This week, we have two posts.
In the second post, we are going to look at Internet access
Sometimes (for whatever reason), you may not have Internet access at your home. You may need to find other places where you can find Internet access.
Here are some other places where you can find Internet access.
- Library – Public Libraries
- University – may be able to access the Internet from a university library –
- State employment agency (Workforce Development)
- Non-profit—You may be able to access Internet access and a computer from a non-profit; check with the non-profit to see what resources may be available.
Sometimes, you may need to access the Internet in a different location; here are some additional places to do so.
Live Your Life Learning Blog
This week, we are going to have two posts.
In this first post, we are reviewing Martin Yate’s The Ultimate Job Search Guide (copyrighted in 2017).
The book gives different ideas about the job search.
- Company owners design companies (mostly) to make money.
- Jobs (mostly) are designed to solve problems.
Ideally, you want to express how you can solve their problems with a potential employer.
If you can help solve problems for a company, you can make the company more efficient and help its owners make more money. You then have more value to the company.
Chapter 3 “How to Build a Killer Resume” (p.33)
Chapter 3 describes the importance of a resume.
The chapter discusses the importance of writing a resume.
The chapter mentions that the resume is a critical document to create.
A good resume can open new opportunities for you.
The chapter gives suggestions on how to write a good resume.
The chapter also gives some suggestions on how to write a cover letter. (p. 62)
Chapter 4: “Networking and the Successful Job Search” (p. 65)
Chapter 5: “Professional, Alumni, and Community Networks” (p. 92)
Chapters talk about meeting people in different ways
Job Hunting is meeting people.
The book mentions that the job search involves conversations with people.
You will often have to get into conversations with people to get employed. Ideally, you want to talk with people who can hire you.
Chapters suggest ways to contact people, including LinkedIn, Professional Associations, and Alumni Associations.
Chapter 6 “Network Integrated Job Search Techniques” (p. 106)
The chapter gives ways to search for a job.
Chapter 7: Making contact (p. 136)
The chapter gives ideas on how to directly contact a potential employer.
The book gives ideas on how to make direct contact.
In a phone conversation, the chapter gives ideas on overcoming some objections you may have in the phone call.
Chapter 8 “Ace the Telephone Interview” (p. 101)
The chapter advises on how to conduct telephone employment interviews.
The chapter suggests that one should never decline an employment interview.
Job Searching a skill
You want the practice of doing employment interviews to get better at doing employment interviews.
Chapter 9 “Dress For Job Success” (p. 173)
Chapter advice on how to dress for job interviews.
Part III of the book gives ways to answer interview questions.
These are some job ideas from Martin Yate’s book, The Ultimate Job Search Guide. They may be helpful in your remote job search.
Book details
The Ultimate Job Search Guide
By Martin Yate
Published by Adams Media
Copyrighted 2017
Live Your Life Learning Blog
This week: Book Description–Get Hired Fast! Tap the Hidden Job Market in 15 days (By Brian Graham) (Copyrighted in 2005)
This week, we will describe a job-hunting book called Get Hired Fast! Tap the Hidden Job Market in 15 days.
The book was copyrighted in 2005.
So, some specifics may be outdated, but some general ideas from the book may still be helpful.
How can you contribute to a potential employer?
The book talks about thinking about your background and skills and how you can be helpful to a potential employer.
How to contact a potential employer
The book mainly focuses on different ways to contact a potential employer.
The book gives a list of different ways to contact a potential employer in
- Chapter Three: Should you use still use traditional job-hunting technique?
The book discusses some traditional ways to contact a potential employer. Some of these traditional ways are:
- Apply for job positions
- Network- Talk to people you already know
- Recruiters
Direct Contact How to Contact a Potential Employer
Then, the book talks about the Direct Contact method
Direct Contact is when you contact a potential employer to see if they have opportunities even if you do not see any job advertised in the job field you are looking for.
The book gives ideas on how to do Direct Contact.
- Chapter Four Identify Your Targets – And Know What They Want
The chapter focuses on research.
The book explains the importance of researching potential employers.
The book gives a way to organize the research with two sheets to organize the information, including:
-
- Company Research Worksheet
- Hiring Contact Status Reports
The book suggests having 150 contact names you can contact.
You can have several names from the same potential employer.
The chapter focuses on making Contact.
Chapter Five: Making Contacts Your Fifteen-Day Action Plan
The chapter gives ideas on how to contact your potential employers.
