Kip Addotta's CDs!

Jobs!

.... because its' bound to shock you.

I got a job!

Yes, I've had a job for a long time, selling books online, self-employed. [That job is going very well, now, as a matter of fact.

But I've also now been hired by Pedrotti's Ace Hardware in Benicia, California - part-time, entry level.

The application process spread over three months and involved a seven-page application (with essay questions), an hour-plus-long interview, a half-hour-long computerized assessment of my personality and my math skills, calls to all three of my work references (which, I'm told, lasted half an hour for one!), and a credit check, driving record check and criminal record check.

I started yesterday, and began learning to stock the shelves. It was very fun. I was smiling the whole time!

Hooray for me! Hooray for a regular pay check! Hooray for employee discounts! Hooray for learning to drive a fork lift, mix paint, cut glass, thread pipe and fill propane tanks!

Hooray!

Two biologists are in the field following the tracks of a radio-collared grizzly bear. All of a sudden, the bear crashes out of the brush and heads right for them. They scramble up the nearest tree, but the bear starts climbing up the tree after them. The first biologist starts taking off his heavy leather hiking boots and pulls a pair of sleek running shoes from his back-pack. The second biologist gives him a puzzled look and says, "What in the world are you doing?" He replies, "I figure when the bear gets close to us, we'll jump down and make a run for it."

The second guy says, "Are you crazy? We both know you can't outrun a full-grown grizzly bear."

The first guy says, "I don't have to outrun the bear, I only have to outrun you!"

Jobs

Part time job

A part-time job carries fewer hours per week than a full-time job, and usually pays less than a full-time job. Typically, part-time employees in the United States are not given any benefits (such as health insurance).

"Part-time" can also be used in reference to a student (usually in higher education) who takes a few courses, rather than a full load of coursework each semester.

Job Cover letter

A cover letter or covering letter or motivation letter or motivational letter is a letter of introduction attached to, or accompanying another document such as a résumé or curriculum vitae.

Letter For employment job

Job seekers frequently send résumés or employment applications as attachments to a cover letter, by way of introducing themselves to recruiters or prospective employers and indicating their interest in the positions. Employers may look for individualized and thoughtfully written cover letters to screen applicants who are not sufficiently interested in their position or who lack the required writing skills.

Job Letter Format

Cover letters are generally one page at most in length, divided into a header, introduction, body, and closing.

Header. Cover letters use standard business letter style, with the sender's address and other information, the recipient's contact information, and the date sent after either the sender's or the recipient's address. Following that is an optional reference section (e.g. "RE: Internship Opportunity at Global Corporation") and an optional transmission note (e.g. "Via Email to jobs@example.net"). The final part of the header is a salutation (e.g., "Dear Hiring Managers").

Introduction. The introduction briefly states the specific position desired, and is designed to catch the employer's immediate interest.

Body. The body highlights or amplifies on material in the resume or job application, and explains why the job seeker is interested in the job and would be of value to the employer. Also, matters discussed typically include skills, qualifications, and past experience. If there are any special things to note such as availability date, they may be included as well.

Closing. A closing sums up the letter, and indicates the next step the applicant expects to take. It may indicate that the applicant intends to contact the employer, although many favor the more indirect approach of simply saying that the applicant will look forward to hearing from or speaking with the employer. After the closing is a valediction ("Sincerely"), and then a signature line. Optionally, the abbreviation "ENCL" may be used to indicate that there are enclosures.

Cover letters Other uses

Cover letters may also serve as marketing devices for prospective job seekers. Cover letters are used in connection with many business documents such as loan applications, contract drafts and proposals, and executed documents. They may serve the purpose of trying to catch the reader's interest or persuade the reader of something, or they may simply be an inventory or summary of the documents included along with a discussion of the expected future actions the sender or recipient will take in connection with the documents.

Jobs in Finance

Financial markets

Bond market

Stock (Equities) Market

Forex market

Derivatives market

Commodity market

Money market

Spot (cash) Market

OTC market

Real Estate market

Job Market participants

Investors

Speculators

Institutional Investors

Jobs in Corporate finance

Structured finance

Capital budgeting

Financial risk management

Mergers and Acquisitions

Accounting

Financial Statements

Auditing

Credit rating agency

Jobs in Personal finance

Credit and Debt

Employment contract

Retirement

Financial planning

Jobs in Public finance

Tax

Jobs in Banks and banking

Fractional-reserve banking

Central Bank

List of banks

Deposits

Loan

Money supply

Jobs in Financial regulation

Finance designations

History of finance

Stock market bubble

Recession

Stock market crash

A contract of employment is a category of contract used in labour law to attribute right and responsibilities between parties to a bargain. On the one end stands an "employee" who is "employed" by an "employer". It has arisen out of the old master-servant law, used before the 20th century. Put generally, the contract of employment denotes a relationship of economic dependence and social subordination. In the words of the influential labour lawyer Sir Otto Kahn-Freund,

"the relation between an employer and an isolated employee or worker is typically a relation between a bearer of power and one who is not a bearer of power. In its inception it is an act of submission, in its operation it is a condition of subordination, however much the submission and the subordination may be concealed by the indispensable figment of the legal mind known as the 'contract of employment'. The main object of labour law has been, and I venture to say will always be a countervailing force to counteract the inequality of bargaining power which is inherent and must be inherent in the employment relationship."

Job Terminology

A contract of employment is usually defined to mean the same as a "contract of service". A contract of service has historically been distinguished from a "contract for services", the expression altered to imply the dividing line between a person who is "employed" and someone who is "self employed". The purpose of the dividing line is to attribute rights to some kinds of people who work from others. This could be the right to a minimum wage, holiday pay, sick leave, fair dismissal, a written statement of the contract, the right to organise in a union, and so on. The assumption is that genuinely self employed people should be able to look after their own affairs, and therefore work they do for others should not carry with it an obligation to look after these rights.

In Roman law the equivalent dichotomy was that between locatio conductio operarum and locatio conductio operis (lit. hire of services and of service).

The terminology is complicated by the use of many other sorts of contracts involving one person doing work for another. Instead of being considered an "employee", the individual could be considered a "worker" (which could mean less employment legislation protection) or as having an "employment relationship" (which could mean protection somewhere in between) or a "professional" or a "dependent entrepreneur", and so on. Different countries will take more or less sophisticated, or complicated approaches to the question.

Job Terms and conditions of employment

The focus of most employment contracts is wages for work. Essential terms might be notice periods in the event of dismissal, holiday pay rights, the place of work and pension schemes. Many jurisdictions require these factors to be set out in a written contract. In terms of pay, the employee may be compensated through wages, a salary, or by commission. In addition to monetary compensation, the employment contract often specifies a fringe benefit package, including a retirement plan, employee stock options, holiday entitlement, required hours of work, and (especially in the US) health insurance benefits.

Normally, such contracts provide for termination of employment, by either party, and include associated matters such as notice period, compensation arrangements and, sometimes, garden leave.

Some employers use non-disclosure and non-compete clauses to protect their trade secrets from being dispersed when employees leave. Depending on where people live, the laws regarding enforceability of these clauses vary widely.

UK law holds that employment contracts have implied terms (assumed, unspoken, essential terms ), as well as explicit terms (typically those in writing). Legal precedent provides for example that there is an implied contractual term of trust and confidence, meaning each party to the contract is expected to behave in a manner allowing the other to maintain trust and confidence in the other.

Independent contractor

An independent contractor is a natural person, business or corporation which provides goods or services to another entity under terms specified in a contract or within a verbal agreement. Unlike an employee, an independent contractor does not work regularly for an employer but works as and when required, during which time she or he may be subject to the Law of Agency. Contractors often work through a limited company which they themselves own, or may work through an umbrella company.

In the United States, any company or organization engaged in a trade or business that pays more than $600 to an independent contractor in one year is required to report this to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as well as to the contractor, using Form 1099-MISC. This form is merely a report of monies paid; independent contractors do not have income taxes withheld from their pay as regular employees do. When computing taxable income on the federal income tax return, the independent contractor can deduct, from his gross income amount, the amount work related expenses, such as tools or safety gear needed for the work that were purchased by the contractor himself.

Independent Contractor versus Employee

Sometimes, it is not a straightforward matter to determine who is an independent contractor and who should be classified as an employee. To make a determination, the IRS advises taxpayers to look at three aspects of the employment arrangement: financial control, behavioral control, and relationship between the parties. While some independent contractors may work for a number of different organizations throughout the year, there are also many who retain independent contractor status even though they work for the same organization for the entire year.

