CareerPlanner.com Newsletter - March 2010

( Issue 2, 2010 )

So Who's Been Using Our Career Counseling Services?

You probably already know that we've been providing Career Counseling to career changers, job hunters and students around the world. Our first client, many years ago, was calling from Milan, Italy. We use Skype for the international calls.

It's been interesting to see how the mix of our clients has changed during this recession.

Prior to the economic slow down of 2008 and 2009, most of the people who ordered our career counseling packages were career changers wanting a better, more satisfying career, and the parents and grandparents of students who were trying to figure out what they should study and what their first career should be.

But during this downturn, we saw more and more people who just wanted advice on how to get a job in a tough job market. These people wanted to have an edge over the next guy.

One big surprise was that we counseled many previously self employed people, who, due to the economy, were having to look for a job the first time in their lives. These were entrepreneurs whose small businesses just dried up and vanished. Imagine being 40 and never having had to write a resume or go to a job interview. Talk about a radical career change.

But once again, we are starting to see more of the career changers, students and parents of students.

I attribute this to people having a bit more optimism about the future, to people being somewhat less afraid they will lose their jobs, and to people thinking the worst is hopefully behind us.

To see how Career Counseling can help your career, click here

February's Career Interest Test (CiT) Contest Winners

Throughout most of 2009 and now in 2010 we've been giving away two Career Interest Tests each month. We started this during the worst of the recession when we wanted to do something both and positive.

The two winners for February 2010 were Adriane K. and James H.

If that's you, we sent you a separate email telling you how to claim your Career Interest Test. Just log back, go to the member's menu and look under contests.

The Career Interest Test will show you the type of work you will be interested in and passionate about. It takes only 15 minutes.

For much more indepth career direction, use our Advanced Personality Type Career Report

For those who want to sign up for March's contest, there is still time. Just go to this page and find the sign up link. http://www.CareerPlanner.com/CareerTest.cfm

The Job Market is Just Now Starting To Get Better

But some areas are still getting worse.

CareerPlanner.com is located in Silicon Valley (Northern California - near San Jose, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Palo Alto, Mountain View etc.) where we have seen more than a few people starting to find jobs.

This is the land of both old tech and new tech. We have old tech companies like Seagate and Maxtor who do hard disks. We have new tech companies like Facebook, Google, Yahoo, eBay, and PayPal. Plus we have companies like Apple and Cisco who continually re-invent themselves.

For Jobs That Pay Over $100,000 click here

To find jobs, we have a brand new
Job Search tool (new as of Feb 2010)
It pulls in jobs from around the world

Although some major companies like Adobe are still doing layoffs, we've seen at least a few companies start hiring.

A good friend of ours who had been unemployed for over two years finally got a job. He's a quality engineer in the networking and telecom field. He was hired by a company that supplies Cisco. The best news however is from his wife who is extremely happy to get him out of the house.

Cisco is predicting that companies will have to start upgrading their network equipment to offer higher speeds and to handle all the movies and apps people are downloading onto their phones and computers. This should create a lot of jobs over the next few years. It won't be the dot com boom, but is should be good for all of us.

Another friend who had retired a few years ago, had to come out of retirement to replenish his retirement account which got hammered by the stock market crash. He is benefiting from some of that government stimulus money which is being used to re-pave streets in California.

Another friend, a marketeer of high tech products, had been out of work for over two years. He has re-invented himself. He started a tax planning and financial services business.

In Florida, a Career Counseling client of ours went back to work in the software field after being unemployed for several months.

In Amsterdam, a Career Counseling customer of ours had to decide between job offers from two different companies. Having to decide between two job offers is something we have not seen much of recently. It's a very good sign.

It's not based on statistically sound data, but we are starting to see people get new jobs. We'd call it a "sign" rather than a turn around, because there are still companies laying off and some companies who could not hold on any longer are just now giving up. But the good news is that some companies are hiring.

The pundits agree that it will take a long time (five years plus) for the job market to fully recover, especially in the US.

When the experts say five years or longer they mean they have no idea when it will get better.

China on the other hand still seems to be booming. Not sure how India has fared. We just had a Career Coaching client in India, but he's in the software IT field which still seems to be healthy.

Well, that's about all for this newsletter.

Next month we will tell you about a book we've just finished. "How to Write the Perfect Resume."

Michael T. Robinson
President
CareerPlanner.com