ReferenceUSA-FREE Webinars

ReferenceUSA is hosting FREE online workshops for everyone!  Check out the dates and times below.  All workshops can be accessed from a library computer or from home and last approximately 1 hour.  Follow the instructions to register.

Search Essentials: the basics of ReferenceUSA

Fridays (January 13 –  March 30)

11:00 AM Central/12:00 PM Eastern

This hour-long session covers all the basics of getting started with ReferenceUSA.

 Register here:  ReferenceUSA Search Essentials

Uncovering the Hidden Job Market: Career Search Strategies using ReferenceUSA

Wednesdays (January 11 – March 28)

Choose between 10:00 AM Central (11:00 AM Eastern) or 2:30 PM Central (3:30 PM Eastern)

Learn how to use ReferenceUSA as part of your Career Searching Strategy!

 Register here:Morning Session  Uncover the Hidden Job Market (Morning Session)

Afternoon Session Uncover the Hidden Job Market (Afternoon Session)

 Start, Manage, Grow!  How Businesses can use ReferenceUSA

Mondays (January 9 – March 26)

Choose between 10:00 AM Central (11:00 AM Eastern) or 2:30 PM Central (3:30 PM Eastern)

Entrepreneurs will learn how to use ReferenceUSA tools to start, manage and grow their businesses!

 Register here:  Morning Session Start, Manage & Grow your Business

Afternoon Session Start, Manage & Grow your Business

The Additional Modules: Focusing on Additional Consumer and Business Info Beyond the US Business and Residential Modules

January 10 – March 30

Tuesdays, 10:30 AM Central (11:30 AM Eastern)

Thursdays, 2:30 PM Central (3:30 PM Eastern)

Learn how you can use the additional ReferenceUSA modules (Consumer/Lifestyle, New Business, New Movers) to form business plans, find your target audience, zero in on new businesses and people who have recently moved or bought a home. 

Register here:  Tuesdays, ReferenceUSA’s Other Modules

Thursdays, ReferenceUSA’s Other Modules

 Due to scheduling conflicts, some dates and times may not be available.

If you have any questions, please call the Reference Desk (864)-596-3505 or email us askref@infodepot.org .

ps.

Our Employment Resources Survey is now available online too. Please visit the SCPL homepage at: http://www.infodepot.org/
The link is on the right-hand side under the Library News & Events Column. If you’re interested, click on the surveymonkey link.

Thank you.

BMW Expansion

Happy Friday UpState….wait wait, it’s still Thursday.

With this good news it certainly feels like it should be Friday!  BMW announced a $900 million expansion of its Spartanburg plant.  They are looking to increase the capacity of their plant over the next three years.  This will mean an increase in construction and manufacturing jobs.  Their current estimate is a gain of 300 jobs.

That is very exciting news.  However, that does not mean they are opening their doors to 300 new employees immediately.  As construction progresses and manufacturing ramps up they should start adding jobs.  That said, if you’re looking for a job with BMW, get to their jobs website: http://bmwusfactory.com/careers/a-bmw-career/the-bmw-workforce/, create a profile, upload your employment, schooling, and contact information and keep coming back to the site to search for jobs.  They will post them as they need them, so it will benefit you to check back frequently.  In the mean time, if there is a particular job or type of job you’re interested in, make sure you are qualified for it.  If you are, great, keep at it and try and gain more experience that can be applied to it.  If you are not, look into what you need to do to get qualified and gain applicable experience for it.

More information on BMW’s announcement can be found at:  http://sccommerce.com/news/press-releases/bmw-announces-plant-expansion-spartanburg-county

Good luck and Happy Searching Everyone!

-Parker

ps.  if you are at the headquarters library this week or next and haven’t done so yet, please fill out one of the Employment Resources Surveys (located at the Main Floor Information Desk and the Third Floor Reference and Internet/Periodicals Desks).  They will help us figure out how to better help you all.

Employment Survey

 

Hello UpState.

If you’ve visited the information table or one of the Upper Level Computers at your Spartanburg Headquarters Library this week, you may (or in many cases so far: may not) have noticed the survey we’ve posted.

Sometime this month there should be an online version of the survey linked to the libraries home page.  In the mean time if you are in our building and have a moment, please fill out and drop off one of the surveys.  We are trying to get a feel for what type of employment classes will most benefit you guys (or rather, y’all) and what time of day would be convenient to schedule the classes.

We often have patrons coming in asking for guidance with creating their resume, looking for jobs, applying for jobs, etc.  We would like to offer classes to cover these types of topics and want to evaluate the level of interest.

The surveys will likely be left out for most of January and classes should be added to the calendar starting in February.

Have a great Weekend Everyone and

Happy Searching!

Sincerely,
Parker

Another way to search for local jobs…

Good Morning UpState/SCPL Business and Employment Blog Followers.  (We’re gonna need to think of a way to shorten that, maybe UpS/SCPLB&EBF…no, still pretty long.)

Okay, so if you’re like me, after about 20-30 minutes of scrolling for jobs on sites like Monster, Indeed, Careerfinder, We’regoingtofindyouajob.com (I hope that’s made up), etc., you get burnt out and probably depressed.  Maybe it’s just me.

Well, I’ve got another site for you to scroll through.  (Please contain your excitement).  I’m still early on in exploring it, but SCworks.org provides a search feature to look for jobs within specified counties.  The route to get there takes a couple clicks from their home page (start: www.workforcesouthcarolina.com, hover over: labor market info., click: Labor Market Home,  goes to:  https://jobs.scworks.org, click: Labor Market Home, hover over: area profile, click: area summary, select county, click: continue,  scroll down to jobs data, click: click here for jobs (here it shows you how many jobs are supposedly available in that county), click the radius of miles from that zip code that you’re interested in, you can put a key word in for the job type you’re interested in (or leave it blank to see all the jobs), click: search) and BAM!!, another way to see what’s available in your area.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that quick to get to, but here’s a link to start from the “select a county” spot:  http://jobs.scworks.org/saintro.asp?session=areadetail

That will save you a couple clicks.

One of the nice features about this site is that you can organize the results based on the tabs at the top.  (For example, you can organize by date, putting the most recent post first, or by salary, putting the highest paying job first.)  Searching by job type/keyword is good to, so you can limit the results to what you’re qualified for, experienced at, or interested in.

Be a little wary of some postings though.  Just because the site says there’s 3000 jobs available in Spartanburg County doesn’t mean there actually are.  Some may be filled or some companies may be accessing the job market here to pull for jobs somewhere else, or any other number of reasons.  If the job sounds right for you though, don’t be afraid to look into it more.

Alrighty, that’s all for know. 

Happy Searching.

-Parker