Generally speaking, independent contractors retain control over their schedule and number of hours worked, jobs accepted, and performance of their job. This contrasts with the situation for regular employees, who usually work at the schedule required by the employer and whose performance is directly supervised by the employer.

Examples of occupations where independent contractor arrangements are typical:

Job interview

A job interview is a process in which a potential employee is evaluated by an employer for prospective employment in their company, organization, or firm, it was established in the late 16th century.

Job Role

A job interview typically precedes the hiring decision, and is used to evaluate the candidate. Interviews are usually preceded by the evaluation of supplied résumés, selecting a small number of candidates for interviews are considered to be one of the most useful tools for evaluating potential employees, they also demand significant resources from the employer and have been demonstrated to be notoriously unreliable in identifying the optimal person for the job.

Multiple rounds of job interviews may be used where there are many candidates or the job is particularly challenging or desirable; earlier rounds may involve fewer staff from the employers and will typically be much shorter and less in-depth. A common initial interview form is the phone interview, a job interview conducted over the telephone. This is especially common when the candidates do not live near the employer and has the advantage of keeping costs low for both sides.

Once all candidates have had job interviews, the employer typically selects the most desirable candidate and begins the negotiation of a job offer.

Job Preparation

It is very important to be well prepared for an interview. According to the University of Delaware's career center, a common reason employers gave for not hiring an applicant, is the inability of the applicant to fully explain the contents of his or her résumé. Therefore it is paramount to be able to discuss in detail every item listed on one's resume, and if possible to give examples when appropriate. It is also wise to research the company before the interview. To avoid being nervous, practice answering difficult questions. A good source of interview questions can be found by searching the Internet.

Job Process

A typical job interview has a single candidate meeting with between one and three persons representing the employer; the potential supervisor of the employee is usually involved in the interview process. A larger interview panel will often have a specialized human resources worker. The meeting can be as short as 15 minutes; job interviews usually last less than two hours. The bulk of the job interview will be the interviewers asking the candidate questions about their history, personality, work style and other relevant factors to the job. The candidate will usually be given a chance to ask any questions at the end of the interview. Questions are strongly encouraged, not only do they allow the interviewee to acquire more information but they also demonstrate the candidate's strong interest in the position and company. A candidate should follow up the interview with a thank you letter expressing their appreciation for the opportunity of meeting with the company representative. The thank you letter ensures that the candidate will stay fresh in the interviewer's mind. The primary purpose of the job interview is to assess the candidate's suitability for the job, although the candidate will also be assessing the corporate culture and demands of the job on offer.

Lower paid and lower skilled positions tend to have much simpler job interviews than more prestigious positions; a lawyer's job interview will be much more demanding than that of a retail cashier. Most job interviews are formal; the larger the firm, the more formal and structured the interview will tend to be. Candidates generally dress slightly better than they would for work, with a suit being appropriate for a white-collar job interview.

Additionally, some professions have specific types of job interviews; for performing artists, this is an audition where the emphasis is placed on the performance ability of the candidate.

In many companies Assessment Days are increasingly being used, particularly for graduate positions, which may include analysis tasks, group activities, presentation exercises and Psychometric testing.

Types of Interview

Behavioral interview

A common type of job interview in the modern workplace is the behavioral interview or behavioral event interview. This type of interview is based on the notion that a job candidate's previous behaviors are the best indicators of future performance. In behavioral interviews, the interviewer asks candidate to recall specific instances where they were faced with a set of circumstances, and how they reacted. Typical behavioural interview questions:

"Tell me about a project you worked on where the requirements changed midstream. What did you do?"

"Tell me about a time when you took the lead on a project. What did you do?"

"Describe the worst project you worked on."

"Describe a time you had to work with someone you didn't like."

"Tell me about a time when you had to stick by a decision you had made, even though it made you very unpopular."

"Give us an example of something particularly innovative that you have done that made a difference in the workplace."

"What happened the last time you were late with a project?"

The goal of the interview is to assess the candidate's ability to respond to the sorts of situations they're likely to face in the job. The questions asked will therefore be based on the job description, the performance indicators, the skills/personal qualities required and the interviewer's knowledge of operating in the role.

A bad hiring decision nowadays can be immensely expensive for an organization cost of the hire, training costs, severance pay, loss of productivity, impact on morale, cost of re-hiring, etc. (Gallup international place the cost of a bad hire as being 3.2 times the individual's salary). Structured selection techniques have a better track record of identifying the soundest candidate than the old-style 'biographical' interview.

Stress interview

Stress interviews are still in common use. One type of stress interview is where the employer uses a succession of interviewers (one at a time or en masse) whose mission is to intimidate the candidate and keep him/her off-balance. The ostensible purpose of this interview: to find out how the candidate handles stress. Stress interviews might involve testing applicant's behavior in a busy environment. Questions about handling work overload, dealing with multiple projects and handling conflict are typical.

Another type of stress interview may involve only a single interviewer who behaves in an uninterested or hostile style. For example, the interviewer may not give eye contact, may roll their eyes or sigh at the candidate's answers, interrupt, turn his back, take phone calls during the interview, and ask questions in a demeaning or challenging style. The goal is to assess how the interviewee handles pressure or to purposely evoke emotional responses. This technique was also used in research protocols studying Stress and Type A (coronary-prone) Behavior because it would evoke hostility and even changes in blood pressure and heart-rate in study subjects. The key to success for the candidate is to de-personalize the process. The interviewer is acting a role, deliberately and calculatedly trying to 'rattle the cage.' Once the candidate realizes that there is nothing personal behind the interviewer's approach, it is easier to handle the questions with aplomb.

Example stress interview questions

Sticky situation: "If you caught a colleague cheating on his expenses, what would you do?" Putting you on the spot: "How do you feel this interview is going?"

Popping the balloon: "(deep sigh) Well, if that's the best answer you can give ... (shakes head) Okay, what about this one ...?"

Oddball question: "What would you change about the design of the hockey stick?"

Doubting your veracity: "I don't feel like we're getting to the heart of the matter here. Start again - tell me what really makes you tick."

Candidates may also be asked to deliver a presentation as part of the selection process. The 'Platform Test' method involves having the candidate make a presentation to both the selection panel and their competitors for the job. This is obviously highly stressful and is therefore useful as a predictor of how the candidate will perform under similar circumstances on the job. Academic, Training, Airline, Legal and Teaching selection processes frequently involve presentations of this sort.

Technical Interview

This kind of interview focuses on problem solving skills and creativity. The questions will aim at your problem solving skills, and likely will show your ability and creativity. Sometimes these interviews will be on a computer module with multiple choice questions.

Job Controversies

In many countries, employment equity laws forbid discrimination based on a number of classes, such as race, gender, age, and marital status. Asking questions about these protected areas in a job interview is generally considered discriminatory, and constitutes an illegal hiring practice. However, many employers ask questions that touch on these areas.

There is extended data which puts in question the value of job interviews as a tool for selecting employees. Where the aim of a job interview is ostensibly to choose a candidate who will perform well in the job role, other methods of selection provide greater predictive power and often lower costs. Furthermore, given the unstructured approach of most interviews they often have almost no useful predictive power of employee success.

Job fraud

Job fraud refers to fraudulent or deceptive activity or representation on the part of an employee or prospective employee toward an employer. It is not to be confused with employment fraud, in which a posing employer scams one who is seeking a job or else fails to pay wages for work performed. There are several types of job frauds that employees or potential employees have been known to commit against employers. While some acts may be illegal under jurisdictional laws, other acts do not violate any laws, but may be held by the employer against the employee or applicant.

Job Resume fraud

Résumé fraud or application fraud refers to any act that involves providing fictitious, exaggerated, or otherwise misleading information on a job application or résumé in hopes of persuading a potential employer to give applicants jobs for which they may be unqualified or for which they are less qualified than other applicants. Depending on the nature of the offense, the type of job, and the jurisdiction where it occurs, such an act may or may not be a violation of criminal law. In any case, providing knowingly inaccurate information to an employer or potential employer, if discovered by the employer, is almost always grounds for immediate dismissal from the job or else denial of that job.

Job Trends

A number of annual reports, including BDO Hayward's Fraudtrack 4 and CIFAS, the UK's fraud prevention service, has shown a rising level of major discrepancies and embellishments on curriculum vitae (CV) over previous years.

Business fraud cost UK businesses 1.4 bn in 2005.

Recent research released by Powerchex has confirmed this trend. Having measured 3,876 applicants to the UK financial sector over the past year, they found that 17% of potential candidates embellished their CV, and found a trend between a graduates choice of university and their liklihood to lie on their CV.

