800 teachers receive possible layoff notices after deficit forecast

ACN Home Business It's for people who aim for excellence in life. If you want to work with someone who has a system in place to build a large thriving organization of people, this blog will show you how. Start getting paid working for yourself. ACN Video Phone.

Warning letters were sent to 800 teachers yesterday by the Vancouver School Board to notify them of possible layoffs for the following school year.

This comes after the VSB forecast a deficit that could be as high as $36.3 million.

David Weir, communications manager for the VSB, said the 800 letters serve to “cast a wide net” for any worst-case scenarios. A final decision on cuts will be made in April, following the funding envelope the VSB receives from the B.C. government in mid-March.

Are you getting laid-off work? If you are looking for a way to earn extra income from home on a full or part time basis, setting your own hours, then this opportunity is for you. Become an Independent Representative marketing the product of the future — allowing you to deliver the future of communication - today. For more info, visit www.eugeneg.com/presentation

Chris Harris, president of the Elementary Teachers Association, said if the provincial government doesn’t answer the school board’s request to increase funding, students’ schooling will suffer.

“Purely speculative, but if it’s at the high number, what the board has said could be the high end of the deficit, we’re looking at devastating, devastating cuts to every single school in Vancouver.”

Last year, the provincial government cut millions of dollars in school grants to deal with a $2.8-billion deficit of its own.

Robin Austin, NDP education critic, said teachers are the only thing left to cut.

“Basically all the fat has been cut from the system, now we are facing teachers being laid off … When school boards are looking at cutting teachers, there’s nothing left to cut.”

This announcement comes on the heels of the James Dorsey arbitration hearing, which awarded extra vacation time or pay to teachers who work in oversized classrooms.

Harris said cuts would definitely not help the problem. “If you remove teachers from the system, (overcrowding) is just going to get worse.”

29 Secrets to Creating Wealth in Tough Times According to King Solomon

ACN Home Business It's for people who aim for excellence in life. If you want to work with someone who has a system in place to build a large thriving organization of people, this blog will show you how. Start getting paid working for yourself. ACN Video Phone.

Creating wealth is something that is hardly imagined especially in tough times, but evidence has shown that there are those who thrive no matter what the economic conditions are, by discovering opportunities and having the courage to take action in spite of their fears. Then there are those who become paralysed and take on a victim mentality.

The wisest King who ever lived, King Solomon provides us with solid timely tested secrets on how to Create Wealth In Tough Times. These secrets have been used by millionaires and billionaires to create wealth. Below is a summary of few of the twenty nine key secrets contained in the four systems used by King Solomon to create a permanent wealth.

1. Think abundance. Wealth, will come from a person who experiences well balanced abundance. Living your life to the fullest means knowing complete abundance. When you operate in the realm of abundance you will be more confident in yourself and your business abilities.

2. Be passionate about what you do. If you want to build wealth like most people have succeeded in doing, then there is one important asset you must have: Passion. While you may get results in the short term without having passion, in the long term it makes the difference between achieving success and failing.

3. Take action towards your goals. This may appear unintelligent but many of us have trouble following through with a task. We start projects or tasks with great energy, but never follow them through.

When Oprah Winfrey was still very young and growing in poverty stricken surroundings, she claimed that she was going to be a millionaire by the time she turned 32. Though her goal may have seemed laughable at the time to some, she headed in the direction of her dreams to create it for herself, never expected anyone else to hand her that million dollars.

4. Motivate Yourself. Without motivation, your chances of achieving success are slim. Without motivation, you won’t be able to conquer the challenges that will confront you on your wealth building journey. Motivation will give you the energy and drive to climb the mountain of financial freedom. It will pick you up when you are knocked down. It will lift you over many barriers that you will encounter along the way.

6. Be exceptional in what you do. You have to be exceptional before you can be well noticed among thousands that are in competition with you. This is one of the most essential business principles, especially in a volatile economy. Being exceptional, does not mean you will be the most intelligent man or woman in that field, but the ability to add value to the goods of your customers.

7. Care for your customers. Customer care is a crucial element of business success. Every contact your customers have with your business is an opportunity for you to improve your reputation with them and increase the likelihood of further sales.
8. Show act of kindness. Kindness is needed more than ever during tough economic times. Old measures of success do not work anymore. The relentless, persistent and creative application of kindness is a new market imperative and prerequisite to thriving in a challenging economy. If you know and value this principle you will always retain your staff, build a winning team and create wealth.

