Jobdiagnosis.com, which also offers jobseekers a free career aptitude test to choose a career which is in tune with their career, aptitude and skills.

There are a wide range of tools that you can use for job hunting. The focus of using any job search tool is to enhance your online brand and attract the attention of employers, recruiters and hiring managers. What’s in your toolbox will decide whether you are ready to stay ahead of the competition and find a job before it’s too late. But, do you know what these tools are?

Given below are five top job hunting tools that you should always use.

#1. Social Media

In today’s competitive environment, you can never expect to survive unless you know how to use the popular social networking sites to your benefit. If you are hunting for jobs, you should know how to make the most of social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn among others. Blogging is also a powerful social media tool that you can use to your professional benefits.

#2. Professional Networking

It’s a fact that most of the jobs are filled out through references. Who you know in a specific industry can make a potential difference to your job search. If you are a jobseeker, you should never underestimate the power of social networking. Start expanding your professional networks as quickly as possible.

#3. A Positive Attitude

Since job search is a time consuming process, it can easily upset you or make your frustrated. If you get irritated or filled with negativity, you can harm your professional career in several ways. While hunting for jobs, you need to have some patience and maintain a positive attitude. Don’t ever get discouraged when you are rejected. It’s just a part of the game.

#4. An Impressive an Up-to-date Resume

Writing an attractive resume is an art. If you want to attract the attention of employers immediately, you should lean this art. If you want some resume tips, it’s always a good idea to conduct some online research. You can have a look at various resume templates and use the most important tips. What’s more important is that you always keep your resume up-to-date, because you never know when you’ll need to send your resume to a potential employer.

#5. A Well-Targeted Cover Letter

A well-targeted cover letter is one of the most powerful tools of a jobseeker. However, most of the jobseekers make the mistake of using the same cover letter for different employers. If you want to boost your job search and get a job in time, you should always create different cover letters for different employers, keeping their specific requirements in mind. Remember, one size doesn’t fit all.

The job market is more competitive than ever. You’ll be able to boost your job hunting only when you have the right kind of tools in your toolbox. At the same time, you should know how to use them appropriately. And it’s the only way of staying ahead of the competition and find a job quickly. Which of these tools are you using?

James Tomerson writes regularly on career, education and latest job trends. To read more from him, you can visit Jobdiagnosis.com, which also offers jobseekers a free career test to choose a career which is in tune with their career, aptitude and skills.

If you’re looking for a new job but feel you aren’t making much progress, you might need to change things up and try a few new things. As they say, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. So if your job search isn’t going so well, take a step back and try a few new things. In that regard, here’s a post I wrote on Hubpages called 10 tips to improve your job search if you’re looking to pick up the pace of your job search and mix things up a bit.

Can you click your way to a new job or is there a better way?

How many times have you done the same thing over and over again, not gotten the result you’re looking for but kept doing the same thing(s) repeatedly and were surprised that your result still didn’t change?

It seems to be human nature that we often get comfortable with something and keep doing it whether or not it actually helps us in any real way.

These days sending off dozens or hundreds of resumes to various hiring managers is an easy thing to do but of course it’s equally as easy for everyone else to fire off a similar number of resumes so the question becomes “how effective is it to spend most of your time job searching on the same Internet job sites that everyone else is?”

Certainly people do get jobs online so there can be some benefit to spending some time utilizing the online job boards but it really is a numbers game as you try to separate yourself from everyone else who is trying to accomplish the same thing you are i.e. get the attention of a hiring manager through an emailed job submission.

If you find that you’re doing the same thing over and over again with your job search and aren’t getting the results you’re looking for, mix it up and try some new things.

Here are a few things you can do to separate yourself from the crowd when searching for a new job.

And here’s a post on balancing quality versus quantity which is certainly timely considering we’re talking about job searching online.

I hear you dude, the Internet frustrates me too.

Up until a few years ago how many of us had thought about doing banking and paying bills at home on a computer rather than mailing checks in through the mail?

What about trading stocks online rather than paying a broker big commissions to do so?

Doing research for your upcoming job interview is certainly a lot easier thanks to the Internet compared to the old way i.e. going to the library and trying to find a (somewhat) new annual report of the company lying around that you could memorize a few key figures and facts from. Yeah, that’s what we used to do before the Internet.

As with anything though, you often have to take the good with the bad and the Net certainly has some negative aspects and some of them are related to job searching and career management.

It’s harder to control our privacy

Perhaps the biggest change that the Internet has brought to job searching – between personal websites, blogs, social media, etc – is that people are a lot easier to find than in the old days. Before the Net, it was relatively easy for you to maintain a low profile. These days, if you have an Internet connection, an email address, and or access to one or more social websites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, it’s a lot harder to hide.