Job Effects

Almost half (48%) of organizations with fewer than 100 staff experienced problems with vetted employees.

39% of UK organisations have experienced a situation where their vetting procedures have allowed an employee to be hired who was later found to have lied or misrepresented themselves in their application.

Job Demographics

Younger, more junior people are more likely to have a discrepancy on their CV. Someone in a junior administrative position is 23% more likely to have a discrepancy on their CV than in a managerial role. An applicant aged under 20 is 26% more likely to have a discrepancy than a 51-60 year old.

Women are marginally more likely to have a discrepancy on their CV: 13% of applicants submitted by women have a discrepancy compared to only 10% of those for men.

Graduates have marginally fewer discrepancies: 13% of their CVs contain a discrepancy compared to 17% of non-graduates.

Job Types

Fake credentials: Some applicants provide false documents that are required or strongly recommended in order to obtain a job. These may include a degree, license, certificate, or other evidence of necessary training or experience that is expected of applicants.

Fictititious former employer(s): The applicant provides a list of one or more previous employers that he or she never worked for, and that may have never existed. Included could be fake reference letters vouching for the applicant. The absence of a way to contact them may seem plausible, since this applicant may claim they are no longer in business, living far away, or otherwise out of touch.

Fake "live" employer(s): The applicant arranges with a relative or friend to pose as a former boss. The applicant provides a phone number or other contact information, and when the prospective employer contacts this person, he or she receives a glowing report about the applicant. Since the widespread use of email, this form of communication may also be used by the applicants themselves to pose as former employers.

Exaggerated claims: The applicant lists a former employer he or she has actually worked for, but leaves out other information with the intent to mislead. Though the employer itself may have a prestigious reputation, the applicant's position may have been menial.

Examples of resume fraud

Getting past the "20 second resume cull" by making bold statements such as claiming "1st place Academic Standing: Session 1, 2005 and Session 2, 2004", and only later qualifying it as being "First place academic standing amongst Information Systems and Management (ISM) scholars".

Exaggerated claims such as "I have been awarded prizes or otherwise recognised for being at the very top of my cohort.", which are not supported by the actual grades obtained (which include 13 subjects at only a Distinction level); similarly, claiming that a scholarship was "for the most outstanding student entering the University" when in fact there were multiple scholarships awarded.

Using awards which have never been heard of elsewhere, nor easily verifiable, such as a "Silver Medallion for Academic Excellence", or an "Emeritus Professor Prize".

Selective reporting, and use of unofficial terms: rather than reporting an overall grade of credit, a "Distinction Average in Finance; High Credit Average in Law" is used; similarly, a "Distinction average on all core information systems subjects" helps circumvent unflattering grades in information systems electives and other courses. Both "High Credit" and "core information systems subjects" are not defined by the university (UNSW), and thus are used with impunity.

Job Fraud by active employees

There are other forms of fraudulent methods that employees of jobs use to obtain payroll money from an employer without actually performing any work. These are acts that involve blatant cheating, and do not include those who work at subpar performance.

Some of these acts are

Moonlighting: The employee holds a second night job in addition to his or her regular daytime job which he or she performs acceptably. At this second job, however, the employee intentionally sleeps throughout the entire shift, unbeknownst to the supervisor.

Swiping in absence: The employee arrives at the job site at the beginning of the shift and swipes in to report to work. The employee promptly departs, and his or her absence goes unnoticed in a large workplace. At the end of the shift, the employee returns to swipe out.

False signature: The employee who is supposed to obtain a supervisor's signature to verify having worked rather signs the form him or herself after not having reported to work. Such acts are usually possible with temp agencies, where contractors are sent to a variety of job sites, and are not known personally by those they would work with.

Training pay: An applicant obtains a job that will include a fixed amount of paid training. Once the training is finished, the applicant promptly quits. The applicant's original purpose was to obtain pay for training, but not do any further work. Many employers who function this way combat this problem by withholding payment for training until a certain amount of work has been performed.

Depending on the nature of the offense, these violations may be grounds for criminal prosecution or civil damages.

Look up résumé, curriculum vitae, resume in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.A résumé, commonly written "resume," or curriculum vitae (CV) is a document that contains a summary or listing of relevant job experience and education. The term curriculum vitae means "course of life" in Latin. While it is appropriate to write either curriculum vitae or just vita, it is incorrect to use the phrase curriculum vita, the form vitae being the genitive of vita. The plural of curriculum vitae is curricula vitae. The résumé or CV is typically the first item that a potential employer encounters regarding the job seeker and is typically used to screen applicants, often followed by an interview, when seeking employment.

General jobs

In many contexts, a résumé or CV is short (usually one page), and therefore contains only experience directly relevant to a particular position. Many résumés contain precise keywords that the potential employers are looking for, make heavy use of active verbs, and display content in a flattering manner.

In the past, résumés/CVs used to be no longer than two pages, as potential employers typically did not devote much time to reading résumé details for each applicant. In some countries employers have changed their views regarding acceptable résumé length. Since increasing numbers of job seekers and employers are using Internet-based job search engines to find and fill employment positions, longer résumés/CVs are needed for applicants to differentiate and distinguish themselves. Since the late 1990s, some employers have been more accepting of résumés that are longer than two pages, but not those in Australia. Many professional résumé writers and human resources professionals believe that a résumé/CV should be long enough so that it provides a concise, adequate, and accurate description of an applicant's employment history and skills. The transmission of résumés/CVs directly to employers became increasingly popular as late as 2002. Jobseekers were able to circumvent the job application process and reach employers through direct email contact and résumé blasting, a term meaning the mass distribution of résumés/CVs to increase personal visibility within the job market. However the mass distribution of résumés/CVs to employers often can have a negative effect on the applicant's chances of securing employment as the résumés/CVs tend not to be tailored for the specific positions the applicant is applying for. It is usually therefore more sensible to adjust the résumé/CV for each position applied for.

The complexity and simplicity of various résumé/CV formats tends to produce results that vary from person to person, occupation, and industry. It is important to note that résumés/CV used by medical professionals, professors, artists and people in many other specialized fields may be comparatively longer. For example, an artist's résumé/CV, typically excluding any non-art-related employment, may include extensive lists of solo and group exhibitions.

Job Terminology

Curriculum vitae is Latin meaning "course of life" and résumé is French meaning "summary". In the business world, the word résumé (also spelled resumé and resume) is used especially in the United States and in English Canada. Curriculum vitae and "CV" are used in the United Kingdom in all contexts, with résumé having very little currency.

In North America, Australia, and India the terms "résumé" and "CV" may be used interchangeably. However, a résumé more often has a free-form organizational style and is used for seeking employment in the private sector, whereas a curriculum vitae (also called a vita, but not curriculum vita, see below) usually has a more standardized look and format for the purpose of seeking positions in academic or educational institutions. Another difference is that a résumé tends to be more descriptive and tailored for a specific purpose or target audience, whereas a curriculum vitae tends to be organized in a way that presents data about one's self in a compact fashion, with a clear chronology. For example, a résumé may begin with a statement about a personal goal, followed by a list of most significant accomplishments or characteristics in order of significance, while a curriculum vitae often includes complete and unembellished lists of data such as educational institutions attended, degrees received, positions held, professional affiliations, publications authored, etc. A résumé may or may not be represented by the person as a complete history of themselves without omission, whereas a curriculum vitae usually implies that there are no omissions, and in particular, no temporal gaps.

Job Styles

A simple résumé is a summary typically limited to one or two pages of size A4 or Letter-size highlighting only those experiences and credentials that the author considers most relevant to the desired position. CVs are typically longer.

Résumés may be organized in different ways:

Chronological resume

A chronological résumé enumerates a candidate's job experiences in reverse chronological order.

The chronological résumé format is the most common résumé layout in use. In using this format, the main body of the document becomes the Professional Experience section, starting from the most recent experience going chronologically backwards through a succession of previous experience. The chronological résumé works to build credibility through experience gained, while illustrating career growth over time. In the United Kingdom the chronological résumé tends to extend only as far back as the subject's GCSE/Standard Grade qualifications.

Job Functional résumé

A functional résumé lists work experience and skills sorted by skill area or job function.

The functional résumé is used to assert a focus to skills that are specific to the type of position being sought. This format directly emphasizes specific professional capabilities and utilizes experience summaries as its primary means of communicating professional competency. In contrast, the chronological résumé format will briefly highlight these competencies prior to presenting a comprehensive timeline of career growth via reverse-chronological listing with most recent experience listed first. The functional résumé works well for those making a career change, having a varied work history and with little work experience. A functional résumé is also preferred for applications to jobs that require a very specific skill set or clearly defined personality traits.