If you will embrace these wealth creating secrets, I know you will achieve all that you want in life and you will have peace and contentment as well.
And now I would like to invite you to Join and claim daily Free Tips on 4 systems of wealth creation ever revealed according to king Solomon, The World’s First Trillionaire (http://www.eugeneg.com)

Top books that will shape your career

ACN Home Business It's for people who aim for excellence in life. If you want to work with someone who has a system in place to build a large thriving organization of people, this blog will show you how. Start getting paid working for yourself. ACN Video Phone.

Q: Can you recommend any books that would help in my career?

A: Here is a list of the best books I have ever read that will help you advance in your career.

Figure Out What You Want

Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman.

You no longer have to struggle in your life. This book will teach you how to listen to your intuition … that peaceful voice that knows what is right for you. This read will inspire you to forge ahead on your own path and no longer be influenced by society.

The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield.

By paying attention to the coincidences in your life you will access the secret messages that are trying to guide you in the right direction. This book actually talks about practical signals you can observe in your life that are trying to get your attention. You will become more aware of the energy that is there to act as a map for you. The more aware you are of this energy the easier it will be for you to make important life decisions with clarity and peace of mind.

Get What You Want

The Peter Principle by Laurence J. Peter, Raymond Hull, and Robert I. Sutton.

Surprisingly, this book is very inspiring considering it is about getting promoted until you are incompetent. From this book, you will learn how not to do this. Your biggest enemy is falling into the promotion trap. Getting a promotion can be the worse thing for you. Better to excel on a lateral move or going off on your own than to be part of a rat race that leads to a dead end filled with frustration and resentment.
Click here to find out more!

Getting To Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury.

This is the ultimate book on thinking Win/Win. If you are the type of person that thinks that life is a competition and that there are victors and losers then you will love this book. You will finally learn that in life everyone gets a piece of the pie and you can stop feeling guilty for having yours.

What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard N. Bolles.

It’s a classic for a reason. Tired of relying on the typical ways of finding work? This book focuses only on high return activities that will ensure you get in front of decision makers. It also has funny pictures.

Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles.

To be a rockstar in your career you want to create raving fans. That’s means whenever someone deals with you they leave salivating because of how much value you created for them. This book will teach you how to do this. Whenever you work with a client or supplier always remember that there is a way to inspire them to be loyal to you for a lifetime.

Please e-mail me the names of the books that have had the greatest impact on your life and why.

E-mail your question to: philippe@Dr-Career.com

Visit Dr-Career.com for a copy of “Land Your Dream Job in 12 Weeks or Less”. Listen to Career FastTrack “Live” Mondays at 5:30pm on CiTR 101.9 FM or online at citr.ca.

Self awareness before the job interview

ACN Home Business It's for people who aim for excellence in life. If you want to work with someone who has a system in place to build a large thriving organization of people, this blog will show you how. Start getting paid working for yourself. ACN Video Phone.

Having conducted thousands of job interviews over the years, the fact remains that the majority of people do not interview so well or could definitely use some practice.

Over-answering, providing incomplete answers, mumbling and simply not answering the interview questions well top the list of job-interview mistakes. These issues are noticed not only from my experience, but also from other hiring managers, recruiters and colleagues I have spoken to.

Unfortunately most job seekers don’t improve their job interview skills mainly because they are unaware of their opportunity to improve. For those of you who have had the opportunity to hire in your work history, you will confirm this to be true. For those who have not hired, go and ask any professional recruiter, HR and hiring manager to comment on how frequently they see the mistakes mentioned above. Ask how often they felt like pulling out a pillow during an applicant’s long-winded response. The honest ones will tell you that many people do not interview well. More importantly, many qualified people don’t interview well.

So how would you interview if you are one of the unskilled and unaware? What can you do about it?

While you can consider online job interview courses or seek a professional coach, it can be as simple as getting a friend who is willing to role play a job interview with you and video tape it!

Video is the most honest job interview coach you will ever have. See for yourself, how you interview. Look for missing answers, over-answering or rambling and the ever common “ums,” “ahs” and “like.”

Now if technology is a challenge, then do the above exercise without the video. Instead just ask your friend for feedback (while you will not need technology for this option, you will need an honest friend). An important note here is, if possible, try to get someone who has some experience in hiring, before seeking their advice.

Lastly, if an honest friend is the challenge, then just practice in front of a mirror playing both the role of the interviewer and applicant. This is a simple and effective way to improve your job interview skills (but I must caution if someone catches you talking to yourself in front of a mirror, I cannot take responsibility for what they might think).

