So many people around the world start to question themselves at this time of the year. New years resolutions have been almost forgotten, goals have become foggy and are proving hard to obtain.

Well here at Jobhunters HQ we think everyone should have another shot at it, don’t wait until December 31st, 2012 to make the same old promises to yourself again. Make them now but this time actually see them through to completions so that you can think of something new and even more exciting for 2013.

• Go for that promotion
• Quit that dead end job (Once you have a better one lined up of course!)
• Enroll now in that training course
• Start that business you keep talking about
• Apply for an internship and learn first hand that trade you always wanted to do
• Dust off that resume and give it a new lease of life

Whether you’re diving in or just testing the waters, the first steps towards change are always the most difficult. However, once you start down your new path towards a better and more satisfying career, you’ll never look back.

Stay focused and don’t lose sight of what you need to do to get the job done. Remember, our team here at Jobhunters is here to support you on your journey. Use the resources available on our website as well as the web and know that if you believe in yourself, anything is possible.

Happy Hunting

What exactly is an Internship?

Internships enable people to gain valuable training and experience in a particular field which can often lead to a full time position. They can be a valuable tool towards getting one’s foot in the door. Even if the company you are interning for is not where you ultimately see yourself working, the letters of recommendation and references you gain there will likely prove extremely valuable when it comes time to apply for the right job for you.

How long does a typical internship last?

Internships normally last for between 6 and 12 weeks, however the duration can be different from that, depending on the field and company involved.

How much does and Intern get paid?

In some cases they may be unpaid, however they could be partly paid or fully paid.

Paid internships are more commonly found in professional fields, like science, law, engineering, business, architecture,medical, advertising and technology.

Unpaid internships are more likely to be found in non-profit organizations and the likes of think tanks.

Are Internships easy to get?

Anything can be purchased for a price, and in recent times unfortunately internships in America have become somewhat of a commodity.

At first I didn’t think that this would be the case, but as I researched more and more I realized that the effects of a sad economy reach further than I ever could have imagined.

Increasing the division between the haves and havenots, it seems that not only do you now need to put your child through an expensive school, and then college, just to get a foot in the door it is becoming more and more normal to be forced to buy your kid an internship. That’s unless they want to lose themselves in a 10 dollar an hour manual job.

Using simple mathematics and taking into account a five day work week, depending on the year the average working days per year in America varies between 260 – 262 days a year. In 2012, due to the fact that it’s a leap year there are 261 weekdays out of a total of 366 total days.

Of course hardly anyone actually “works” every potential work day, as you need to take into account federal holidays, vacation and sick time taken.

(State and Federal employees generally enjoy 10 days per year as holidays, with an extra “Presidential Inauguration” day every fourth year. The holidays are given during the work week even if they fall on a weekend – ie the holiday is given on Friday if it falls on a Saturday, and on Monday if it falls on a Sunday)

This leaves 251 days to be worked in 2012, minus vacation time.

Vactaion time for employees normally kicks off at around 9 or 10 days a year.

We are now left with 240-241 working days in 2012 less sick leave (if any).

From what we have outlined here, and armed with your own information regarding vacation time, you should be able to work out how many work days you will be working this year.

Naturally, here at Jobhunters HQ we thought it would be fun as well as beneficial to share with you some of the funniest, craziest workplace blunders that have ever happened!

Email blunders and mishaps

Have you ever pressed send on an email and thought, whoops! Spare a thought for Eva Ravelo, the ex-principal at Coconut Grove Elementary School. A parent, Abigail DuBearn, emailed in with an enquiry regarding the school’s Educational Excellence Advisory Committee. Eva thought she was forwarding the message on to her vice principal, however she inadvertently emailed back the parent with that famous career destroying phrase…

“Advise her to eat sh– and die”

Eva was transferred to Coral Terrace Elementary, not long after the incident.

Laziness exposed

Emalee Bauer spent her work time writing a journal about how little work she actually did.

“This typing thing seems to be doing the trick”

Emalee wrote.

“It just looks like I am hard at work on something very important.”

Unfortunately for Emalee, her supervisor found her journal and sacked her for misusing company time. When requesting unemployment benefits, the judge presiding over her case denied her request. The judge pointed out that the journal demonstrated her refusal to work, and seeming amusement she gained from misleading her employer.