On page 78 there is a script that you can use to contact potential employers
The chapter also deals with some objections you may have to deal with when contacting potential employers.
The last part of the book deals with employment interviews, both over the phone and in person.
The book suggests that you ask about how the job will be evaluated during an interview. On p. 130, ask, “How would my performance be measured?”
Direct Contact may be a helpful job-hunting tool for finding a remote position. You may gain insights on how to make Direct Contact.
Live Your Life Learning Blog
This week, we look at the remote opportunities in different economic sectors in Omaha, Nebraska.
We are looking at remote opportunities (if any) for the Omaha financial sector.
I emailed different places in the finance sector in Omaha, Nebraska, asking them about remote opportunities (if any).
Some places that sent out information are:
- Pinnacle Bank
- First National Bank of Omaha
- Centris Federal Credit Union
- Omaha Federal Credit Union
I have not obtained any information so far; if I hear something, I will update this post.
Thanks for reading. Thank you.
Live Your Life Learning Blog
This week, we look at Career Exploration tools
We look at Career Associations as a way to explore a career.
Career Associations are (at least one definition) people grouped together related to a particular career.
National/Local Level
Career Associations may have both national and regional career associations. The regional career association may have different career resources than the national career association. So, you may be able to get information from both the national and regional career associations to help you with career exploration.
Here are some ways career associations can help you with career exploration
- Career Association may have detailed information about that profession
- Publication catalog – a career association may publish a publication catalog listing different publications (like books and magazines) that a career association may produce; you may get more information about a profession.
- Career Journals—A career association may have a career journal, Which is a magazine that the association produces. The journal covers current topics in that profession.
Annual Review
A career journal may also publish an annual review edition, which gives the reader valuable information about the profession’s current state over the last year (not all career journals will have an annual review). The annual review may include information on job prospects, salary rates, and educational standards.
- Membership directory—A career association may provide a membership directory, which you can use as a source for informational interviews.
- Job Openings – a career association may provide job openings; you may get more information about a profession by looking at the job openings of that profession. You may learn, for example, skills that are needed, what educational requirements are requested, and the typical work activities being requested in the job positions of that profession.
- Conferences – sometimes, a career association may offer a conference where you may learn more about a profession. Conferences may allow you the following.
- Hear speakers about the current topics in the profession.
- You may be able to visit commercial business booths at the conference. The commercial business booths at the conference sell different products and services that would interest people attending the conference. You may learn about some of the products and services used in the profession by looking at commercial business booths.
- Employment service – sometimes conferences may offer an employment service – you may be able to learn about the profession by seeing what opportunities may be available. The competition for those opportunities at the conference may also give you an idea of how competitive it may be to find opportunities in that profession.
Here are some ways to find career information to explore a career.
Career associations can help you explore a career.
Live Your Life Learning Blog
Be aware that there are different job search techniques; you have more job search techniques than just applying for jobs. In this post, we will explore some different job search techniques.
You can search for your remote job position using different job-searching techniques.
Some of the different techniques are:
- Applying for job positions
- Applying to organizations directly (You can apply to an organization to ask about opportunities even if you do not find any job positions)
- Volunteering (sometimes volunteering can lead to a job offer)
- Job Fairs (Job Fairs can lead to job opportunities)
- Networking (someone you know gives you information about a job opportunity)
- Career Offices in Colleges and Universities (if you are a student or alumni of a college or university–you may find your next opportunity from a career office)
These are some of the job techniques you may use; you may find it valuable to use different methods to increase your success in the job search.
You are not likely, nor would I recommend, trying to do all the job search techniques you can find. You will probably get too exhausted trying to use all the different job search techniques. I would recommend concentrations of two or three methods.
Career Feedback
The other piece of advice I would give regarding job search is feedback.
Find a career expert to advise you on your job search; feedback can be a critical element in helping you get better.
The 2013 edition of What Color Is Your Parachute
The 2013 edition of What Color Is Your Parachute lists different job search techniques (and gives the success rates of different job search techniques).
Google Searches
You may also want to do a Google search using “Job Search techniques and success rate” (or a similar phrase). You may find some resources on Job Search techniques and success rates.
Different job search techniques may increase your odds of finding a remote job.
Live Your Life Learning Blog
This week, I thought of doing something somewhat different.
I would describe a career book. I want to describe the What Color Is Your Parachute in the 2022 edition.
Your remote job search journey may improve with information from a career book.
What Color Is Your Parachute is a book about career exploration ideas and job hunting.