Even if you don’t have access to these sites, if you have a friend(s) who does and they happen to post photos with you in them, they’ll be all over the Net in no time even if you’re not aware of it.

From a job searching and recruitment perspective the more exposure people have online the harder it is for us to control our image online. It also makes it more difficult for people in the hiring industry (recruiters specifically) to help job searchers because people are a lot easier to find online already by the hiring companies.

I remember back around 2000 when the Internet was certainly well-established but most of the big social media website weren’t in existence yet. Even then I recall several major recruitment clients we dealt with saying that they didn’t want us submitting any candidate who had their resume on a particular job board because the hiring company already had access to that job board and could find that perosn themselves.

In hindsight – actually even back then – I knew this was a silly stance for the companies to take. It’s absurd to suggest that because a person is on a particular job board database that the company could have already found them. Imagine a hiring company today saying “don’t send us the resume of anyone who has a Facebook account because we can find them ourselves.”

We rely on others to do their job

In the old days before the Internet, the main advantage of a recruiter to a hiring company – and by extension to job searchers – is that they could let hiring companies know about job searchers that the company wouldn’t have otherwise know anything about and they could let job searchers know about jobs that didn’t otherwise exist.

These days, it’s hard to imagine that many adults who have an Internet connection can’t be found one way or the other through a quick Google search or through the afore-mentioned social engines either directly or indirectly through someone else.

So how is that a bad thing?

Well for starters, the Internet has made it easier for anyone to post their resume on numerous job boards and to fire off dozens or hundreds of resume to hiring managers for jobs they may or may not actually be suitable for. Of course since everyone can do this, it means that now hiring managers might get bombarded by hundreds of emails rather than the hundreds of mailed/faxed resumes that they used to get for just one job.

In the old days though, sending off 100 printed resumes by fax or mail cost a lot more to do and was more time-consuming so people tended not to apply to as many jobs. It just took a lot longer and made it more difficult to do.

I remember following university graduation spending an entire afternoon tweaking and customizing perhaps 15-20 cover letter/resume combinations and mailing them to those 15-20 companies for consideration for a specific job. These days I can email that many job applications in a matter of minutes. Whether they actually get read though is the million dollar question.

Fundamentally the Internet has made it easier and quicker for us to apply for jobs but it’s made it harder for the people receiving them to wade through them. The Internet has also made technology more important in the process since it’s incumbent upon the resume writer to include relevant keywords and phrases in their resume that a hiring manager will (hopefully) include in the keyword search that they do to find resumes for their jobs.

In my experience though, hiring managers do a so-so job at searching job board databases because if they were better than this on average, recruiters would have long since gone the way of the dodo bird and become extinct as a profession. I can think of many specific cases (to refer back to the comment I made above about candidates on job boards) where I’d present a candidate to a company and they’d tell me that they saw that person’s resume in the job board that they used….of course they didn’t actually see the person’s resume in the database until after I’d brought the candidate to their attention!

In the end I quickly realized that I wasn’t going to work with these sorts of hiring companies as they were simply asking us to make up for their incompetence and send them candidates they’d find a reason not to have to pay us for. When you rely on others, you have to make sure they are people who can actually be relied upon, right?

Does it make you wonder about the times you applied for a job you felt you were truly qualified for but never got a call from the company and couldn’t understand why?

How can you be like cream and rise to the top?

The funniest part about the Internet job boards is with the exception of the people who own and work for the job boards, most people including career experts will agree that searching the boards for jobs has about the same likelihood of getting you a job as responding to an ad in a newspaper once did. Sure, people do get jobs using these methods but the percentages are very low that you’ll rise above all the other candidates who bombard the boards with their resume for the same job(s) as you.

Instead, people tend to agree that networking – actually meeting with and speaking with people who can positively influence your job search – is the way to go to get yourself a new job. That, plus other methods like proactively contacting companies you’d like to work for whether they have an advertised job or not tend sto hield better results. My brother in law got his last job by sending an unsolicited resume directly to the president of the company that ended up hiring him. This is especially good when you have skills or experience that are in demand and when people like you don’t fall from trees.

Again, we’re talking about cream rising to the top and that’s how you do it. By not using the same methods that everyone is using.

In other words you go back to the same job search methods that tended to work the best in the old days before the Internet job boards even existed.

Rant over.

Pen meet paper

Have you noticed how things often go full circle and things that were once unpopular become popular and acceptable again?

Many times in life we see fashion trends that go out of fashion…and then come back into style again. Good thing you didn’t throw out your 1970s era bellbottoms eh?

I recall hearing about a mayor of a large city deciding that he’d heard enough compliants from citizens who called into the city switchboard number and had to go through a voicemail tree from hell to get to a live person. You probably know what I’m talking about….