Job Combination résumé

The combination résumé balances the functional and chronological approaches. A résumé organized this way typically leads with a functional list of job skills, followed by a chronological list of employers. The combination résumé has a tendency to repeat itself and is therefore less widely utilized than the other two forms.

Curriculum vitae

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

In the United States and Canada, a CV is expected to include a comprehensive listing of professional history including every term of employment, academic credential, publication, contribution or significant achievement. In certain professions, it may even include samples of the person's work and may run to many pages.

In the European Union, there has been an attempt to develop a standardised CV model known as Europass (in 2004 by the European Parliament and European Commission) and promoted by the EU to ease skilled migration between member countries, although this is not widely used in most contexts.

A standard British CV might have the following points

Personal details at the top, such as name in bold type, address, contact numbers and, if the subject has one, an e-mail address. Photos are not required at all, unless requested. Modern CVs are more flexible. A personal profile, written in either the first or the third person, a short paragraph about the job seeker. This should be purely factual, and free of any opinion about the writer's qualities such as "enthusiastic", "highly motivated", etc.

A bulleted list of the job seeker's key skills or rather, professional assets - skills alone are somewhat unsophisticated

A reverse chronological list of the job seeker's work experience, including his or her current role. The CV should account for the writer's entire career history. The career history section should describe achievements rather than duties. The early career can these days be lumped together in a short summary but recent jobs should illustrate concept, planning, achievement, roles.

A reverse chronological list of the job seeker's education or training, including a list of his or her qualifications such as his or her academic qualifications (GCSEs, A-Levels, Highers, degrees etc.) and his or her professional qualifications (NVQs and memberships of professional organisations etc.). If the job seeker has just left the place of education, the work experience and education are reversed.

Date of birth, gender if you have an ambiguous first name, whether you have a driving licence used to be standard - but nothing is required and you should not waste space on trivia. An employer requesting date of birth and gender needlessly could find itself on the losing side of recent anti-discrimination legislation. The job seeker's hobbies and interests (optional)

It is obligatory for it to be typed or word-processed, not hand-written.

There are certain faux pas for CVs:

The CV being longer than two full sides of A4 paper. (This rule does not apply to academic positions, for which the CV normally includes a complete list of publications and major conference papers. CVs for positions in postsecondary teaching, research, and academic administration may be of any length.)

Writing anything pejorative about other persons or businesses.

If applying for a specific position, omitting a covering letter explaining one's suitability. CVs should be purely factual without implying skills which do not exist.

As with résumés, CVs are subject to recruiting fads. For example,

In German-speaking countries, a picture was a mandatory adjunct to the CV for a long time. In the huge Indian job market, photos and good looks are strongly preferred in the service industry (hotels, aviation, etc.) and in sales-marketing, front office and customer service jobs. Additionally, Indian employers prefer lengthy résumés.

Including a photograph of the applicant is strongly discouraged in the U.S. as it would suggest that an employer would discriminate on the basis of a person's appearance age, race, sex, attractiveness, or the like. The theatre and modeling industries are exceptions, where it is expected that résumés will include photographs; actors refer to such photos as head shots.

When listing non-academic employment in the U.S., the newest entries generally come first (reverse chronological). The use of an "objective statement" at the top of the document (such as "Looking for an entry-level position in stores") was strongly encouraged in the U.S. during the mid-1990s but fell out of favor by the late-1990s. However, with the avalanche of résumés distributed via the Internet since the late 1990s, an "objective" and/or "skills summary" statement has become more common to help recruiters quickly determine the applicant's suitability. It is not prevalent elsewhere.

A profiling statement (or thumbnail description) was a protocol developed by placement agencies in the late 1980s. Many candidates now open their CV with such a statement. This can be a short paragraph or a handful of bullet points delineating the candidate's most desirable skills and experiences.

Listing of computer skills (such as proficiency with word processing software) was a strong differentiator during the 1980s but was considered passé for most professional positions by the 1990s.

In the 1980s and early 1990s in the U.S., the trend was to not allow a résumé to exceed one page in length. In the late 1990s, this restriction fell out of vogue, with two- or even three-page résumés becoming common.

Online résumés

The Internet has brought about a new age for the résumé. As the search for employment has become more electronic, résumés have followed suit. It is not uncommon for employers to only accept résumés electronically, either out of practicality or preference. This electronic boom has changed much about the way résumés are written, read, and handled. Job seekers must choose a file format in which to maintain their résumé. Many employers, especially recruitment agencies on their behalf, insist on receiving résumés only as Microsoft Word documents. Others will only accept résumés formatted in HTML, PDF, or plain ASCII text.

Many potential employers now find candidates' résumés through search engines, which makes it more important for candidates to use appropriate keywords when writing a résumé.

Including an e-mail address in an online résumé may expose the job seeker to spam (see Spambot).

Some career fields include a special section listing the life-long works of the author. For computer-related fields, the softography; for musicians and composers, the discography; for actors, a filmography.

Keeping résumés online has become increasingly common for people in professions that benefit from the multimedia and rich detail that are offered by an HTML résumé, such as actors, photographers, graphic designers, developers, dancers, etc.

Job seekers are finding an ever increasing demand to have an electronic version of their résumé available to employers and professionals who use Internet recruiting at any time. Internet résumés differ from conventional résumés in that they are comprehensive and allow for self-reflection. Unlike regular 2 page résumés, which only show recent work experience and education, Internet résumés also show an individual's skill development over his or her career.

For job seekers, taking résumés online also facilitates distribution to multiple employers via Internet. Online résumé distribution services have emerged to allow job seekers to distribute their résumés to employers of their choices via email.

Another advantage to internet résumés is the significant cost savings over traditional hiring methods. The Employment Management Association has included internet advertising in its cost-per-hire surveys for several years. In 1997, for example, it reported that the average cost-per-hire for a print ad was $3,295, while the average cost-per-hire with the Internet was $377. This in turn has cut costs for many growing organizations, as well as saving time and energy in recruitment. Until the development of résumés in an electronic format, employers would have to sort through massive stacks of paper to find suitable candidates without any way of filtering out the poor candidates. Employers are now able to set search parameters in their database of résumés to reduce the number of résumés which must be reviewed in detail in the search for the ideal candidate.

Finally, the internet is enabling new technologies to be employed with résumés, such as video résumés--especially popular for multimedia job seekers. Another emerging technology is graphic-enabled résumés, such as Visual CV.

Work-at-home scheme

A Work-at-Home scheme is a get-rich-quick scheme in which a victim is lured by an offer to be employed at home, very often doing some simple task in a minimal amount of time with a large amount of income that far exceeds the market rate for the type of work. The true purpose of such an offer is for the perpetrator to extort money from the victim.

Work-at-home schemes have been around for decades. Originally found as ads in newspapers or magazines, they have expanded to more high-tech media, such as television and radio ads, and on the Internet.

Legitimate work-at-home opportunities do exist, and millions of Americans do their jobs in the comfort of their own homes. But anyone seeking such an employment opportunity must be wary of accepting a home employment offer, as only about one in 42 such ads have been determined to be legitimate. Most legitimate jobs at home require some form of post-high-school education, such as a college degree or certificate, or trade school, and some experience in the field in an office or other supervised setting. Additionally, many legitimate at-home jobs are not like those in schemes are portrayed to be, as they are often performed at least some of the time in the company's office, require more self discipline than a traditional job, and have a higher risk of firing.

Types of Work

Common types of work found in work-at-home schemes include:

Stuffing envelopes

Assembly of items of some type, such as crafts, jewelry, or medical equipment

Data entry

Processing medical claims

Making phone calls

Online surveys

Sales of a product or service that is difficult or impossible to sell. This is often done in the form of a pyramid scheme.

Some ads claim to offer a device that makes passive sales calls, and the "employee" will be paid a commission of the sales.

Some ads offer legitimate forms of work that really do exist, but exaggerate the salary, the effort that will have to be put into the job, or the amount of work that will be available. Many such ads do not even specify the type of work that will be performed.

Some similar schemes do not advertise work that would be performed at home, but may instead offer occasional, sporadic work away from home for large payments, paired with a lot of free time. Some common offers fitting this description are:

Acting - seeking extras to perform in movies and television commercials. Mystery Shopping - Getting paid to shop and dine. While mystery shopping actually does exist, it requires hard work, is paid close to minimum wage, and most importantly, does not require an up-front fee to join.