The book’s author, Richard N. Bolles, wrote annual editions of the book. Richard N. Bolles died in 2017 at age 90.
The What Color Is Your Parachute has had editions past the author’s death.
What Color Is Your Parachute? (The 2022 edition)
I was curious about the latest edition of What Color Is Your Parachute in 2022. So, I thought I would describe the What Color Is Your Parachute in the 2022 edition.
What Color Is Your Parachute has two key features:
- Career Exploration
- Job Hunting
Career Exploration
What Color Is Your Parachute helps a reader with career exploration.
The major exercise for helping readers with career exploration is the Flower exercise.
The Flower Excercise
The book gives the idea of knowing your “ideal” work environment.
Creating a Flower gives you some idea of your “ideal” work environment.
The Flower has seven petals.
The 7 pedals represent different features of the work environment.
For example, you have a geography pedal where you describe where you would like to live ideally.
You will not have an “ideal” flower that works for everyone. Different flowers can vary in what environment they would grow best; some would grow better than others. People will vary in what environment they would do better in; some will do better in some work environments than others. The Flower you create will be unique to you.
I think the Flower is a fantastic exercise that gives you insight into what type of work environment would be your “ideal” work environment.
Once you have completed the Flower,
The book in Chapter 7 called “You Get to Choose Where You Work” gives ideas on how to connect the Flower results to the world of careers.
Job-Hunting
The book gives job search ideas.
For example, Chapter 8, “Your Resume is Already Online,” gives information on resumes (along with social media). Chapter 9 provides information about job interviewing, which is called “Fifteen Tips about Your Job Interview.”
Some additional thoughts
Have alternative career ideas
The book mentions having alternative job ideas available to help your job search; the book mentions jobs are constantly changing.
“We are mortal. So are jobs. Understand that truth, and you will avoid a life of bitterness and blame. In today’s world, you must always have a plan B up your sleeve.” (p. 158)
No AI discussed
With the book published in 2022, there was no mention of AI and the effect of AI on the job market. Even though 2022 was not that long ago, AI has become bigger in our society. You may find exploring how AI may influence your job search helpful.
What Color Is Your Parachute? A good book is the 2022 edition. The Flower exercise will give you great information about the “ideal” work environment–that information can help you evaluate what jobs you want to pursue in your future career. The job-hunting techniques can also help you in the job process.
Live Your Life Learning Blog
This week, we look at the remote opportunities for colleges/universities in the Omaha, Nebraska area.
Colleges/Universities – Ask about Remote Opportunities (if any)
I emailed colleges/universities in the Omaha, Nebraska area, asking what remote opportunities they may have (if any) and what advice they could give a job seeker looking for a remote job.
Response
I have not received a response so far. I sent the emails mid-week last week, so some places may not have had time to respond. As I get more information, I will give you the results.
Places I contacted
Here is the list of some colleges/universities I emailed.
- Iowa Western Community College
- Midland University
- College of St. Mary
- Creighton University
- Nebraska Medical Center
- University of Nebraska–Omaha
- Bellevue University
Thanks for reading. Thank you.
Live Your Life Learning Blog
This week, we look at different places where you can find career exploration ideas.
We look at the bookstore.
Bookstores may have books, magazines, newspapers, and other content that may help you clarify a career.
Depending upon the reader’s interest, about anything in a bookstore could (in theory) help a person along their career exploration journey. For example, you may read a travel book–and become interested in a travel career.
This post will focus on some general career resources that may be helpful.
Some general career resources could be
- Education–you may get information about a particular field of study or educational program. For example, you may find information about the GED (General Educational Development (GED)). GED is an alternative credential for a high–-school diploma in the United States.
- Information on specific national tests – you may find information on specific national tests used for admissions in educational programs. For example, the GRE (Graduate Record Examinations ) is a national test used for admissions to some graduate-level programs in the United States.
- Information on the Job Search–you may find information on the job search itself, like how to create a better resume.
- Information to help you with career exploration itself. For example, What Color Is Your Parachute?: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers is an annual edition with career exploration and job-hunting information. What Color Is Your Parachute can give the reader exercises to create a flower. The flower will (ideally) create features of the ideal career for the reader.
You may find your next career idea at the bookstore.
Live Your Life Learning Blog
Hope–Some ways to have hope in the remote job search.
This week, we talk about hope.
Hope can be a critical (and essential) part of the job search.
Hope can give us the energy to keep going when our job search goes nowhere.
