Want to set a goal for 2011

Resolve to Be Employable!

For the unemployed, many of you have settled in to new routines over the past months or years.

I want you to think back and imagine when you used to be employed. You woke up at a certain time, you came home at a certain time, you had arrangements for your spouse, for your kids, for making life work while you were at work.

You had gas for the car. You had rides to the train, your transportation was arranged. If someone in the family needed something, you probably couldn’t help because you were at work. If there was a doctor appointment, a dentist appointment, you more then likely wouldn’t take off from work, you would arrange the appointments around work. Now that you have been unemployed, you have become a housekeeper, the person that can run errands , can watch the kids,do the shopping, do laundry, clean the house.

I am sure you can add more to your busy list.

With all of these things that need to be done everyday, how isit that will find time to be employed?

It would almost seem impossible, so it might be time to make some choices to be employable.

Because when you tell your future employer:

• That you can't make an interview because you cant find a baby sitter
• That you can't start because you have to watch someone else’s kid
• That you can't make it to work or an interview because the spouse needs the car
• That you can't make a late interview because you have to pick up the kids from school.

Hiring managers can sense it. They get a feeling that your not interested when in reality you want the work but have to much on your unemployed plate to be employed. So they turn you down.

YES… Life happens, and yes all of these things do need to get done. But you did them before, when you were employed.

Do you remember being employed?

Lets look at being Employable!

You don’t get a 2 week notice for an interview or job offer.

This is an opportunity, and you need to ready, and have enough want and desire to go get it.

Imagine yourself getting that opportunity.

What is it that you might be doing right now that would keep you from starting TODAY?

If you were offered a job to START today, what would you need?

Make yourself a check list.

You need:

• A means of transportation.
• A baby sitter.
• A way for the kids to get to and from school.
• You might have to re arrange doctor and dentist appointments. (Actually, you might want to rearrange them to time or days as if you were working. If you are projecting that you will be available a month from now to take on these appointments, then you will be available.)

What else needs to be done as if you were working?

Get in the mindset that you are working, and let others know that the you have hung up your chauffeur hat and that you are back to work now.

I wish all a Happy and Employable New Year.

Dennis

***ATTENTION COACHING SESSIONS AVAILABLE!Coaching is available through any combination of in-person, telephone, or email support. Are you prepared to navigate the current job market? If you would like to increase your chances and give yourself a real chance to win the next position. I have developed a simple easy to use and affordable product http://www.mypocketapplication.com/Email me, or call Dennis Scherer for more information!630-571-6025

**Photo of The Office - NBC - No Copyright Infringement intended

THIS is the problem with unemployment

Question from Job Seeker: Should you jump on the first job offer you receive?

I say NO, absolutely not, because people are stressed & anxious, they may end up taking on a job they do not really want out of fear, which will be obvious to all in the short-term, this could also lead to job-hopping.... Your thoughts?

ANSWER from Dennis:
My guess is your currently living on the government dollar, giving you the right to be selective. I have many candidates that would prefer to be on unemployment then take a short term deal - that is in their skill set.

But what I find and my guess is your question might confirm it, is that people equate Unemployment with receiving unemployment benefits. The idea of the benefits is for you to find work...period. If people had no money coming in at all, any job offer would be a good one.

If you were looking in your skill set and you had a reasonable offer then yes you should take it.

Take it to take care of you, take care of your family and participate with the working class.

You mention in your question people are stressed and anxious, why might that be? Because they are unemployed, they have bills and some one is going to help them make that right by paying them! You might have to think about taking it. You might not get a second chance considering where we are in our economy.

Job Hoping, personally, I appreciate all and any people that are working during these times and are trying to take care of themselves and their family. I will take an person that had a good skill set that is currently working at Starbucks® then someone unemployed sitting on the couch eating Cheetos® waiting for the "right" opportunity.

What do YOU think?

Dennis

***ATTENTION COACHING SESSIONS AVAILABLE!Coaching is available through any combination of in-person, telephone, or email support. Are you prepared to navigate the current job market? If you would like to increase your chances and give yourself a real chance to win the next position. I have developed a simple easy to use and affordable product http://www.mypocketapplication.com/Email me, or call Dennis Scherer for more information!630-571-6025

Tis my attempt as poetry

Thirty days hath September,

April, June, and November;

All the rest have thirty-one,

Save February, with twenty-eight days clear,

And twenty-nine each leap year.

I am trying to find a nice way to make up a poem so people can remember what they have schedules so they know in advance to tell their employer that they will not be able to work.

Like Monday through Friday is my days to work, If I take off I might look like a jerk. (How's that?)