Victims

The typical victim of a work-at-home scheme may be:

A burned out employee of a legitimate job seeking an exit to his/her stressful lifestyle

An unemployed person seeking high-paying easy work

An uneducated person with few or no skills looking for a job with a good salary

An employed person wanting to make extra money to supplement his/her regular income.

Senior citizens, disabled persons, stay-at-home parents, and others who cannot easily leave home in order to make a living.

Those with busy schedules full of unpaid activities who wish to earn money in their spare time.

Those with long or tiresome commutes looking to remain at home and eliminate their travel to work. Someone who doesn't take the time to carefully investigate the industry, job and company.

Signs of a Work-at-Home Scheme

Signs of a work-at-home scheme versus a legitimate job may include:

Payment of fee is required prior to starting employment. According to the Federal Trade Commission, under no circumstances should anyone be forced to pay a fee in order to obtain a job. No legitimate employer will require a fee be paid as a condition of starting work (except perhaps a small amount for a criminal background check). Pay is too good to be true. Though there may be legitimate jobs in existence in which employees are paid to perform the particular task in question, even possibly from home, in reality, they would be paid a wage that is fair for that type of work and level of education, not the $40 per hour or $3000 per week that is typically offered in a work-at-home scheme.

Employer seemingly will hire anyone, with no experience necessary and no qualifications. Legitimate employers will only be interested in those who have the proper experience, skills, certification, and other qualifying factors, and will give at least some scrutiny to an applicant seeking employment. But the perpetrator of a work-at-home scheme is only interested in the payment required to join.

Company is little known, and does not seemingly have a customer base bringing them revenue from which they can pay employees.

The Company does not appear to have a permanent location. Its address, phone number, and website appear to be centered around recruitment of employees, not customers.

In a forthcoming book, Undress4Success The Naked Truth About Working From Home, telework researchers, Kate Lister and Tom Harnish, report that between 20% and 97% (depending on the website) of the work-from-home and telecommuting jobs posted on the top Internet job boards represent some kind of scam. "These sites are some of the most visited places on the web. They're household brands and people trust them. Yet, much of what they're peddling is pure junk," says Lister. "One of the top three job boards features 1,250 postings for a company that advises, in all capital letters,

STOP EVERYTHING YOU ARE DOING RIGHT NOW THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES MAY CHANGE YOUR LIFE . . . INVEST $9.95 AND WE'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO . . .'

"This is the kind of thing that gives work from home jobs a bad name. People looking for work at home jobs need to really do their homework to avoid being stung. There are lots of ways to detect a scam but the simplest advice is to never pay for a job. That's just not the way it works," says Kate.

Consequences

The consequences of falling for a work-at-home scheme may be as follows:

Loss of money: It may be only the initial fee to join, say $10, $20, or even $30, or more, for example. Or it may be a lot more. Some scammers will run after receiving just this fee. Others will continue to ask for more in order for the promise of high pay to be fulfilled. Some will act on a two-way street, actually issuing paychecks, all the while receiving payments of greater value in return, which in some cases may exceed tens of thousands of dollars. Yet in other cases, the employer may obtain the victim's personal information and use it to commit fraud against the victim. Loss of legitimate job: Those with a real job may quit in hopes of a better one, only to find they cannot get their original job back after they discover their dream job was only a hoax.

Damaged Reputation: Those who engage in sales of a faulty or otherwise controversial product may be tarnishing their own name as the salesperson of such a worthless item.

Trouble with law: Some victims may actually receive money. But at the same time, they may be unknowingly breaking the law, on behalf of the perpetrator of the scheme, but will be fully legally responsible. Such violations may be criminal or civil in nature. In other cases, they will not be committing any criminal acts, but they will end up framed in an investigation for the crimes of the perpetrator. Wasted time: Victims will often invest huge amounts of time with no pay in return. This is time that can be spent earning money at a legitimate job.

Combating work-at-home schemes

Various law enforcement agencies work to fight work-at-home schemes. In 2006, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) established Project False Hopes, a federal and state law enforcement sweep that targets bogus business opportunity and work at home scams. The crackdown involved more than 100 law enforcement actions by the FTC, the Department of Justice, the United States Postal Inspection Service, and law enforcement agencies in 11 states.

Full time

Wiktionary, the free dictionary.A permanent full-time job usually has benefits (such as health insurance), however, temporary full-time jobs usually do not have benefits. Full-time jobs are often considered careers. They usually pay more than part time jobs, and always carry more hours per week. The most common full-time work week in the US is between 32-40 hours. In France it is a government-mandated 35 hours per week. In Germany it is between 35-40 hours per week. Also in Australia it is around 35-37 hours per week. And in the UK, whilst there is no formal definition, it is generally considered to be 35 hours a week or more.

Full-time can also be used in reference to a student (usually in higher education) who takes a full load of coursework each semester.

Permanent Employment

Permanent Employment refers to a situation where the employee is expected to remain with the employer permanently, rather than for a temporary period of time. Realistically, most employees do not remain with one employer for their entire working career, however, it is an important way of distinguishing who gets benefits, and who gets a certain status within the given company. Usually permanent employees are the ones who get the best treatment from their employer. Temporary employees are expected to leave within a certain period of time, ranging from 1 week up to 1 year. (Temporary employees are sometimes called "contractual" or "seasonal" or "temps.")

Often people confuse "permanent" with "full-time." While many permanent employees do work a full-time week, there are also permanent employees who work part-time. In addition, there are temporary employees who work full-time, and some who work part-time.

Permatemp

A permatemp is an employee whose status is somewhere between a temporary employee and a permanent employee. The word is a portmanteau of the words permanent and temporary. It is sort of a tongue-in-cheek textual contrivance poking fun at the dynamics of the New Economy with its characteristic job insecurity and lack of benefits for a considerable portion of the workforce.

There are two types of permatemp employment relationships. In the first form, a public or private employer hires employees as "temporary" or "seasonal" employees but retains them, often full-time for year after year, at low wages and without any benefits. These employees often do the same work as permanent employees, but without the same benefits. The second kind of permatemp is an employee of a third-party payroll agency or other employer, who sends workers to work in a long-term, on-site position for a private company or public employer. The employee is paid by the agency rather than by the primary employer, and sometimes receives benefits. These employees are also referred to as contractors.

Definition

Traditionally, a temporary employee is hired to substitute for an employee who is on leave or vacation. A seasonal employee is hired for the limited time because the work is only necessary for a certain season. The normal practice of temporary employment for an agency is one in which the employees have a close relationship with the agency from whom they receive their pay. Their work may range from day labor to high-priced consulting. The employee may work for one or several companies, and the working periods may be for days or months at a time, but the working periods come about irregularly. Temporary agencies may or may not provide benefits, such as subsidized health insurance, to their employees. However, it is relatively common for such workers to draw higher pay in exchange for not receiving the benefits afforded to the regulars.

Regular, permanent employees work for a single employer, and are paid directly by that employer. In addition to their wages, they often receive benefits like subsidized health care, paid vacations, holidays, sick time, or contributions to a retirement plan. Regular employees are often eligible to switch jobs within their companies. Even when employment is "at will," regular employees of large outfits are generally protected from abrupt job termination by severance policies, like advance notice in case of layoffs, or formal discipline procedures. They may be eligible to join a union, and may enjoy both social and financial benefits of their employment.

The most abusive permatemp employment situation results when a worker classified as temporary works alongside regular employees doing similar work for a long period, thereby exploiting loopholes in business law. By claiming the employee as temporary, the employer avoids paying for benefits and possibly pays a lower hourly wage. The employer also tangentially benefits because it has no direct responsibility to the employee. Permatemp employees can be fired or laid off at any time, as they have no career service protection or seniority. In addition, all costs, including the markup from the temp agency, are deductible as Schedule A purchase of subcontractor services to the client employer.

Policies regarding temp workers tend to differ between companies, and range from being regarded as abusive to little different from policies applied to the regular employees. At some companies, temporary employees are ineligible to apply for jobs open to regular employees. On the other hand, other companies use temporary staffing arrangements to "test drive" prospective employees. At the end of the contract period, good workers can be retained for another contract period or hired as regular employees, and underperformers can be let go with minimal proceedings.

When a staffing agency is involved, the permatemp may have little relationship with the agency that employs him. The staffing firm may have a national contract with the worksite company. Although the staffing company may be thousands of miles from the job location, it can find job candidates to fill positions through Internet job websites, with interviews occurring over the phone and paperwork filed via fax machine or e-mail. It is not uncommon for a permatemp to never actually meet anyone at the staffing company.