The perils of Social Media – Facebook

Kevin Colvin worked as an intern at the North American branch of a bank. Kevin emailed his manager one day, mentioning that due to a family emergency he was going to have to miss work.

Suspecting that Colvin was up to a little more than a family emergency, his coworkers checked out his latest entry on Facebook. Finding a picture of him having a great time at a Hollywood party, his pedantic colleagues immediately reported him to his boss, Paul Davis.

Davis replied to Kevin’s email

There is no word as to whether he lost his job or not…What do you think should have happened?

The perils of Social Media – Twitter

22-year old Twitterer and prospective new hire of Cisco tweeted the below when she was offered a position at Cisco.

Unsurprisingly, someone at Cisco stumbled across the tweet and Connor’s job offer was reportedly withdrawn!

In today’s world of instant updates and our lives online for all to see, it’s easier than ever before to get caught out making stupid mistakes! So do yourself a favour, take your time and think before doing something rash, otherwise it may come back to haunt you as it did for these unlucky folks!

The United States Department of Labor shows teachers as being one of the occupations expected to have the highest growth rate over the next ten years. You can view the numbers here.

The most common education jobs are:

Teacher
Teachers are split into three main areas. Early Childhood/Preschool Teachers, Primary/Middle school teachers, and Secondary Teachers. Depending on what country you live in, the qualifications will vary greatly, however generally speaking a bachelor’s degree and a qualifying teaching certifcate is required to be a teacher.

Professor – Lecturer
Professors are normally described as being Full Professor, Associate Professor or Assistant Professor. In most countries, a Professor is a senior academic who holds a departmental chair (e.g. head of department) at a university.

Administrator
An Administrator is normally an ex-teacher who organizes and manages the support systems, administration and activities that enable the effective operation of an educational facility.

Teacher Aide – Para-Educator
A Teacher Aide, or Para-Educator is a teaching-related position that is normally responsible for the concentrated assistance of students in primary up to secondary schools. This is generally a fairly low salaried position, however ideal for someone who is perhaps studying part-time with the intention of eventually becoming a fully qualified teacher.

As you can see, there is a wide range of teaching-related jobs in the education sector. If educating people is your passion, then considering the positive growth expected in this profession, there should be a rewarding position out there waiting for you!

Happy Hunting

The options seemed endless… Is it the paradise island caretaker with a massive salary? Is it the luxury bed tester that gets paid for sleeping in the most expensive beds in the world?

What about a jet fighter pilot – wouldn’t that be right up there?

Other top jobs could include

• Resort waterslide tester
• Wine tester
• Candy Taster
• Condom tester

and many more.

How can a job be considered better than the rest? What may seem like paradise to one person, could be a nightmare for another.

After careful consideration, our team at Job Hunters concluded the following criteria, in no particular order, should be considered in rating the popularity of a job:

1./ Fantastic salary

2./ Work environment

3./ Work/life balance

4./ Location

5./ Job satisfaction

However this is of course highly objectionable considering that everyone has different opinions about what they consider to be important. If you were already independently wealthy for instance, you would probably not rate a fantastic salary as something that defined a job’s greatness.

While researching for this article I even found a guy that smokes pot to earn a living!

Summary
At the end of all this I realized that there is no definitive “Best Job in the World”. Potentially all of us could have it at our fingertips. It’s an individual thing and opinions will inevitably vary from one person to another.

What do you think the best job in the world would be? Please share your thoughts and experiences with us as we’d love to hear your stories!

Meanwhile, Happy Hunting!

We then combined the two results for both and came up with this top 10 list.

Please let us know via a comment on this page if you come across any other sites that should be considered and we will check via the same qualifying system.

It’s never easy to find a new job and here at Jobhunters we are putting as many resources as possible in your hands.

We always appreciate your feedback so please join us on Facebook and/or share your comments below about your experiences finding work in the USA.

Happy Hunting!

We then averaged out the results for both and came up with this top ten list.

If you know of a site that you think we have missed (NZ only) please let us know and we can check it out.

It’s not always easy to find a new job and here at Jobhunters we aim to put as many resources as we can at your fingertips.

We always appreciate your feedback so please join us on Facebook and/or share your comments below about your experiences finding work in NZ.

Happy Hunting!

Firstly, there are a number of questions that you should try to find answers to. In any final interview the better prepared that you are the more your liklihood is of actually landing that job. Likewise, when it comes to decision time, you want to be sure you are making the correct choice for your future.

