February 28, 2011

Where To Go

Have you ever wanted to know how Emily Smith, our workforce developer, gets her job leads?  The good news is that she uses sites that anyone can access.  Her main sites are:  Craigslist, MLive (Classifieds), Michigan Talent Bank, and Indeed.


Every Friday she begins by checking up on the job leads posted on each site.  She then continues to check back on each site daily until Monday.  She also calls or emails each employer to see if they hire individuals with a felony background.

If you are struggling to find jobs, this is a great place to start!

For a listing of the jobs leads list for March 28, 2011 please click here or visit our employment links page.

February 25, 2011

Weekend Wrap Up

A new month is on the way.  Now is a good time to try and increase your effort to contact employers.  Below are some suggestions!

February 24, 2011

Job Club Thursday: Mock Interview

 Today at job club we will be doing Mock Interviews.  This is a great chance for our clients to interact with community members to increase their interviewing skills.  We are always looking for volunteers for future events so if you are interested or know someone who is please contact Robby Berlin 734.327.9717.

This event is free and open to the public.  Light refreshments will be served. No RSVP necessary.
  
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Catholic Social Services 
4925 Packard Rd., Ann Arbor, MI  48108

February 22, 2011

Community Connection Dinner


 This is a great chance for clients and community members to connect, have food, and play games in a fun environment!  Come out and support our returning citizens as they readjust to life back home.  Also, if you are in our program come out and interact with our staff!

If you are interested please contact Robby Berlin at 734.327.9717.

February 18, 2011

Weekend Wrap Up

Warmer weather is a perfect reason to hit the pavement in search of jobs.  It is also a good time to reexamine your employment goals.  Are you finding that you've been applying for jobs, and yet you still feel like something is holding you back?  Well, then it may be the perfect time to hit up some opportunities in the community.  Michigan Works has some great workshops and programs to help refresh your job search skills.  The Ann Arbor Library also has free computer workshops to help you expand your online job searching skills.  These are great resources in the community, so please take advantage of them!  Good luck!

February 17, 2011

Job Club Thursday: Elevator Speech

 Are you getting frustrated by your job search?  Do you feel like your job leads keep turning into dead ends?  Is your felony conviction holding you back from getting the job you want?  If so, then come out to job club tonight where we will be having a presentation by Emily Smith about how to create and present a short speech about your skills to people you interact with in the community.  Research has shown that one of the most effective ways to get a job is through networking.  According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 70 percent of all jobs are found through networking.* So, let us help you unlock this powerful tool.  We look forward to seeing you at job club!

This event is free and open to the public.  Light refreshments will be served. No RSVP necessary.

Please call 734. 327.9717 if you have any questions.   

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Catholic Social Services 
4925 Packard Rd., Ann Arbor, MI  48108


February 16, 2011

How-To Wednesday: Respond to Craigslist Ads

The job search as we know it is changing.  The Internet has rapidly become one of the fastest ways to search for jobs, research companies, and to find job leads.  In our workforce development workshops, we discuss many websites that are great resources for finding jobs.  One site that often comes up in our discussions is Craigslist.  Craigslist is a site that features local ads posted on everything from cars to apartments to jobs.  It is free to post on Craigslist which means that anyone, including scammers, can post to the site.  Emily and I always recommend being aware of scams, and to not respond to posts that have no job specifics or company details.  That being said, Craigslist is an amazing way to find job leads quickly.


This post is about using your email account to respond to Craigslist ads.  If you have any questions about this post please feel free to comment below!

First go to http://www.annarbor.craigslist.org.  It should look like this.


For the purpose of this tutorial we will be focusing in on the job section:
Find a job section that you like and click on it.  For the purpose of this tutorial I will click on the manufacturing section.  After I clicked on manufacturing this page came up:


Click on "continue to manufacturing postings" after you have read the Scam Alert:

 After you have clicked, your screen should look similar to this:


Next choose a job that interests you:



Next I located the "Reply to" section.  It looks like this:

Next I highlighted the address:


Then I copied the address.  Click on the Edit tab at the top of your web page browser:


Next, click on "Copy":


The email address of the employer posting the job is now saved to your computer.  Now all you have to do is "Paste" the address using the same method we used to "Copy" the address into the TO box of your email account.

As always if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comment section on the blog, we'd love to hear from you.

February 15, 2011

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Our community needs your help!  We are looking for energetic community members who want to interact with our clients in positive, life affirming ways for volunteer projects around Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor.
 