The staffing firm provides a wage to the employee, but may or may not provide any benefits. Often, if benefits are offered, they come at a direct decrease in the pay rate. In order to pay the employee, the staffing firm is paid by the worksite company at an agreed upon bill rate, which can be 50 to 100 percent higher than the pay rate. Bill rates are rarely disclosed to the employee, and the staffing firm may in fact be contractually prohibited from disclosing it.

Legal issues

See also: UK agency worker law Arguments have been made that when a worker is actually employed full-time, year round, but called a temporary or seasonal employee, the employee is being exploited by being denied the wages, benefits, and employment rights enjoyed by other employees. While it is unknown how common this kind of situation is, class action lawsuits have been decided against Seattle, Washington and King County, Washington. These public sector cases generally involve violation of ordinances or rules limiting the length of service of such workers.

Two California cases address the issues of public employees who were improperly considered "temporary" when they were actually employed as regular, permanent employees. The first case involves the Los Angeles County Fire Department; the second such case concerns the employment practices of the Metropolitan Water District. These cases are both class action lawsuits that have been litigated over a number of years. Both cases are near, or in the process of, being settled.

In an Albuquerque, New Mexico, case a federal district judge has recently ruled that an employee who worked full time for the City of Albuquerque for more than ten years as a "seasonal" supervisor and recreation leader (never earning more than $7.00 per hour and with no benefits) had a "property interest" in his employment such that he could not be terminated without a hearing. The judge also certified a conditional class of "similarly situated" city employees employed as temporary or seasonal employees in violation of City ordinances, which limited temporary employees to two years and limited seasonal employees to nine months or less each year.

Staffing through temporary agencies became common in the Silicon Valley technology companies. Permatemping came into vogue simultaneously with the economic bubble of the 1990s. Most recently, General Motors and its subsidiary, Delphi, have announced plans to rely on temporary employees. Whether these will be long-term temps, or permatemps, remains to be seen.

General Motors has used "permatemps' for a long time in its lowest management level, Level 6 Supervisor, under a national contract with Kelly Services.

One legal issue and one tax issue, both having to do with permatemps at Microsoft, defined permatemping and also changed it.

Vizcaino v. Microsoft

In 1996 a class action lawsuit was brought against Microsoft representing thousands of current and former employees that had been classified as temporary and freelance. The monetary value of the suit was determined by how much the misclassified employees could have made if they had been correctly classified and been able to participate in Microsoft's Employee Stock Purchase Plan. The case was decided on the basis that the temporary employees had had their jobs defined by Microsoft, worked alongside regular employees doing the same work, and worked for long terms (years, in many cases). The case and subsequent appeals were heard in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before a final ruling could be issued, Microsoft settled the case for US$100 million. The Microsoft permatemps collected their money almost 10 years later.

IRS tax rulings

Simultaneous with Vizcaino, the United States Internal Revenue Service issued a ruling that Microsoft owed millions of dollars in payroll taxes. The IRS determined that permatemp employees were common law employees of Microsoft and the staffing firm's role was simply that of payroll processor.

Legal changes

As a result of the legal and tax rulings, human resources organizations at many companies changed their policies towards temporary employees. Microsoft, for example, decreed that an individual could not be a temp for more than 364 days, and that individuals must be separated from Microsoft for more than 100 days between temporary assignments with the company. Other companies have created policies stating that temporary workers can be assigned to only specific projects that last just a few months. Individuals are often prohibited from taking back-to-back assignments within a company.

When a company requires a break in service of its permatemps, the result is often that those employees regularly cycle between two companies instead of having back-to-back assignments. Other permatemps plan for personal breaks and simply use the time as vacation. In most cases, they are eligible for unemployment insurance as long as they nominally look for work. This form of permatemping may be attractive to those not wanting a steady, full-time, or year-round position, or not wanting to be committed to one position or one employer.

Another arrangement to avoid long-term serial temporary assignments is to "in-source" the work to be done, and not the position that does the work. In this arrangement, a company does not hire a staffing firm to fill a position, but rather hires it to do the work. The staffing firm still must hire the permatemp to do the work, still on-site at the corporation.

Some of these alternative arrangements barely differ from the pre-Vizcaino tradition of permatemping. Laws and legal rulings continue to define the permatemp-employee relationship. The IRS continues to warn many companies they may owe employment taxes for their temporary workers and employee lawsuits over temping repeat the same arguments.

Due to the 365 day rule, high value Contractors (typically in IT) who choose to accept the risk of not receiving benefits and of contract termination in exchange for higher hourly rates are forced out of standard business relationships. This causes problems for both the Contractor who must continually move to new companies and for the company who must retrain and familiarize the new contractor with business rules and infrastructure. This lose-lose situation forces contractors out of the contracting business and encourages employers to move jobs overseas via out-sourcing and in-sourcing relationships. These well paid contractors, who have no reason to sue and see themselves as running a small business, are hurt by these legal rulings that are meant to protect low-wage permatemps.

Permatemp job stability

In many surveys, those in permatemp situations readily state that they would prefer to be regular employees of the companies they work for. Not all permatemps agree with this, however. Many enjoy the high hourly rates associated with such jobs as well as the on-again/off-again lifestyle and do not need the guarantee of a stable income.

Some permatemps also disagree on the effectiveness of lawsuits and new laws to regulate hiring. Even those who would prefer to be regular employees recognize that the policies instituted after lawsuits make their employment less, not more, stable. Before Vizcaino, many Microsoft permatemps could be certain they would find a new assignment at the end of a project, but mandatory breaks put arbitrary deadlines on how long they can work a new assignment.

Other critics note that the constant job turnover mandated by human resources department policies has the effect of increasing the unemployment rate, which has led to wage deflation in fields with large numbers of permatemps.

In the wake of employee lawsuits, most companies have not increased hiring of staff in positions typically held by permatemps. In fact, rather than risk lawsuits, many firms have decided not to hire within their own country at all, instead turning work formerly done by their pools of permatemps over to outsourcing firms in other countries.

Permatemp culture

In corporate culture the presence of permatemps creates a caste system. That permatemps had socially integrated into the corporate culture and that the company had included permatemps in morale events and gift giving was evidence both in Vizcaino and to the IRS. Policy enforcement that now restricts permatemps from participating in morale events, employee social clubs, and the like create a second class division between regular employees and permatemps.

Many corporations do not hire regular employees to do work they deem low-skilled or unimportant. Permatemps hired to do that work may not get the resources that a regular employee would. Permatemps might be forced to share office space, cubicles, or phones when regular employees have their own. Employee badges for permatemps might be a different color, and permatemps may be recognized in the corporate e-mail system by dashes or other identifiers appended to their login ID. By declaring positions filled by permatemps to be low-skilled and making it easier for regular employees to identify their co-workers who are permatemps, companies create a sense of elitism in their regular employees. Permatemps, as a group, might be known by epithets such as "dash trash" (referring to an identifier and a dash prepended to an email user account).

Frequently permatemps are highly skilled, excellent workers, particularly in the IT field, but are still not allowed to participate in company events or receive bonuses for work done. If they earn over the United States Department of Labor minimum for overtime exemption, they may be asked to put in similar overtime hours to benefitted, salaried employees without overtime compensation. Depending on the staffing firm and corporation policies, permatemps may discover themselves in one of several positions, all of which require the same level of work from them as from their coworkers:

Working for an inclusive corporation that allows permatemps limited rewards for good work, with a staffing firm that provides some benefits. If a staffing firm offers benefits they are occasionally immediate, but more typically the employee must wait several months to a year before becoming eligible. Some staffing firms have their own rewards programs for things like good contractor evaluations and length of employment.

Working for an inclusive company through a staffing firm that offers no benefits. For example, a corporation might make up for a lack of holiday pay by paying for the day despite the employee's not working. This would eliminate common situations where permatemps received reduced pay due to forced time-off (such as company-wide closings on New Year's Day or Christmas holidays).

Working for a non-inclusive company that offers no benefits at all to permatemps, with a benefit-offering staffing firm.

Working for a non-inclusive company with a staffing firm with no benefits. Staffing firms are competitive, and long-term contracts vary between companies. While some do offer tangible benefits such as partial coverage of insurance premiums and personal time, others only offer pseudo-benefits. For example, a contracting company might advertise insurance as a benefit for its contractors, when all they offer is the opportunity for the permatemp to pay full price for insurance through them. Many corporations have contracts with staffing firms that don't allow them to switch a permatemp from one firm to another, so once a permatemp is brought in through a staffing firm, they must stay with that firm for the duration of the job, short of the corporation hiring them permanently. Unfortunately, a permatemp may discover themselves accepting a job that has no benefits out of economic necessity, or because their field has limited-to-no permanent openings in their location.