– hrinmotion.com

How bad credit can cost you a job

ACN Home Business It's for people who aim for excellence in life. If you want to work with someone who has a system in place to build a large thriving organization of people, this blog will show you how. Start getting paid working for yourself. ACN Video Phone.

Many employers — including the federal government — routinely scour credit reports on current and prospective employees to help decide who’s hired or fired. Here’s what you need to know about the risks.

By Liz Pulliam Weston

After two years of unemployment and three years as a contractor, Richard Becraft was offered a good civil service job with the Department of Defense in May 2002. The position paid $12,000 more than he was currently making and promised the kind of stability Becraft hadnt experienced since defense industry layoffs, a divorce and a subsequent personal bankruptcy rocked his financial world.

After a background check, however, the job offer was rescinded. The government letter that the Oxnard, Calif., man received indicated financial considerations made him a poor security risk.

The idea, Becraft said, was that his past financial troubles made it more likely I could be bribed . . . to disclose the secrets of this nation.

Becraft believes the denial was unfair — particularly since federal law specifically prohibits an employer from using a bankruptcy as a reason not to hire, promote or keep a worker. Although employers can use other credit problems such as defaults or collection actions in their hiring decisions, Becraft insists his credit report was free of any negative marks until the bankruptcy.

I had excellent credit until then, he said.

Credit checks for job applicants
Government workers arent the only ones whose credit histories are being scrutinized. Anyone who has had trouble paying bills could find his or her finances endangered again as employers use credit information to help decide who to hire, fire or promote.

There are some indications such credit checks are on the rise. About 35% of the companies surveyed by the Society for Human Resource Management pulled the credit reports of current or potential employees last year, up from 19% in 1996.

Other experts say employers are far more interested in other kinds of background checks, including identity verification and criminal histories. (For more information on background screening, see Secrets you can keep from your employer.)

Five years ago, nearly all employers who bothered to do background checks wanted a credit report pulled, said James Lee, chief marketing officer of ChoicePoint Inc., which does 6 million background checks annually. Today, far more employers are screening their workers, Lee said, but fewer than 30% of ChoicePoints customers want credit information.

Credit has not turned out to be a good predictor of workplace theft. This is what our customers are telling us, anyway, Lee said. A better predictor is a criminal history involving bounced checks.

Lie on the application, lose the job
Job applicants are much more likely to lose a job because they have a recent criminal history or they lied on an application about their identity, experience or education, said William Greenblatt, CEO of Sterling Testing Systems Inc., a New York City background checking firm.

Of the 10,000 adverse action letters we send out monthly, very few of them are credit related, Greenblatt said. Its less than 5%.

Employers are more likely to use credit reports as a way to verify employment history and Social Security numbers, Greenblatt said. Lenders often verify employment when you apply for a loan or credit card, so a credit report is seen as a good way to double check the employers listed on a job-seekers application.

The federal government still routinely requests credit checks for employees, Lee said, but typically denies jobs or promotions only when the employee would have direct access to cash on the job, or security clearances are involved.

Clean up or clear out
You dont have to work directly for the government to be affected by its credit checks, however. Gene worked for a consulting agency that was hired to do some work for the IRS in Philadelphia. Two months after he started the IRS job, a government investigator told him his poor credit was endangering his position.

I was advised to clean up my credit report if I wanted to remain a consultant, Gene said. They gave me a month. There’s not a whole lot you can do to straighten up your credit in month.

Gene insisted his credit wasn’t that bad to begin with . . . no defaulted student loans or bankruptcies or anything like that. But four months after he was hired, Gene said his employer told him not to report to work anymore.

Know your rights
In the private sector, the people most likely to have their credit reviewed are those who will deal with cash or valuables, or who are financial executives, said Greenblatt, a labor attorney with 26 years experience in employee testing and screening.

Bank tellers, CFOs (chief financial officers), controllers, people who work for brokerage institutions, financial institutions, he said. Jewelry manufacturers do credit checks . . . when youre dealing with diamonds, theyre easily concealed (and stolen).

If youre concerned about your credit history affecting your job prospects, heres what you should know:

An employer needs your permission to run a credit check. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FRCA) requires your written permission any time an employer hires a third party to conduct a background check, said human resources consultant and attorney Wendy Bliss. That includes running a credit report. Of course, you likely wont get the job or promotion if you dont agree. But failing to get your okay is an FCRA violation, said Bliss, author of Legal, Effective References: How to Give and Get Them.”

While other black marks can be used against you, technically a bankruptcy cannot. Under Title 11 of the U.S. Code, employers are prohibited from discriminating against someone who has filed for bankruptcy. Since most people have trouble paying their bills before they file, this is often a moot point — the employer can point to that history as the reason for the adverse action. If an employer makes the mistake of citing your bankruptcy as the reason you were fired, not hired or denied a promotion, though, you might want to consult a labor attorney about a lawsuit.

