Central Valley Jobs Blog

Employers, fabulous employers

Welcome to new member Cal Neva Slush Co., a longtime Turlock business that focuses on child nutrition. The provider of the #1 all-juice slush in school systems today, Cal Neva Slush is seeking an Outside Sales Professional for the Northern CA territory as well as a Sales Manager to lead the national sales team. These positions would be great opportunities for those with school nutrition knowledge and sales backgrounds.

Welders, are you out there? Guntert & Zimmerman Construction, Inc. needs you. Check out their posting for Welder/Fitter. If you’re a drafter with a background in machinery, check out Guntert’s ad for CAD Detailer.

John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc., a leader in the snack food industry (do the brand names Fisher®  and Evon’s® ring a bell?), operates a walnut shelling facility in Gustine. The company is seeking candidates for Maintenance Mechanics and Packaging Technicians as well as Materials Manager, Production Manager, and Sanitation/Safety Manager. 

Howard Training Center is holding its 13th Annual Crab Fest on March 2nd & 3rd to help support its programs, services and trainings for adults with developmental disabilities. To purchase tickets, call 209-593-5618. (Did I forget to mention that HTC is seeking a weekend rest stop attendant to work in Turlock? And that you can earn $9.00/hr for this part-time opportunity?)

Kindred Hospital – Modesto is seeking quality candidates with acute care employment experience to work at a great facility in downtown Modesto. Current needs include: RN, Recruiter, Director of Case Management, Clinical Liaison, and CEO. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by being unemployed and find yourself procrastinating your job search, you’re not alone. Lots of people find the entire process of job hunting tedious and complicated.

However, if you don’t want to end up eating cat food, slacking off is not an option. Since the job hunt is a necessary evil, why not approach it from a different angle? Try these tips for breaking out of your job-search procrastination:   Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I received a note from B. with his resume and cover letter attached. B., an unemployed tradesman, would like to find work in the same profession that he’s worked in since the seventies, but several interviews have resulted in dead ends, and B.’s unemployment insurance benefits end next month. Here’s my response.

COVER LETTER

B., I am a big proponent of tailoring your resume objective and your cover letter to the particular job you are applying for. Therefore, I would not send out your cover letter as-is, for it’s too generic and indicates that you haven’t done any research on the target company. Here’s what I would do, though:

• Don’t make the employer work to understand where you fit into their company—you should do that work for them. It will make you stand out from other people, and it will make you look like a great candidate in their eyes. And one basic that everyone forgets: don’t forget to state which position you’re applying for, as the company may be advertising for more than one opening. (Here’s  a great guide on cover letters.)
• It’s also crucial to have someone proofread your letter so that it’s grammatically and structurally correct. If you have no trusted editor, your local EDD provides excellent resources for job seekers, and the public library (pdf directory, 433 KB) has books on how to write resumes & cover letters.

RESUME
 
Regarding your resume, here are some things to think about: if you don’t captivate the employer with the first part of your resume, which is typically the objective section, then you’ll probably lose them entirely. Therefore, it’s important to have a very strong objective.

For your objective, instead of focusing on your needs (i.e., I’m seeking an opportunity for personal & professional growth), you should focus on their needs. Here are a few examples of how I might rewrite your objective:

1. Objective: A design position in a company where a strong track record of ______________ and extensive __________ expertise are needed.
2. Objective: A design position where I can use my expertise and background in ____________ to help your company achieve ____________.

I’m sure you can come up with others.

B., as far as the rest of your resume, you provide lots of evidence of your decades-long work history, and you provide full descriptions of each job. I believe such detail is unnecessary, boring to read, and doesn’t say what you got done at each workplace. (Also, it dates you and helps the employer figure out how old you might be, never a good thing.)

Instead, focus on your high points, or achievements, on those jobs. Employers want to know what you offer their company. These questions might help you formulate a good list of accomplishments:

• Did you do work on an innovative product at your previous companies?
• Did you work on the team that designed an award-winning tool that is used in thousands of offices/hospitals/factoreis worldwide?
• Did you provide on-time delivery of design/product (specific examples needed)?
• Do you have an uncanny ability to do _______?

Answering the above questions might help you formulate your list of what I like to call your greatest hits. Use those greatest hits, or key accomplishments, in bullet points for better readability. Prioritize them so that the most relevant ones come first in the list. If your greatest hits span the entirety of your work career, consider inserting a special section called “Skills” or “Achievements” after your Objective section. Surely you are the Keith Richards of your trade at this point, so start describing yourself as a rock star. 

Other resume ideas: Since you have an extensive work history, it’s prudent to be selective about what jobs you’re noting in your resume. Do some pruning; list only the last ten or 15 years of your work history or the positions that are most significant for the target company.

If you’re a job hopper or have an extensive history, it’s smart to reduce the emphasis on your work dates in the resume. (See this resume for an example of that.) If need be, explain or clarify in your cover letter those factors that your resume cannot quite capture or show.

But I’m unemployed. OK, that is demoralizing. Hopefully, you’ve been spending some of that time volunteering with a nonprofit organization, developing a solo project, or taking classes at the community college. (That needs to go in your resume as well.) 

But even if you haven’t been doing self-improvement or continuing education, don’t fret. Many job seekers end up pounding the pavement for six months to a year before they get a good offer. Just be prepared to explain all of this in a positive manner when you interview with potential employers.  

Good luck with everything! I hope you take this feedback in the spirit in which it’s intended: to create the best possible impression of you upon the employer and to maximize your efforts in creating a resume & cover letter.

This month’s freeze in the state of California has resulted in an economic disaster for the state as well as severe losses for local economies. The citrus industry alone suffered at least $800 million in losses, according to today’s report by the California Citrus Mutual.

Not only do our wallets feel the impact of the extreme weather from higher produce prices and heating bills, thousands of now-unemployed workers–many of whom are undocumented immigrants–are left wondering how to pay rent, keep their cars running, and buy food for their kids. Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the following new members of CentralValleyJobs.com:

Billington Welding & Manufacturing, Inc.  – one of Central California’s premier custom metal fabrication facilities.

D.A. Wood Construction, Inc. – the valley’s leader in underground utilities installation, service and repair.

Some job opportunities to consider: PT Security Officers at Hilmar Cheese Company; Marketing/Sales position at Telecontact Resource Services; General Manager at In-Shape Health Club in Merced; EMT with Pro Transport-1; a Cook (line/grill/prep) at an established coffee shop in Old Town Clovis; an Administrative Assistant/Communications job through Neilsen Search Associates; a Warehouse position at Gun Accessory Supply in Oakdale; and Seasonal Bid Associate for SYSCO Food Services of Central California.

Wanted: driven, self-motivated, successful, organized communicators with follow-through. You’ll be pushed, asked to achieve great results, taught about business marketing and eventually have the chance to be trained to lead the development team into future growth. You’re inspired, passionate, motivated and above all, ready to learn.

If you only accept the best performance from yourself and your team, and if you’re ready to sell for the area’s leader in school, sports or event photography, check out the Account Manager opportunity at Burgad Imaging of Lodi. If you’re ready to sell yourself, please call 209-370-6900 x203 before 7am next Thursday morning, January 25.

I’m finally back in the office after experiencing an extended, very scary and weird anaphalactic response to antibiotics (note to self: don’t take amoxicillin again). But I never stopped thinking about you, and once again, I find that I’m thrilled to locate material to inspire and guide us in our career development.

• One such discovery is Microsoft Office Online, chock full of job-seeker resources built-in to MS Word & other Office programs. Find templates for letters, business cards, tips on sending mail to contacts, and more.
• Are you using Gmail for your email account? Read the rest of this entry »