Supervisor

A supervisor, foreman, foreperson, team leader, overseer, cell coach, facilitator, or area coordinator is a manager in business. The US Bureau of Census has four hundred titles under the supervisor classification.

An employee is a supervisor if they have the power and authority to do the following actions (according to the Ontario Ministry of Labour):

Give instructions and/or orders to subordinates. Be held responsible for the work and actions of other employees. If an employee cannot do the above, legally he is probably not a supervisor, but in some other category, such as lead hand.

A supervisor is first and foremost an overseer whose main responsibility is to ensure that a group of subordinates get out the assigned amount of production, when they are supposed to do it and within acceptable levels of quality, costs and safety.

A Supervisor is responsible for the productivity and actions of a small group of employees. The Supervisor has several manager like roles, responsibilities, and powers. Two of the key differences between a Supervisor and a Manager are (1) the Supervisor does not typically have "hire and fire" authority, and (2) the Supervisor does not have budget authority.

Lacking "hire and fire" authority means that a Supervisor may not recruit the employees working in the Supervisor's group nor does the Supervisor have the authority to terminate an employee. The Supervisor may participate in the hiring process as part of interviewing and assessing candidates but the actual hiring authority rests in the hands of a Human Resource Manager. The Supervisor may recommend to management that a particular employee be terminated and the Supervisor may be the one who documents the behaviors leading to the recommendation but the actual firing authority rests in the hands of a Manager.

Lacking budget authority means that a Supervisor is provided a budget developed by management within which constraints the Supervisor is expected to provide a productive environment for the employees of the Supervisor's work group. A Supervisor will usually have the authority to make purchases within specified limits. A Supervisor is also given the power to approve work hours and other payroll issues. Normally, budget affecting requests such as travel will require not only the Supervisor's approval but the approval of one or more layers of management.

As a member of management, a supervisor's main job is more concerned with orchestrating and controlling work rather than performing it directly.

Responsibilities

A supervisor in the workplace has four distinctly separate sets of responsibilities. The supervisor's first duty is to represent management and the company. It is the supervisor’s job to organize his/her department and employees, visualize future impacts and needs, energize the employees to get their tasks done and supervise their work ensuring that the productivity and quality standards are met. To ensure that this is done, the supervisor makes certain that his employees have the training, the tools and the material that they need to carry out their duties.

Another important part of the job is to act as a middleman and buffer between the employees who actually do the job and the rest of the organization. The supervisor makes sure that his employees’ pay is correct, their vacation pay arrives on time and they receive proper care if they get injured on the job.

The supervisor also has legal responsibilities to ensure that his area of responsibility is free of safety violations, all employees received proper training and that all human rights are upheld. Supervisors are also responsible for the health and safety of all their subordinates and to ensure that they work in a harassment-free environment.

It is also the supervisor’s responsibility to develop all the potential leaders that work under him/her so that the company can identify and place all the employees who demonstrate that they have the interest and yes abilities to be promoted or transferred to better positions.

Self-employment

Self-employment is the individual pursuit of capitalism. To be self-employed, an individual is normally highly skilled in a trade or has a niche product or service for their local community. With the creation of the Internet the ability for an individual to become self-employed has increased dramatically. The amount of money spent on self-help, self-improvement and training materials has reached the billions in the past decade.

Self-employed people can also be referred to as a person who works for himself/herself instead of an employer, but drawing income from a trade or business that they operate personally.

To be self-employed is not the same as being a business owner: A business owner is not required to be hands-on with the day-to-day operations of his or her company, while a self-employed person has to utilize a very hands-on approach in order to survive.

Self-employment law in the United States

Taxation in the US

In the United States, a person is considered self-employed for tax purposes if that person is running a business as a sole proprietorship, independent contractor, as a member of a partnership, or as a member of a limited liability company that does not elect to be treated as a corporation. In addition to income taxes, these individuals must pay Social Security and Medicare taxes in the form of a SECA (Self-Employment Contributions Act) tax.

The self-employment tax in the United States is currently set at 15.30% which is the equivalent of the combined contributions of the employee and employer under the FICA tax. The rate consists of two parts: 12.4% for social security and 2.9% for Medicare. The social security portion of the self-employment tax only applies to the first $97,500 of income for the 2007 tax year. There is no limit to the amount that is taxable under the 2.9% Medicare portion of the self-employment tax.

Half of the hypothetical self-employment tax is allowed as a deduction against self-employment income so only 92.35% of the self-employment income is taxable at 15.30%, an effective tax rate of about 14.13%. However, this benefit disappears if self-employment income exceeds $105,577, since the entire applicable amount of $97,500 will be taxed at 15.30%.

Self-employed persons are sometimes eligible for more deductions than an ordinary employee. Travel, uniforms, computer equipment, cell phones, etc., can be deducted as legitimate business expenses. However, again, the advice of an expert may be worth the money it costs.

Self-employed persons report their business income or loss on Schedule C of IRS Form 1040 and calculate the self-employment tax on Schedule SE of IRS Form 1040. Estimated taxes must be paid quarterly using form 1040-ES if estimated tax liability exceeds $1,000.

Many self-employed individuals choose to establish a corporate entity, in order to have more control over their tax liability. The advantage of a corporate structure is the ability to pay out profits as salary, which is subject to FICA tax, and dividends (called "distributions"), which are not subject to FICA tax. For example, if the business owner paid out 100% of profits to herself as a dividend, she could avoid approximately $14,900 in FICA taxes (both the employee and employer portions) on $100,000 in profits. However, since dividends are subject to double taxation at the corporate and personal level, it is advisable to seek professional tax advice on the most favorable distribution of profits.

Self-employed 401k retirement account

Self-employed workers cannot contribute to a 401k plan of the type with which most people are familiar. However, there are various vehicles available to self-employed individuals to save for retirement. Many set up a Simplified Employee Pension Plan (SEP) IRA, which allows them to contribute up to 25% of their income, up to $44,000 (2006) per year. There is also a vehicle called the Self-Employed 401k or SE 401k for self-employed people. The contribution limits vary slightly depending on how your business is organized but are generally higher than the other types of plans.

Self-employment law in the United Kingdom

A self-employed person in the United Kingdom can operate as a sole trader or as an incorporated limited liability company. It is also possible for someone to form a business that is run only part-time or concurrently while holding down a full time job. This form of employment, while popular, does come with several legal responsibilities. When working from home clearance is required from the local authority to use part of the home as business premises. Should the business hold records of customers or suppliers in any electronic form it is required to register with the Data Protection Registrar. Other legal responsibilities include statutory public liability insurance cover, modifying premises to be disabled friendly, and the proper recording and accounting of financial transactions. Free advice on the range of responsibilities is available from government operated Business Link centres.

Taxation in the UK

A self-employed person may be subject to more taxes than an average employee. In addition to both the employee and employer National Insurance contributions, there may be VAT, business rates and other taxes payable to central and local governments.

Both in the US and the UK governments are cracking down on disguised employment, often described as the pretence of a contractual intra-business relationship to hide what is otherwise a simple employer-employee relationship.

Temporary work

Temporary work or temporary employment refers to a situation where the employee is expected to leave the employer within a certain period of time. Temporary employees are sometimes called "contractual" or "seasonal" or "freelance" or "temps." Agricultural workers are often temporarily employed for harvesting. In some instances, temporary professional employees (particularly in the white collar fields, such as law, engineering, and accounting) even refer to themselves as "consultants." This is not to be confused with management consultants who are salaried employees of major consulting firms (e.g. McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group).

They may work full-time or part-time, depending on the individual case. In some instances, they are given benefits (such as health insurance), but usually the best treatment is reserved for the permanent employees. It is important to note that not all temporary employees find jobs through a temporary Employment agency. For example, a person can simply apply at a local park for seasonal jobs.

A temporary work agency, or temp agency or temporary staffing firm finds and retains workers. Other companies, in need of short-term workers, contract with the temp agency to send temporary workers, or temps, on assignment to work at the other companies. Temporary employees are also used in work that has a cyclical nature that requires frequent adjustment of staffing levels.

Temporary agencies job

A temporary agency may be distinct from a recruitment firm, which seeks to place permanent employees, but there is often a large overlap: a permanent employee may start out as a "try-before-you-buy" trial temporary worker.

