Turning Temp Into Perm

If there is any bright spot in the lagging job market, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, companies will be creating more temporary jobs in 2012. If you’re unemployed, that’s good news. Temporary jobs are a way to keep working, learn new skills or sharpen the old ones and bring in some needed income. Continue reading…

Temporary or seasonal jobs can help get you over a financial crisis caused by a job loss.  The extra income pays the bills.  You can also gain needed experience or learn critical skills at a temporary job that in turn can help you find a new job.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is too many unrelated temp jobs in a relatively short period of time can spell disaster for your resume.

Instead of helping you get another job, they can lead you far away from your area of expertise.  The more unrelated jobs you have since your last career job can make you appear less serious about getting back on the career track and farther removed from the latest innovations and issues in your profession. Continue reading…

Moving Down the Ladder

Henry had a middle-management position that started out at $50,000 a year.   Over the next 15 years, he worked his way up the company ladder and pay scale to $75,000 a year.  Then, in a company-wide effort to reduce costs and overhead, his position was eliminated.  Continue reading…

Back in the 50’s and 60’s, June Cleaver was the perfect TV mom on the sitcom “Leave It To Beaver,” making breakfast in her pearls and pumps, sending her husband and children off to work and school while she kept busy during the day with shopping, cleaning the house and having coffee with the “girls.”   Then came the 70’s and 80’s and mom went to work just like dad, leaving the kids to fend for themselves or get in trouble, like Ferris Buehler.  A recent episode of “The Good Wife” on CBS-TV brought the parenting model full circle when a bright, young female attorney announced she was leaving her high-powered, high-paying job to stay home with her baby-to-be and “just be a mom.” Continue reading…

“Work at home, taking surveys in your pajamas, and earn $10,000 a month!”  Sounds great, right?  Well, read a little bit further.  There is an old saying…”If it seems to be too good to be true, it probably is.”  That goes for get rich quick, work-at-home schemes.  Behind some of those ads are fees for starter kits, even bigger fees for seminars, DVDs, books, etc., that hold the real secrets.  The biggest secret is, in many cases, the only one making big bucks from home is the brilliant marketer selling the programs over the Internet. Continue reading…