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 .

Thank you.

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.

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

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

The SCPL Employment Resources Blog is back!

Exciting News coming out of the month of November.  It seems our Turkey Month was a good month for people getting back to work.  The state (SC) and county (Spartanburg)  unemploment rates dropped.  For more information on that, please read:  http://www.goupstate.com/article/20111220/ARTICLES/111229991/1083/ARTICLES?Title=SC-s-unemployment-rate-drops-again-in-November

While that’s good news for me (I was hired in November) and other folks that were fortunate enough to find and get work, it won’t feel like great news until more of you (looking for jobs) find similar success.

In the upcoming months we will be looking to offer employment related classes.  In order to better guide what we’ll offer, we are putting out a survey after Christmas.  The survey will allow you, the patron, a chance to tell us what you think we should be offering and when we should be offering it.

The surveys will likely be located on the top floor of the main library in the internet and reference desk areas and on the main floor at the information desk.

Try to enjoy the holidays.  We are looking forward to working with you and local resources in order to not only help our unemployment rate fall farther, but help people figure out what and find the job they want.

Until next time…

-Parker

http://dew.sc.gov/jobs-jobs.asp

You may also want to check out the portal for South Carolina government jobs. By registering on the website and filling out your information now, you might be eligible for valuable job openings down the road. All of your information stays in the system so that you don’t have to fill out the same information when applying to future positions. Go here to find out more:

http://jobs.sc.gov/OHR/OHR-jobs-portal-index.phtm

The automotive industry continues to be a leading sector in the state’s economy. The state has recently offered a $500,000 grant for site improvements and readySC™ training funds.

To find out more information on how to apply for these upcoming job openings, look at the information below:

Your application

If you are interested in a direct entry to ZF, you should go to the ZF job portal where you will find a list of current vacancies. If you are unable to find the job you are looking for, please feel free to submit a general application.

• Current job vacancies
• General application

To find out more about the company’s management approach and possible benefits, check out the company’s website here:

http://www.zf.com/corporate/en/career/personnel/personnel.html

Money is always a tricky topic to broach with your boss. If you think you’re being underpaid, finding out what you’re worth and doing something about it can improve your personal bottom line.

“If you don’t ask, you don’t get,” says Sunny Bates, author of the book, How to Earn What You’re Worth: Leveraging Your Goals and Talents to Land Your Dream Job, “But you have to build a case for yourself.”

Here are some steps to help get you there:

Do Your Homework

Find out how you stack up against others. “The better informed you are, the more you’re empowered to ask for what you believe you deserve,” says Bates.

Check online salary calculators to determine much others in your same position are being paid. Jack Chapman, career and salary coach and author of the book, Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1,000 a Minute, suggests using four or five different sources. Start with payscale.com, which has a running database of people’s earnings, he says. Another useful site is indeed.com, a search engine for jobs that provides useful salary information. Glassdoor.com also has anonymous, employee-reported salary information.

But be sure to factor in particulars like your company’s margins and geographic location, says Rick Smith, author of the book, The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career from Good to Great.

Keep Co-workers Out of It

Tempting as it may seem, talking about salary with coworkers is a dangerous move, says Chapman. Worse still is mentioning those conversations to the boss. Just because you work the same job as someone, does not mean you will get the same salary. Making that kind of demand puts your manager in an uncomfortable spot, says Chapman.

If you do want to talk with someone at your company, Smith suggests approaching someone more senior to you, like a mentor, and asking a broader question like: If I get promoted, what are the pay ranges for those types of jobs? Going behind your boss’s back to talk about your current pay with others is a big no-no, however, so make sure you’re tactful about it.

Don’t Play the Victim

Too often people approach their managers with a request for higher pay by focusing on their need for more money. “The classic mistake in negotiating is the victim approach,” says Chapman. “That doesn’t go far with bosses because their job is to pay you for your work, not monitor your finances.”

Instead focus on the company and your boss’s best interests, says Gregory Northcraft, professor of business administration at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and co-author of the book Get Paid What You’re Worth. “If you want a raise, what you have to do is figure out how to make it in your boss’s best interest to give you that,” he says.

How Much Are You Worth?

Start thinking carefully about what it is that makes you worthy of reward.

That means not just doing market research, but determining your value to the company — a factor that, let’s face it — varies from employee to employee. “Find out where you are in terms of level and responsibility,” says Bates. “How core is your job? How core is your role? How core are you for what you are doing for the company?”

Spend some time figuring out how to quantify your worth. How much money were you able to save the company last year for example? “You can go to your boss and say, ‘I’ve saved the company $300,000. I should be paid above average,’” says Chapman.

Think Beyond Salary

Often your manager’s hands are tied when it comes to paying you more. Don’t forget to consider other rewards, what Smith calls these “silent benefits,” or ones that won’t be announced to everyone around you. “Look for incremental things you can ask for that don’t cause a precedent issue within the organization,” he says.

For example, you don’t want to ask for six weeks vacation in the summer because that would disrupt the flow of work and make it seem like everyone ought to get as much vacation time. But, if you can negotiate leaving on Fridays at noon, that adds up to two weeks extra vacation per year. Maybe there’s a transportation expense or conference you can get the company to pay for.

“Often, what you can get is cash equivalents…rather than money,” says Chapman.

Negotiating a bonus rather than a pay increase is also easier, says Chapman, particularly if you’re talking about a future raise. “Getting a piece of the pie when it’s imaginary pie is a lot easier,” he says.

—

While broaching the subject of pay is never easy, making sure you’re well-informed, figuring out your value to the company, and framing your argument to your boss in a way that underscores the benefits to the organization rather than simply yourself will take you a long way. Think broadly. Getting what you deserve for your work doesn’t simply mean earning more money. “The more broadly you can want, the easier it is for [your boss] to satisfy you,” says Northcraft.

Source: http://financiallyfit.yahoo.com/finance/article-112845-9872-4-how-to-get-paid-what-you-deserve?ywaad=ad0035