Here are some ideas to have hope in a job search:
(1) Have alternatives
This post is about hope inspired by what I read from a 2013 edition called What Color Is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers written by Richard N. Bolles. What Color Is Your Parachute focused on giving career exploration and job-hunting ideas. Richard N. Bolles passed away in 2017. Publishers publish and update the book annually, providing current information on the job-hunting world. According to Google, the 2025 edition of What Color Is Your Parachute has a publication date of around February 18, 2025.
Richard N. Bolles expressed that to keep hope alive, you have alternatives.
He expressed this in the 2013 edition.
“Hope depends upon taking care that we have at least two alternatives, in every situation we find ourselves, and with every task confronting us.” (p. 1)
Ideally, you would have at least 2 career ideas, at least 2 job search techniques, and so on.
Having one option is a recipe for ruin: “To have only one goal, one option, in any situation, is a sure recipe for despair” (p. 2)
So, try to have more than one choice in different things related to your job choice.
How do I pick an alternative career option?
Ideally, you are not just randomly selecting an alternative career option but finding one that is related to the other career options you are trying to find.
Here are some ideas that may help.
- Know your ideal career (or group of ideal careers), and then look at some features of your ideal career and see if you can share some features of your ideal career in your alternative career.
For example, you may be interested in being a professional baseball player but cannot make it to the major leagues of professional baseball because of competition. So, you may decide to become a baseball sports reporter–the baseball sports reporter would share the features of baseball.
The Flower
One way to determine your ideal career is to do the “flower” exercise in the What Color Is Your Parachute book.
What Color Is Your Parachute has many ideas on career exploration; one of the central ideas is doing a “flower”.
A key part of the What Color Is Your Parachute was doing exercises to learn more about your ideal job–you would do exercises that would create a flower. The flower would represent features of what you would like your ideal job to be. Knowing the ideal was essential to increase the odds of working in a work environment that would better serve your natural talents and gifts. The idea of the flower was that a flower may do well in some environments and not well in other environments.
The “flower” exercise is one way to learn about your ideal career; another idea is to talk to a career professional.
(2) Career Professional
Career Professional to help you–you may find hope talking to a career professional. Career Professional can have other names like career coach, career counselor, or other similar title,
A Career Professional may give you hope by giving you guidance in your job search and giving you insight into what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong.
(3) Social Groups
You can also find hope in being involved with social groups–sometimes, having social groups around you can help you with the job search stress.
Like to mention one type of social group of interest:
Job Hunting Groups
Job Hunting Groups are social groups where job seekers gather, and they come together to help each other in each person’s job journey. You can gather information that will help you search for a job. You can also reduce the loneliness of the job search. According to a Google search, Job Hunting groups may be called “job search clubs, job search councils, or networking groups.” (from a Google search asking “What are job hunting groups called?”)
Other social groups can include spiritual/religious, athletic, book clubs, and local travel (there may be options in your local area to visit low-cost or free travel places).
Religious–belief in a transition after death
The channel is not really focused on religion, but it gives out an idea of social groups and believing in a religion where death is a transition. This may provide hope when everything else in this life in this world has fallen apart.
(4) Success in something
The job search can be frustrating and filled with rejection.
Another way to have hope is to find something else in your life unrelated to the job search you can succeed with. You can define success in any way you want.
You could have “success” in doing a physical exercise routine, or success in doing a hobby, or success in reading a book. Find something you can have success that you can achieve so you know you are successful in life. So when the job search is a “failure,” you can have something else in life filled with success.
(5) Volunteering
If you are able, you may also have hope through volunteering.
Volunteering can distract you from the job search and give you a way to focus on an activity that can help you feel productive and useful.
(6) Ask for Help
Sometimes, during the job search, you may feel that everything is falling apart; another way to have hope is to ask for help.
You may find a counselor, talk to a friend, or talk to a family member that you can ask to find hope.
(7) Failure
Failure can often result from the job search, but one way to look at failure is as a learning tool. What can I learn from failure to help me get better at what I am doing? You may improve the job search from failure.
Use A Career Professional to help learn from Failure.
(Let me combine this idea with seeing a career professional—sometimes, in a job search, you will not get feedback from the failure of the job search except for obtaining a group of “No’s,” so a career professional may help you learn from failure in the job search.)
These are some ideas to have hope.
Hope can increase your chances of finding a remote job and give you the energy to do so.
Live Your Life Learning Blog