Questions like how long has the company been in business? What is it like to work there? How successful has the company been and what are the prospects looking like for the future? All though some of these can be answered within the interview process, for a fair indication of how the culture is and exactly what it is like to work at a company you need to look much more deeply.

Here are several ways you can find out more about a potential employer and hopefully answer these important questions.

1./ Research via internet.

The internet is a powerful tool – Start by checking out the company’s website, their history and then any news articles or other things which may come up via a Google search.

2./ Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and Social Media

Check out the company’s  Facebook page and, if you are on Linkedin,  try and find out what you can there as well. If you’re not on Linkedin, get on it.

3./ Try to find someone that works there.

Nothing like getting the low down directly from someone that works for the company in question.

4/ Rate My Company types of sites
Sites that allow employees to anonymously rate their employers are becoming more and more popular. Have a look at the rating sites in your area.

United States – Jobitorial

NZ – Rate My Company

Canada – Rate My Employer

Europe – Rate My Firm

Although these sites show only certain peoples’ perspectives, they can help you make an informed decision.

Remember, you could be working for this company for the next 20 years. You owe it to yourself to find out as much as you reasonably can before signing on the dotted line.

Happy Hunting

The Backstabber
The Backstabber is a very lethal type of jerk. They will often wait for ages under the cover of normality as they silently stalk their prey. The minute their prey (you) puts an inevitable foot wrong the Backstabber will strike, normally with a quiet word in a boss’s ear regarding your incompetence.

The best way to deal with the office Backstabber is by confronting them, as they are generally the cowardly type and will likely back off if they sense you are on to them.

Note: If however, you are genuinely incompetent, you may feel that you work with an entire team of Backstabbers – whereas in reality it is actually your own ineptitude which is causing you to feel this way.

The Bully
The workplace Bully exerts their authority throughout the workplace with mean, nasty behaviour. Only through putting others down can the Bully jerkiousmaximus find happiness in their work day. The best way to deal with a workplace Bully is to report them so others can be warned and no one will ever want to hire or work with this nastiest species of jerk.

You can report workplace bullies here.

The Email Spammer Jerk
There is a special kind of jerk called the Email Spammer Jerk. The ESJ, in a neverending pursuit to convince everyone of what a fantastic job they are doing, tends to cc everyone (particularly management) as to each “accomplishment” they have made. The ESJ has a secret weapon called the “out of hours email” where they take special care to slyly email management at some obviously out of work time to highlight the fact that they never seem to stop working.

You will find underneath the cunning exterior and disguise, a jerk that is worried for their job and constantly trying to cover up the fact that they actually do very little.

The “Busy” Jerk
A special breed of jerk, closely related to the Email Spammer Jerk, has emerged in recent times that portrays an aura of extremely busy behaviour. This type of jerk is particularly skilled at fooling management into believing that busyness relates to productivity when in fact the exact opposite is true. The Busy Jerk often hides incompetence and fear of trying new things.

By always proclaiming to be “too busy” they avoid the possibility of being given new assignments which could potentially lead to the downfall of their career.

The Busy Jerk is not a nasty kind of jerk, however the breed still falls under the “Jerk” label for its cunning tactics and behaviour.

The Whiner
Most offices have one of these. The whiner sustains its jerky behaviour by constantly whining and moaning about every aspect of their day. Not content with complaining about real issues, the whiner jerk will find something wrong with EVERYTHING. There is no known defence against this type of jerk except avoidance – or a good pair of noise cancelling headphones.

Handling Jerks – Basic Survival Guide
Over your working career your jerk radar will develop constantly. As you experience and observe the different types of jerks a kind of natural immunity will begin to develop within you. Some simple tips will, however, keep you in a state of readiness should one of these nasty vermin infiltrate your workplace.

• Do not read their emails, particularly the ones “outside normal working hours”
• NEVER NEVER show any weakness
• Create an alliance of like minded “non” jerks (Jerks are scared of a pack and tend to pick off individuals)
• Show indifference to any jerk-like behaviours
• Report bullies to the rest of the world
• Invest in a large pair of headphones

“We don’t devote enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks.” Bill Watterson quote (American Author Calvin & Hobbes, b.1958)

Thats all for now, however please share your own stories of jerk-like behaviour with our community. Join us on facebook.