On February 26th, we will be hosting a volunteer day with Habitat For Humanity of Huron Valley.  Come meet our staff and our clients as we help shingle, build staircases, put in flooring, and completely reconstruct a home for a deserving local family.  No construction experience is needed for this amazing opportunity, but if you're not careful you may learn a new skill!


If you are interested in helping out please contact our Pro-Social Activities Coordinator, Amanda Harvanek at 734.327.9717.

February 14, 2011

Hitting the Pavement: The Job Leads List


The month of February is flying by!  Make your mark on the last two weeks by increasing the number of jobs you apply to, networking in the community, and attending free job club meetings.  The more you apply to businesses in the community the greater chance you have of getting a job.  Remember, finding a job is a full-time job!

For a listing of the jobs leads list for March 28, 2011 please click here or visit our employment links page.

February 11, 2011

Weekend Wrap Up

Drawing a blank when it comes to your job search?  Here are some ideas to get you moving in the right direction.  If you have found a particularly successful way to job search please feel free to share your comments!

February 10, 2011

Job Club Tonight


Mock Interviews are being held tonight at Job Club.  We look forward to seeing you there!

February 9, 2011

Volunteer Opportunity: Livingstones Community Farm
















This event is open to community members and clients.  Lunch will be provided.

Please call Amanda Harvanek at 734.327.9717

How-To Wednesday: Save Downloaded Attachments

This post is the last of a series of posts about attachments.  In our other two posts, we have figured out how to download attachments and how to print the attachments we have downloaded.  In this post we will learn how to save a downloaded attachment to a flash drive or disk.

If you need a refresher about attachments be sure to click here and here.

When you have downloaded the attachment in Microsoft Word it should look like this:


Next, go to the File Menu:

Then click Save As:

This screen should pop up:

Next, locate your flash drive or disk and click on the icon:

A close up:

Click the Save button:

As always, leave a comment if you need help finding more computer classes, or if you have a suggestion for a tutorial that you would like to see on the blog!

February 8, 2011

Job Club Thursday: Mock Interview


The workforce development team is pleased to announce that we will be holding two mock interview sessions during Job Club on February 10th and February 17th.  We would like to extend an invitation to community members and business leaders to join us as we help returning citizens market themselves in this competitive job climate.

Please contact Alysa Wooden or Emily Smith at 734.327.9717 for more information.

MOVIE NIGHT: INCEPTION


Amanda Harvanek, our pro-social activities coordinator, has organized a fun movie night.  We will be watching Inception, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page.  Click here for a brief summary of the movie.

The movie begins at 5:30pm in the Large Conference Room at Catholic Social Services.  Pizza and drinks will be provided.  This activity is open to community members.  We look forward to seeing you there!

February 7, 2011

Job Leads List

Here are the job leads for this week, as compiled by the wonderful Emily Smith.  Please make sure to keep filing out your job logs (8 jobs/week), to keep coming to job club (Thursdays at 5pm), and to keep being positive!

  
For a listing of the jobs leads list for March 28, 2011 please click here or visit our employment links page.

February 4, 2011

The Weekend

It is the weekend!  After a short snow break, it is time to get back to hitting the pavements and prepare for the following week.  Here are some suggestions...

February 3, 2011

Job Club Thursday


Now that some of the snow has melted, we are back on track for the week.  Today, in the afternoon, workshops will be held at Michigan Works from 3pm to 4:30pm.  Tonight we will be holding Job Club at Catholic Social Services from 5pm to 6pm.  Emily Smith will be doing a presentation about how to highlight your strengths on an application so that you can land an interview and get the job.

We will also be holding a raffle!  We look forward to seeing you there.

February 2, 2011

Winter Weather Watch


As most of you already know, Ann Arbor has had some snow roll into town causing some cancellations.  Our workforce development workshops normally held at the Michigan Works building off of Harriet Street are canceled for today.  We are expecting Michigan Works to be open tomorrow, and we will resume our workshops for Thursday.


Please keep checking back to the blog as we will be sure to inform you of any changes here first!  If you would like to check with Michigan Works yourself the number is 734.484.7247.  As always, if you hear of any news please feel free to drop by and leave a comment!

February 1, 2011

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

 
 Are you a community member looking to give back to Washtenaw County?  Are you interested in contributing time and a little "physical labor" to a local farm? 

If so please contact Amanda Harvanek at 734.327.9717.  We are always looking for great people to help us continue a great partnership.

Lunch is provided (food harvested from the farm is served when in season).