I been out of work for such a long time, and now I have found a job, I think it’s a good time for me to call off and get my car worked on, (the day they want me to start)

Doctor, doctor can you see me, I'm sick! "No I can’t unless your recently employed, then my door is open to you anytime so come on in!"

Calendar excuses for going to work..."Oh I forgot..."

Oh I forgot that my car needs a fixing,

Oh I forgot that my hair needs a trimming,

Oh I forgot that I had a to see a doctor, a dentist, or a pharmacist,

Oh I forgot that kids don’t have school,

Oh I forgot that the alarm needed setting,

Oh I bet they won't need me today, I am betting!

Oh I forgot that telling you in advance might be helpful so I sent you an email,

I wonder why I continue to fail.

Dennis

***ATTENTION COACHING SESSIONS AVAILABLE!Coaching is available through any combination of in-person, telephone, or email support. Are you prepared to navigate the current job market? If you would like to increase your chances and give yourself a real chance to win the next position. I have developed a simple easy to use and affordable product http://www.mypocketapplication.com/Email me, or call Dennis Scherer for more information!630-571-6025

Make an impression and stand out with Holiday Cheer

I started writing this blog just after Thanksgiving. I had a candidate that I have been working with on several contract jobs send a text to me on Thanksgiving.

He texted me, and he texted my recruiter.

"Happy Thanksgiving Kim. Thank you for your warmth and passion for what you do for all of us."

I share this because on Thanksgiving with just genuine intent to wish myself and my family a Happy Thanksgiving and to thank my company for the work we provided.

I was very appreciative and as an employer, I also know that I can return that appreciation, by keeping him in mind for future jobs, using him during projects or helping him if I can. In fact, on Monday, we had another project to fill, and we called him first.

People like to be recognized and I have seen simple easy to do things like a Holiday Card make a difference in the decision making process.

Also by you sending out cards it will give you a sense of connection.

Take some time and write out some cards to people that you know, have met ,interviewed, and give some wishes *without expectations.

Personalize it; Expand your relationship knowing of that person will appreciate, take notice, and you might be receive some Holiday Cheer in response.

Dennis

***ATTENTION COACHING SESSIONS AVAILABLE!Coaching is available through any combination of in-person, telephone, or email support. Are you prepared to navigate the current job market? If you would like to increase your chances and give yourself a real chance to win the next position. I have developed a simple easy to use and affordable product http://www.mypocketapplication.com/Email me, or call Dennis Scherer for more information!630-571-6025

Employers aren't hiring deadbeats

Your unemployment extension might just get long and longer with NO governmental help.

The fact is that you might be the cause of your own lack of finding work. Jobs are out there, companies are hiring, but what I have been hearing and seeing is that they are not hiring people that have been sitting on the couch for the last 99 weeks, collecting unemployment.

I have had plenty of fortune 500 clients in the Chicagoland area tell me that they want to see people that have attempted to work, keep up their experience , and they appreciate even if they had to take short term work in another industry.

They feel that people that have been sitting around on unemployment to long didn’t have the initiative to find a way to better themselves and they will not consider see these candidates.

Good Luck.

Dennis

***ATTENTION COACHING SESSIONS AVAILABLE!Coaching is available through any combination of in-person, telephone, or email support. Are you prepared to navigate the current job market? If you would like to increase your chances and give yourself a real chance to win the next position. I have developed a simple easy to use and affordable product http://www.mypocketapplication.com/Email me, or call Dennis Scherer for more information!630-571-6025

Please enjoy this music while I connect you

Ah Technology! I might be older, I guess they call this Caller tunes, a music on hold type song that plays while I am waiting to talk to someone about potential employment. I got three of these just this week alone.

Please listen to the following and you tell me if this would get you motivated to consider hiring these people.

First Impressions count, and this is the first thing I hear.

Dennis

***ATTENTION COACHING SESSIONS AVAILABLE!Coaching is available through any combination of in-person, telephone, or email support. Are you prepared to navigate the current job market? If you would like to increase your chances and give yourself a real chance to win the next position. I have developed a simple easy to use and affordable product http://www.mypocketapplication.com/Email me, or call Dennis Scherer for more information!630-571-6025

COCAINE USER HIDES BEHIND TONIC WATER EXCUSE AND WINS

COCAINE USER HIDES BEHIND TONIC WATER EXCUSE AND WINS!

This unemployment insurance case will probably make you angry when you read it. At a time in the history of the United States when people are arguing about whether there should be additional extensions of unemployment insurance benefits, cases like this one make the situation ever more confusing—are the right people getting unemployment insurance benefits in the first place?

In this particular Illinois Department of Employment Security unemployment insurance benefits case, a claimant was a temporary employee originally. For purposes of this article, let’s identify the Claimant as Mary and the Company as Smith Company.

