JOB HUNTING

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE FOR MORE JOB INTERVIEW TIPS

This is finally the year the American job market is expected to revive in a meaningful manner, labor experts say. If you’re unemployed, or hunting a new position, you might not realize that your interviewing skills are just as important as the data on your resume and the professional experience you’ve accumulated.

Jeff Harvey, staffing director at pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca PLC, offers a few tips:

* Use the Internet. With so much data online these days about companies – especially the publicly traded ones – most employers see no reason you’d walk into the interview without a very good idea of what the organization makes, does, or sells.

* Is your work experience sort of all over the map? If so, take advantage. Employers like a candidate with skills that range beyond just the particular position you’re there to pursue. Maybe it’s a finance job, but you once worked in legal? Marketing, but you did way more sales in that job? Mention those experiences, the breadth of knowledge you possess.

* Do you speak a second or third language? Willing to move to Bangladesh? Know a company’s activities or future interest in moving outside of America – very many are these days for labor cost savings – and you might find your desirability increases dramatically.

– Team skills are always attractive. “Employees who have team-based experience know how to follow and lead,” Mr. Harvey said. “They are flexible workers.” Personality matters. If you don’t have any, chances are good the company won’t have you.

– Associated Press

NETWORKING OFTEN MEANS MASTERING SMALL TALK

The business world is rife with jargon and buzzwords, with “networking” one of the most popular. Still, this much-practiced, little-understood ritual of career advancement and business protocol drives many people bonkers – it’s stilted, degrading, obnoxious, obsequious, insincere, et al., right?

Not necessarily, said Marc Karasu, a career counselor and vice president at Yahoo HotJobs, the job-search site associated with Internet portal Yahoo Inc.

Consider networking akin to casual small talk at a social gathering, where you’re doing it with ease, among acquaintances, thoughts of work and commerce a million miles from your mind. Be relaxed and act relaxed. You’re just chatting – not looking for a new job, sale, or promotion.

“Networking, simply put, is conversations held with friends, family, colleagues, and others that help you garner information that could be helpful to your job search,” Mr. Karasu said in an e-mail. “That means it can occur at almost any time – not just at formal ‘networking events,’ but at sporting events, holiday parties, or even at the gym.”

The alternative, you approaching someone who knows exactly what this routine is about, triggers a defensive response, he said. The target of your networking tentacles is probably thinking you’re looking for a favor of some sort.

– Associated Press

RETIREMENT INCOME

NEW ANNUITY PRODUCTS HIT 401(K) PLANS

Workers looking for a pension-like stream of income may soon have to look no further than their 401(k) plan.

A number of insurance companies, including Principal Financial Group Inc., MetLife Inc., and Prudential Financial Inc. are expanding their annuity products for 401(k) plans, saying that employers are looking for ways to help their workers lock in a stream of retirement income. The push is part of a larger effort by the insurance industry to sell more “income” annuities as the nation’s retiree population grows.

Income annuities are insurance products that pay a pension-like stream of income in exchange for a lump-sum investment, operating a lot like life insurance in reverse. Driving the current effort to launch more income annuity products (also known as immediate annuities) is the knowledge that the baby boomers are entering retirement at a time when traditional sources of retirement income – Social Security and pension plans – have become unstable or unavailable.

Some experts are concerned the push to sell more annuities in 401(k) plans is unleashing questionable products. “I just think these are gimmicks to sell commissions,” said Rick Meigs, president of 401khelp.com, a Web site that offers free information about 401(k) asset-allocation strategies.

– Dow Jones Newswires

JOB RISK

BLOG-RELATED FIRINGS PROMPT CALLS FOR BETTER COMPANY POLICIES

With search engines making it easy to find virtually anything anyone says in a blog these days, companies are taking notice – and taking action. Though many companies have Internet guidelines that prohibit visiting porn sites or forwarding racist jokes, few of the policies directly cover blogs, or Web journals, particularly those written outside of work hours. “There needs to be a dialogue going on between employers and employees,” said Heather Armstrong, a Web designer fired for commenting on her blog about goings-on at work. “There’s this power of personal publishing, and there needs to be rules about what you can or cannot say about the workplace.” Currently, some 27% of online American adults read blogs, and 7% pen them, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Annalee Newitz, a policy analyst at the civil-liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said employees often “don’t realize the First Amendment doesn’t protect their job.” A few companies actually do encourage personal, unofficial blogs and have policies defining actual regulations for employees who post online. They recognize that there can be value in engaging customers through thoughtful blogs.

– Associated Press