Press 1 for this option, and then press 2 for that option and then press 2 again for the next option and so on…

…until they’d finally waded their way through the myriad of options to get to actually speak with a person presumably not before being placed on hold and having to wait until an operator could answer your home.

In order to counteract this, the mayor decided to get rid of the voice mail system and have all calls answered by a live person.

I also recently read about a telecom firm – one of a number of companies who had outsourced their customer service departments overseas, typically to India – who has decided to bring their customer service function back to North America rather than having it done internationally.

In these and other instances, things have gone full circle and have ended up basically the same way they had been previously.

What else could go full circle?

How about manners and etiquette when it comes to your job search?

That would be a great thing to go full circle! Now perhaps you already do the right things like following up after an interview and thanking the interviewer but what about if you did it an way that was quite popular in the past but not so much anymore given our electronic lifestyles…

How about writing a hand-written note and sending it to an interviewer after an interview?

That would probably be a pretty good way to separate yourself from others who applied for the same job, no? In a similar vein to things I’ve mentioned in the past with regards to other “little” things you can do to separate yourself from the pack:

sending a hand-written note may not get you the job on its own but it can certainly help to separate you in a positive way from other people applying for the same job you are who aren’t as considerate as you are.

Last week, I was writing some notes by hand and realized that my handwriting – which was never good to begin with – has gotten even worse most likely due to the fact that I rarely write anything by hand anymore. My laptop keyboard serves as my pen and other that signing my name on a check or filling out a form from time to time, I rarely write anything anymore! Writing really is a dying art and a rare activity for most of these days.

Hopefully you have nice handwriting and can string a few sentences together without any typos or grammatical errors…but seriously, sometimes, little things can make a difference especially when it’s out of the norm and unexpected.

Most people tend not to follow up at all after an interview so following up with a hand-written note not only puts you in the minority to begin with, but it can also help to establish you as a considerate and professional person in the eyes of the person deciding whether or not they should hire you.

What other “little” things can you do that other job searchers won’t do that could help you stand out from the crowd and for the right reasons?

Is this opportunity taking you up, down or sideways?

At the end of the day taking a step backwards to go forward in your career isn’t something I’m a big fan of but it’s your career and if you decide it makes sense for you then perhaps it does.

I recall one instance where I was helping a guy switch jobs and he was eager to move to a new company as he’d been with the same company for over 12 years. It was the only company he’d worked for in fact and as a result, he had a pretty good situation in that he worked his way up to 5 weeks of annual vacation and clearly also had a good reputation and good situation overall all things considered. But he felt it was time for a change in his career and as he was planning on moving to a new city, decided that the job opportunity I’d put in front of him made sense and when he received the job offer, decided to take it.

The new job offered him a bit more money but less vacation time and was essentially in the industry he really wanted to be in (financial services) so he was quite happy and eager to take the job. I remember thinking at the time that if I was him I’d probably have had a hard time giving up the 2 weeks of vacation! But he understood the situation and that the new company offered 3 weeks and he accepted it. On the one hand I couldn’t believe he’d give up his established position at the only company he’d ever worked for but on the other hand I admired his decision-making process, his confidence and his determination to move on in his career.

In this instance, things worked out for this guy and I was happy for him. He made the right decision and while he took a bit less in some areas with his new job (i.e. vacation) he gained in others.

On the other hand, I recently got an email from a woman was discussing her situation where she was considering working for another company but where the situation was more cut and dry, where the opportunity presented to her with the potential job wasn’t nearly as good as what she had currently even though the new company was probably a better one than her current employer.

But once she started comparing things that meant something to her at her current job – perks and benefits, the commute to work, her succession plan – it became clear to her that the potential employer was giong to have to change their tune and come up with something a lot better than what they’d proposed since it was far less than what she was getting currently all things considered.

She commented that had she been unemployed at the time it probably would have been a no-brainer and that taking less money to move to this company might have made sense if she had no other job prospects at the time.

But to quit her current job and move to this new one made no sense and so she decided not to.

In this case, I admired her decision making process too as well as the fact that she went into the situation with both eyes open and wasn’t impressed by the potential employer telling her about the benefits of working there even if it meant taking a step (or two) backwards to start with.

Afterall, it was her who was going to take the step(s) back not them.

One of the reasons that taking a step back in the hope that you will end up two steps forward doesn’t always work out is that things that are promised to you (especially verbally) might never come to fruition especially if the person promising them ends up leaving the company or leaving the role.

Plus once you put a position on your resume that appears to be a step backwards, future hiring managers wonder what this means as they usually expect to see a progression of responsibility and not the opposite.