July 2002: Business Up Front

Job Searching Dot Com

Steve Forst, managing director for the Las Vegas office of Right Management Consultants, a career transition firm, offers the following tips for a successful job search on the Internet:

1. Learn how to create and use a plain text résumé that can be e-mailed and posted online. When you copy and paste a formatted Word résumé into a job board or e-mail, it can become distorted. Some companies, recruiters and job boards will only accept plain text résumés. A good site to review is eresumes.com.

2. Set up a new free e-mail account for your job search. That way you can keep your job search e-mail separate from your other e-mail. And keep your e-mail address professional. E-mail addresses like “imsogood” or “biggal” won’t be taken seriously.

3. Don’t “pray and spray.” There are services that will e-mail your résumé to hundreds of companies and recruiters in their databases for less than $100. You risk your résumé going to companies or recruiters who aren’t relevant to your job campaign, and you have no way of following up with all of these organizations.

4. Utilize some of the major sites like Monster and Hotjobs. And be sure to utilize any niche job sites, such as those specializing in engineering positions or placing HR professionals.

5. Many of the job sites offer personal search agents, who identify the jobs that meet your profile and save you time. Look for the online job boards that allow you to save your search criteria and then automatically e-mail you the jobs that fit your profile.

6. Focus, focus, focus. A better use of the Internet in your job search is the company/industry research that’s available. Job boards are reactive, which is a small part of your job search. The vital part of your job search is to be proactive by identifying and targeting employers. Be proactive by using the Internet to help you develop a list of these companies.

7. Remember that once you post your résumé online you become fair game. You may be contacted by organizations you have no desire to talk with. Leave off your home address and phone number. However, key components to provide potential employers with are an e-mail address, city and state.

8. Learn Internet search techniques so that you are less overwhelmed with results.

9. Don’t be fooled. The Internet hype can lull you into believing that it is a centralized place to get a job. That really is a delusion, as most successful job landings are not a result of online job banks. Depending on the industry or specialty, the success rate for online searches can be as low as 4 percent or less.

10. Walk away from your computer and network. Don’t spend more than 15 percent to 25 percent of your time looking for a job online. The traditional side of job search – that is, networking – hasn’t changed and is still the number one way that folks land jobs. Get out there and talk to people at professional networking meetings, etc.

Surprise, Surprise: Tax Complexity Rises

According to statistics from the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), filing federal income taxes is becoming increasingly more complicated.

1. NTU predicts six in 10 taxpayers will use a tax professional this year, a number that has jumped 58 percent since 1980 and 20 percent since 1995. NTU also estimates a jump in the average fee for tax preparation of $10 from last year and 40 percent from 4 years ago.

2. The IRS reports the average taxpayer spends 28 hours and six minutes on the 1040 form and other necessary recordkeeping, an increase of one hour and four minutes from last year.

3. There are 122 pages of instructions for the standard 1040 form – an increase of five pages from last year.

4. Form 1040A and Schedule 1 now exceed 11 hours of paperwork time, and even the 1040 “EZ” form tops four hours.

5. Americans spend about 6.1 billion hours on tax forms and recordkeeping, and that does not take into account the hours spent on strategies designed to minimize taxes.

“Only fundamental tax reform might be a strong enough lifeline to save us from drowning in a murky sea of tax law,” said NTU Senior Counselor David Keating.

How Old is Your Family-Owned Company?

A new survey suggests small companies tend to survive longer than large ones. Family Business magazine compiled a list of “The World’s Oldest Family Companies” in its spring 2002 issue. The list includes 100 family businesses outside the U.S. that have remained in the same family for two centuries or more; three of these businesses are more than a thousand years old. “These 100 companies have outlasted governments, nations, cities, and certainly once-mighty corporations like Enron,” wrote William T. O’Hara and Peter Mandel, who compiled the list. The top 100 include several well-known firms, including: Beretta, the Italian firearms maker (founded 1526); soy sauce maker Kikkoman (Japan, 1630); Taittinger Champagne (France, 1734); and Waterford Wedgwood (Ireland, 1759). “Some of the oldest businesses,” remarked Family Business editor Dan Rottenberg, “are relatively small undertakings. When it comes to longevity, the key element isn’t size – it’s the intangible impetus of family ownership.”

Here are the top 10 oldest family-owned companies:

Taking Extra Baggage on Vacation

According to a survey conducted by the American Management Association (AMA), nearly 98 percent of managers will be required to stay connected to their offices while on vacation this summer. Only a third of those surveyed plan to be away from the office for more than a week at a time. Almost 62 percent of those surveyed will check in with their office at least once a week and as many as 25 percent of them will be in daily contact while on vacation. Thirty-six percent plan to do some office-related work and 16 percent will be in touch with clients or customers at least once a week. Forty percent of those surveyed are required to leave their itinerary or contact phone numbers with their office and almost 19 percent are required to contact the office while away.

“Clearly, laptops, cell phones and Palm Pilots are on the list of items for managers to pack this summer vacation. It seems indicative that the current economy will keep many of them in contact with the office even while away,” said AMA practice consultant Leemor Amado.