An employer is supposed to tell you if credit information is used against you. If an employer uses credit information to deny an applicant a job, fire a current employee, rescind a job offer or cancel a promotion, federal law requires the employer to do two things:

* Before the adverse action is actually taken, the employer is supposed to provide the worker with a copy of the report and an explanation of the workers FCRA rights.

* After the action is taken, the worker must be told which company provided the credit information, given contact information and told he or she has a right to dispute the reports accuracy.

Rather than go through all this, of course, many employers simply find a less complicated excuse to give you.

Your ability to dispute the information may be of limited use, as well. If your employers decision was based on erroneous data in your credit report, for example, it could take you months to get the problem corrected — by which time someone else will have been hired for the position you wanted.

Find out what’s on your record
Thats another reason why its important to check your credit reports at least a couple of times a year and challenge any serious errors you find.

All that said, a couple of late payments arent going to kill your job prospects. Employers who care about credit histories typically look for serious negative marks, such as collection actions, repossessions, foreclosures and evictions. Some are wary of people carrying enormous debts or otherwise indicating theyre living well beyond their means.

If your credit problems arent serious and relatively recent, most employers arent going to care, Greenblatt said.

All good employers are looking for good people, Greenblatt said. Theyre not looking for reasons to disqualify people.

Liz Pulliam Weston’s column appears every Monday and Thursday, exclusively on MSN Money. She also answers reader questions in the Your Money message board.

Get your Free Credit Report and Score from GoFreeCredit, one of the top credit report offers in the market! Receive a full 7-day free credit monitoring trial that will have updates of all 3 bureau credit reports and also protect against identity theft. GoFreeCredit has helped over 1 million consumers!

If it helps, mention hobbies

ACN Home Business It's for people who aim for excellence in life. If you want to work with someone who has a system in place to build a large thriving organization of people, this blog will show you how. Start getting paid working for yourself. ACN Video Phone.

Question: Recently, a resume customer approached me to ask about my opinion on including a ‘hobbies and interests’ section in her resume.

She is a senior client services representative who was applying for a manager position. According to her resume, she has more than 10 years of clients services experience, a bachelor’s degree in business and a fondness for painting and sculpturing. She felt it was important to let the employer know about her outside interests and being passionate about her art.

Answer: In my opinion, additional sections at the end of your resume can be very useful and even play a strategic part in your application.

They can strengthen your resume, leave a good last impression and give your resume a personal human touch.

The important thing is not whether the additional resume information is playing sports, sculpting or painting, but whether it is relevant to the position.

For example, I created a resume for a pre-school teacher entering the field. At the end of her resume, I included a hobbies section that indicated she enjoys teaching kids dance. Not only was this her true passion and pastime, but it personalized her resume while demonstrating to the employer she truly loves teaching young children.

So, while you may have fantastic interests and hobbies ask yourself: Does the employer need to know this? The key is to include hobbies and interests only if they are relevant and related to the job requirements and strengthen your application.

Some other suggested skills to list could include (if job relevant):

- Fluency in other languages;
- Professional associations and groups;
- Publications;
- Public speaking events;
- Awards, achievements and recognition;
- Volunteer work.

Ones that can be seen as discriminatory should be omitted unless they are a job requirement such as height, weight, health, marital status and religion.

Also, many clients include volunteering with religious organizations only to get worried and then second guests the decision for fear of discrimination due to religion. I ask, ‘Why include this informationif you are not sure and it makes you less confident in the interview?’

Again, unless it pertains to the job requirement don’t include it. For example, if you were applying for a job as a fitness instructor, adding a section in your resume to indicate your religious volunteering might be seen differently if you were applying for a job as a bookkeeper.

Have queestions about how to wow potential employers? Visit us at hrinmotion.com/ Providing job preparation services from a human resources perspective.

You Weren’t Meant To Have A Boss

ACN Home Business It's for people who aim for excellence in life. If you want to work with someone who has a system in place to build a large thriving organization of people, this blog will show you how. Start getting paid working for yourself. ACN Video Phone.

March 2008, rev. June 2008

Technology tends to separate normal from natural. Our bodies weren’t designed to eat the foods that people in rich countries eat, or to get so little exercise. There may be a similar problem with the way we work: a normal job may be as bad for us intellectually as white flour or sugar is for us physically.