Mary worked for Smith Company as a temporary employee. Mary knew that if she were ever invited to join the Company as a permanent employee, she would be required to have a drug test per company policy. This Company decided to invite Mary to join Smith Company as a permanent employee and they scheduled Mary for a drug test. Mary took the drug test, and she tested positive for cocaine. Mary denied ever using cocaine. She argued to Smith Company that the test results were a “false positive” because of some interaction with tonic water!

Smith Company didn’t buy Mary’s tonic water excuse, and they did not hire Mary as a permanent employee. In fact, they terminated her employment relationship with Smith Company. Mary filed for unemployment insurance benefits. Smith Company protested (claiming that Mary was discharged for misconduct connected with the work under Section 602A of the Illinois Unemployment Insurance Act).

At the unemployment insurance hearing, the Hearing Officer found that the drug test was performed by a reliable and independent laboratory. However, there was nothing in the Hearing record to support this finding by the Hearing Officer that the lab was reliable and independent. The Company produced no evidence or witnesses at the Hearing that the lab was reliable and independent, and that the test results were therefore valid.

However, the Hearing Officer still found for Smith Company and denied unemployment insurance benefits to Mary. Mary appealed that Hearing decision to the IDES Board of Review.

The IDES Board of Review reversed the decision of the Hearing Officer and found that Mary was not guilty of misconduct under Section 602A of the Act. The Board of Review found that Smith Company did not meet its legal burden of proof at the IDES hearing because Smith Company failed to have medical personnel available during the hearing to testify about the drug test, the test results, and other aspects about the lab and the validity of the test. So Mary’s silly tonic water defense was victorious!

Of course, Smith Company could have appealed further to Circuit Court and beyond if necessary, but in view of Smith Company’s clear failure to have the necessary witnesses at the hearing, appealing through the Illinois court system did not seem a prudent decision from a financial perspective.

Smith Company did not know that they should have had witnesses from the lab at the IDES hearing. Now they know.

If your Company is claiming misconduct because an employee failed a drug test, be sure you have the necessary witnesses and evidence to present at the unemployment insurance benefits hearing. Witnesses can testify by phone.

By

Nancy E. Joerg, Esq.

Senior Attorney and Shareholder

Wessels Sherman Joerg Liszka Laverty Seneczko P.C.

St. Charles, Illinois

(630) 377-1554

najoerg@wesselssherman.com

www.wesselssherman.com

***ATTENTION COACHING SESSIONS AVAILABLE!Coaching is available through any combination of in-person, telephone, or email support. Are you prepared to navigate the current job market? If you would like to increase your chances and give yourself a real chance to win the next position. I have developed a simple easy to use and affordable product http://www.mypocketapplication.com/Email me, or call Dennis Scherer for more information!630-571-6025

I need your help

I have found that one of the most valuable characteristics that sets a candidate apart from the competition and gets them hired into the the position they desire, is the ability to follow a process. It might seem trivial to you, but there is a method that can get you into that new job with ease, you just have to follow it.

As a recruiter, I have procedures that I may transmit by email to save myself and my candidates time in getting the opportunity to be presented. I may request phone calls because there is information I need to know quickly or I may need a form to be filled out completely because it answers questions necessary to get a person hired. Also, it gives me a gauge of how well people will follow directions during the interview process and as a new hire representing my firm.

So I am asking anyone that reads this blog to help me by giving me just two minutes of your time. Please take out a sheet of paper and scroll down to complete the following assignment.

Thank you,

Dennis

It should take you 2 minutes or less to complete.

Directions:

1.Read through ALL the directions carefully and completely before you begin.

2.Print your name in the upper left-hand corner of this page.

3.Number the paper from 1-10.

4.Write today's date below your name in the upper left-hand corner.

5.Circle your name and date in the upper left-hand corner.

6.After the date written just below your name, write your birth date.

7.Put an “X” in the upper right-hand corner of this page.

8.Punch a hole with your pencil through the number “8” on your paper.

9.Draw a big smiley face in the middle of this paper.

10. Now that you have read everything through carefully, do only items 1 and 2.

Well, how well did you do? Was it a quick, easy read-through or a lot of useless effort? I'd like to hear your comments and experience of this exercise. Please comment and let me know if you were able to follow directions. Thanks.

***ATTENTION COACHING SESSIONS AVAILABLE!Coaching is available through any combination of in-person, telephone, or email support. Are you prepared to navigate the current job market?

If you would like to increase your chances and give yourself a real chance to win the next position. I have developed a simple easy to use and affordable product http://www.mypocketapplication.com/Email me, or call Dennis Scherer for more information!630-571-6025