Landing Your Dream Job in a Recession

Many thanks to my colleague and fellow career coach Allison Cheston for the opportunity to guest post on her blog for Examiner.com. Allison has appeared on my radio show and is a career change expert and authority on executive search.

My guest post, "Landing Your Dream Job in a Recession: Why Now is No Time to Settle" is available now on Allison's Career Change blog. Here is a sample tip from that post: To land a job you have to be the best at what you do. Employers have their pick of candidates. In order to stand out, you must focus on positions where you are particularly talented. Each one of us is a unique individual with a unique set of skills and talents. Align those talents with your dream job and you will stand out from the crowd.

Click here to read more of my tips and advice on how to go after your ideal career!

What's your dream job? What would you LOVE to be doing right now? What do you need to make it a reality?

Retirement - still possible in a bad economy?

Many baby boomers are choosing to stay in their jobs given the economic downturn. And for those who've lost their jobs, retirement can seem challenging to reach.

Join me this Wednesday 4pm EST/1pm PST as I interview CNBC's resident retirement expert Bill Losey. A certified financial planner and author of "Retire in a Weekend! The Baby Boomers Guide to Making Work Optional", Bill will share the key steps to retire despite a bad economy. Also on the show, Danny Kofke, author of "How to Survive (and perhaps thrive) on a Teacher's Salary."

All that and your career questions answered on Making a Living with Maggie SIRIUS 112 and XM 157. Hope you can tune in! For a free trial of SIRIUS, click here.

The Top 10 Growing Industries for Jobs

If you missed me on CNN this week, you have another chance to hear where the jobs are.

Tune in for my interview on The Bill Handel Show KFI AM 640 LIVE from Southern California today (Mar 19th) at 10:30am eastern/7:30am pacific. Bill hosts the #1 rated morning show in the area with more than a million listeners. I'll be talking about the top 10 growing industries and how to transition into a new career!

For those not living in Southern California you can tune in LIVE by clicking here. If you don't have a chance to tune in LIVE then a podcast will be available for download here after the show.

Hope you can tune in!

New Ways to Avoid Layoffs, Today at 4pm EST SIRIUS 112/XM 157

Layoffs actually cost companies more than they save.

That's according to Work Life Fit expert Cali Williams Yost, my guest today on Making a Living with Maggie (SIRIUS 112/XM 157 4pm EST). To tune in using a free trial of SIRIUS, click here.

Last week, during her interview on Public Radio International's The Takeaway, Cali highlighted that managers think firing someone who makes $50,000 a year saves $50,00a year, but the research shows it's costing them between $75,000 and $125,000. Cali advises companies instead to use flexibility, such as reduced schedules/salaries, adding unpaid vacation days, furloughs/sabbaticals, etc., as a better approach to reducing labor expenses because it preserves the profit-generating productivity and engagement critical for recovery. Click here for more details in Cali's blog post.

Unfortunately many companies are turning to layoffs to save costs at this time. If you or someone you know has been let go from a job recently, there are steps you can take to recover. Join me tomorrow (Thurs, March 19th at 8pm EST) for a one hour webinar on Leveraging Change to Move Your Career Forward. Click here to learn more and email me at maggie@maggiemistal.com to sign up.

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. ~Author unknown

Guest Post: Career Advice on the Growing Field of Environmental Careers

My client Julie, Principal at Ecology and Environment, Inc. is a prime example of a person making a great living while making a difference. Read below for more on a day in the life with Julie and what career opportunities are available in the growing field of environmental careers...

Maggie - thanks so much for inviting me to write on your blog. Working with you definitely helped me think through how to match my career with my personal priorities. I do feel fortunate with the work that I do.

No day is ever quite the same as the next in my job, though there are consistent themes. We are an environmental consulting firm so we deal mainly with issues that affect human health and the environment.

Specifically our mission is to find workable, sustainable solutions to any environmental and human health problem that could pose a concern to human settlements and natural eco-systems. What this means is that I could be working on a contingency plan for water resources one day and be reviewing a climate action plan for a University the next. The topics are wide ranging but the purpose is singular. We try to make our communities better places to live.

As a Principal with the firm, I am responsible for directing client relationships and engagements, business development and mentoring junior staff. One of my primary goals for any client engagement is to make sure our clients and staff receive the recognition they deserve for their efforts. This year one of my clients is presenting our work at the 2009 American Water Works Association Annual Conference and Exhibition. We are very excited for them.

There are so many different types of jobs related to the environment. I have friends who are investors in start-up enviro-tech companies, others who are Corporate Sustainability public relations specialists and still others who focus on specific aspects such as energy conservation. The field is quite broad and growing. What I am really pleased about is that environmental work is no longer just seen as tree hugging. There are real operational and economic reasons to incorporate environmental concerns into businesses and our communities. Energy efficiency, scarce resources, mitigating natural disasters are just a few.

I encourage anyone who is interested in helping to shape our future pursue a career related to the environment. I have found it most rewarding.

Thank you Julie. Click here for more information on environmental careers. Are you looking to change careers into the growing environmental field? Is it your dream job to make a living and make a difference? Perhaps now is the perfect time for a career change.

Special Webinar: Leveraging Change to Move Your Career Forward 3/19 8pm EST

"I totally agree with Maggie that things happen for a reason - and "change"
allows us to move on because it is the right time. With every bad situation - always look for the positive side." - webinar participant

Change is the one constant we can count on. I learned that early on in my career when my employer (Arthur Andersen) shut its doors and 80,000 of us across the world were out of work. It's difficult to go through a layoff. Feelings of shock, anger and fear can be overwhelming.

I understand career impacting change and have lived through it and you can too. To help you deal with the career changes affecting you, I'm offering a special webinar on leveraging change Thursday March 19th from 8-9pm EST.

In this one hour interactive session, I'll share a three step process for not only recovering from a career impacting change but also understanding how to use change to your advantage and come out better for it in your career. There will be time for questions to address specific challenges you're having as well. The webinar price is $19.95. For additional information and to sign up, email me at coaching@maggiemistal.com.

Here's what participants have said about this webinar in the past:
"Maggie is a true sage and has an incredibly positive outlook on life...Not only was it informative - it gave us a chance to be among all those whose positions have been eliminated and capture some of the feelings that we all probably feel..."

All is not lost if you've been laid-off. Change can work to your advantage if you know how to leverage it. Register and join the webinar on March 19th at 8pm EST.

Avoiding Job Scams

Recently, I was dismayed to hear about the number of people getting roped into job scams. Sarah Needleman reported in the Wall Street Journal that "There isn't always a job behind an online job posting."

According to the article, sometimes employment ads are an underhanded way to get you to listen to a career marketing pitch or worse yet, an identity theft or money laundering scheme. With rising unemployment, the scammers are looking to take advantage of people in desperate situations.

To avoid getting scammed, follow these tips noted in the article:

--Be suspicious if information is lacking. If the job posting does not list details on the hiring company or position, it might not be real. If a name is listed, try calling the company to make sure the job posting is legitimate.
--Don't share important information. On your resume, consider using a PO Box instead of your real address and a disposable email address.
--Check for complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau (www.BBB.org) against the hiring company or job placement agency noted in the employment ad.

Still the best tride and true advice if you don't want to be the victim of a scam - If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

Have you or someone you know been the victim of a job hunting scam? If you've experienced a job scam or successfully avoided one, share your story in the comments below. It will help us all stay informed and protected!