I began to suspect this after spending several years working with startup founders. I’ve now worked with over 200 of them, and I’ve noticed a definite difference between programmers working on their own startups and those working for large organizations. I wouldn’t say founders seem happier, necessarily; starting a startup can be very stressful. Maybe the best way to put it is to say that they’re happier in the sense that your body is happier during a long run than sitting on a sofa eating doughnuts.

Continue reading at paulgraham.com

Paul Graham is an essayist, programmer, and programming language designer. In 1995 he developed with Robert Morris the first web-based application, Viaweb, which was acquired by Yahoo in 1998. In 2002 he described a simple statistical spam filter that inspired a new generation of filters. He’s currently working on a new programming language called Arc, a new book on startups, and is one of the partners in Y Combinator.

Twentysomething: Why it’s smart to quit a job after just two weeks of work

ACN Home Business It's for people who aim for excellence in life. If you want to work with someone who has a system in place to build a large thriving organization of people, this blog will show you how. Start getting paid working for yourself. ACN Video Phone.

This is a guest post from Jamie Varon. She’s 23 years old. Her blog is called intersected.

Not too long ago, I started a new job, in which I moved my self from point A (college town) to point B (Bay Area). This was supposed to be my career launch. It took me about two weeks to admit to myself that I was unhappy. So I quit.

I had the security of knowing I could go back to my parents’ house to live. (Which, by the way, is such a good idea that 65% of new grads do it.) Here are five reasons why I am sure it was a smart decision to quit my job after just two weeks:

1. Your job performance will be terrible if you hate your job.

If you hate your job from the beginning, then you will never fully dedicate yourself. In fact, you’ll resent both the company and yourself for staying at a job that you knew you didn’t like early on.

I get it: You have this desire to prove to yourself that you are capable of sticking it out. Or you’re worried that this makes you a complete failure and you have given up. So what? You learn from your failure. You learn from that mistake. You’ll end up quitting at some point soon, so why draw it out?

Continue reading at blog.penelopetrunk.com…

Penelope is the founder of 3 startups — most recently, Brazen Careerist, a web service to help companies find candidates. Her career advice appears in more than 200 newspapers and magazines including Time magazine, San Francisco Chronicle and Boston Globe. In a review of this blog, Business Week called Penelope’s writing “poetic.”

It’s about who you know. HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter

ACN Home Business It's for people who aim for excellence in life. If you want to work with someone who has a system in place to build a large thriving organization of people, this blog will show you how. Start getting paid working for yourself. ACN Video Phone.

Sarah Evans, director of communications at Elgin Community College (ECC) in Elgin, Illinois. Also authors a PR and social media blog and is the founder of #journchat has written a really interesting post on Mashable on HOW TO: Find a Job on Twitter.

Need work? Staff companies a good find

ACN Home Business It's for people who aim for excellence in life. If you want to work with someone who has a system in place to build a large thriving organization of people, this blog will show you how. Start getting paid working for yourself. ACN Video Phone.

With the current instability of the labour market, many job seekers are looking for advice on services to consider when looking for employment.

One service provider you may want to look into during your job search is the use of a staffing or placement company.

When it comes to using a staffing company, there are 100-plus staffing companies within the city to choose from and this can be a very tiresome task.

Although there are a number of staffing companies of different sizes, it is important to keep in mind that not all staffing companies are alike.

You want to choose a company based on your own criteria and research prior to making any decisions.

Here are a few recommendations we have collectively gathered from staff and job seekers to consider when conducting your search for the right staffing company:

Image
How are you greeted when calling or meeting with the staffing company? Is the recruiter professional, polite and friendly?

Company Profile
What is the size and industry focus of the agency? How long have they been in existence? Will they assist with obtaining work visas and other required paperwork?

Specialization
What is the company’s area(s) of specialization? Who are some of their clients?

Demographics
Do their contract workers fit the demographics of what you’re looking for?

Process
What are their business practices like? What is their success ratio in placing candidates? Are they a contingency or retained search firm?

Additional services
What additional products, services and training do they offer (resume revision and writing, job interview coaching, etc.) candidates? What do they do to prepare candidates for clients?

Partners
Do they work collaboratively with other agencies? If so, who are they?

Choosing a staffing company that meets your needs is not easy task. Contacting all of them in your area would be too time consuming. They beset and truest method to begin the search is through referrals or researching staffing company websites online. Remember, you are not limited or obligated to have only one staffing company represent you; so get out there and introduce yourself to various companies.

Having various companies represent you will increase your exposure in the market and better your chances of landing a job interview.

Have a question? E-mail info@hrinmotion.com