Many temporary agencies specialize in a particular profession or field of business, such as general industrial labor, accounting, health care, technical or secretarial. Some even "specialize" in odd-jobs. Because of the added level of communication between the employer (worksite) and the temporary agency and then finally to the agency's employee these short-term roles can be miscommunicated and cancelled on a whim. The employer (worksite) is paying for a service and can decide to stop that service (labor/skills) at any time.

A temporary agency may have a standard set of tests to judge the competence of the secretarial or clerical skills of an applicant. An applicant is hired based on their scores on these tests, and is placed into a database. Companies or individuals looking to hire someone temporarily contact the agency and describe the skill set they are seeking. A temporary employee is then found in the database and is contacted to see if they would be interested in taking the assignment.

Temporary workers job

When a temporary employee agrees to take on an assignment, he or she receives instructions pertaining to the job. Information is provided on the correct attire to wear, hours of work, the wage to be paid, and who to report to upon arriving. If a temporary employee arrives at a job assignment and is asked to perform duties not described to him or her when accepting the job, he or she is expected to call the agency and speak with a representative. If he or she then chooses not to continue on the assignment based on these discrepancies, they will most likely be subject to loss of pay and will undermine their chances of job opportunities. However, some agencies will guarantee an employee a certain number of hours pay if, once the temporary employee arrives, there is no work or the work isn't as described. Most agencies will not require an employee to continue work if the discrepancies are enough to make it difficult for the employee to actually do the work.

It is up to the temporary employee to keep in constant contact with the agency when not currently working on an assignment; by letting the agency know that they are available to work they are given priority over those who may be in the agency database who have not made it clear that they are ready and willing to take an assignment. A temporary agency employee is the exclusive employee of the agency, not of the company in which they are placed (although subject to legal dispute). The temporary employee is bound by the rules and regulations of their direct employer, even if they contrast with those of the company in which they are placed. For example, if a temporary employee is asked by the company in which they are placed to lift a heavy box, they may respond "I am sorry, my agency does not allow me to perform that task. I wish I could help. Please feel free to contact my supervisor there for more information."

Temporary employees are in a constant state of employment flux because they are never guaranteed consistent employment, nor are they assured of a solid start or finish date for their assignment. A temporary employee's assignment can be ended at any time, even in the middle of its projected time frame, without explanation. This causes potential turbulence in cases of discrimination, which is usually handled internally between the employee and the agency.

Permatemp job

The classic permatemp situation results when a worker classified as "temporary" works alongside regular employees doing similar work for a long period. By claiming that the employee is only temporary, the worksite company avoids paying for benefits and employer taxes. Benefits and taxes, such as social security, typically are 33% of the employee's pay. For example, if you made 30k per year as a permanent employee (aka with benefits), approximately 10k would be paid for your health insurance, retirement, employer payroll taxes, etc (in some states sales tax is even paid by the worksite, as the temporary employee's "labor" is considered a sold good). Typically at least that 10k is paid to the temporary agency, who provides little to no benefits to their employee. The worksite company also tangentially benefits because it has no responsibility to the employee permatemp employees can be fired or laid off at any time, as they have no career service protection or seniority. Temporary employees are often ineligible to apply for jobs open to regular employees.

Pros and cons

Advantages to those seeking employment from a temp agency are:

Easy hire: Those meeting technical requirements for the type of work are often virtually guaranteed a job without a selection process.

Flexible hours; a choice of which shifts to work; the ability to take off for weekends, holidays, vacations, personal appointments, or for any other reason of choice, or to work on such days for additional pay

Pay rates are often higher than the customary wages in a comparable permanent position

The likelihood of getting fired is lower than in a permanent position, though a client of the agency can make a request for the temporary worker not to return, even for a minor infraction

Drawbacks to temp agencies are as follows:

Many temp agencies do not offer any type of benefits, such as health insurance. Benefits package is usually 30 to 40 percent of a permanent's employee base income.

Temp to hire positions have been known to have high turn over rates.

In some temp agencies, workers are considered self-employed independent contractors, who have a status similar to those running their own businesses.

Reduced liability protection: With independent contractor status, contractors are required to carry liability insurance or else can be held accountable in a negligence lawsuit when an error results in damage. Lack of reference: Many employers of experienced job positions do not consider work done for a temporary agency as sufficient on a resume.

Controversies

Temp agencies have been involved in some legal controversies, often pertaining to the trust of workers who have been screened little if at all for a position requiring high security clearance.

For example, in 2004, prior to the election some voter registration applications for Democrats were found to be discarded in a trash bin outside of the office. According to the local board of elections, a temp agency was hired to process these applications.

Intern

An intern or stagiaire is one who works in a temporary position with an emphasis on on-the-job training rather than merely employment, making it similar to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or university students, but they can also be high school students or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. Student internships provide opportunities for students to gain experience in their field, determine if they have an interest in a particular career, create a network of contacts, or gain school credit. Internships provide the employers with cheap or free labor for (typically) low-level tasks (stereotypically including fetching coffee for the office), and also the prospect of interns returning to the company after completing their education and requiring little or no training.

An internship may be either paid, unpaid or partially paid (in the form of a stipend). Paid internships are most common in the medical,architecture science, engineering, law, business (especially accounting and finance), technology and advertising fields. Internships in non-profit organization such as charities and think tanks are often unpaid, volunteer positions. Internships may be part-time or full-time; typically they are part-time during the university year and full-time in the summer, and they typically last 6-12 weeks, but can be shorter or longer. The act of job shadowing may also constitute as interning.

Internship positions are available from businesses, government departments, non-profit groups and organizations. Due to strict labor laws, European internships, though mostly unpaid, are popular among non-Europeans to gain international exposure on one's resume and for foreign language improvement.

Types of internships

An intern type means doing internship in an organization or in specific subject of study. Internships exist in various industries and settings. Here are two primary types of internships that exist in the United States.

Work experience internship: Most often this will be in the second or third year of the school period. The placement can be from 2 months to sometimes even one full school year. During this period the student is supposed to use the things he/she has learned in school and put it in practice. This way the student gets work experience in their field of study. The gained experience will be helpful to finish up the last year of the study.

Research internship (graduation) or dissertation internship: This is mostly done by students that are in their last year. With this kind of internship a student does research for a particular company. The company can have something that they feel like they need to improve, or the student can choose a topic within the company themselves. The results of the research study will be put in a report and often will have to be presented.

Fee-based internship programs

An intern type can be an internship in a organization or in specific subject of study. Some companies will find and place students in internships for a fee. What is included in fee-based programs vary by company. Overall, the advantages are that they provide internship placement at a reputable company, provide controlled housing in a new city, mentorship and support throughout the summer, networking, weekend activities in some programs, academic credit and other benefits. Disadvantages to fee-based programs include the restriction of internship opportunities to wealthy students who can afford paying thousands of dollars to work for little or no wages, while at the same time improving their chances of professional work after graduation.

International student internships

Many students do internships in a different country to get international experience and learn an extra language. The meaning of an internship can be different around the globe.

Spain

At Spanish universities it is uncommon to do an internship during the education period. The real working experiment for them starts when they are done with their study. However, Spanish companies are getting more used to having students doing an internship at their company nowadays. Mostly these are international students from other European countries. Spain is a popular country for students to go to for a short period of time to do an internship. A lot of times students want to learn Spanish, and this is a perfect opportunity for them to do so. Another reason to go to Spain for an internship could be the opportunity to increase their cultural awareness or to experience working in an international setting. Students found that it is hard to get in contact with most Spanish Businesses. The best way to find a good company to work at will be with the help of a placement organization. Internships in Spain are almost never paid. This because companies have to put time and effort in training the student, and it will always only be for a short period of time.

Italy

Internships (commonly referred to with the french term "stage") are being used by companies more often. Usually, students have to participate in at least one when still at university, but also after graduating. It is common, especially among Italians, but also among foreign students. Usually internships in Italy are not paid. This is a real problem for young graduates, since companies often take stagiare just to save money, not guaranteeing a position after the work experience has finished. Sometimes there isn't a real effort to train them. Students have to be very careful when choosing a company for an internship.

UK, Canada and Australia

Internships are often referred to as 'sandwich placements' in the UK and are validated work experienced opportunity as part of a degree program. University staff give students access to vacancies and students apply direct to employers. Some universities hold fairs and exhibitions to encourage students to consider the option and to enable students to meet potential employers. In the modern labor market graduates with work experience in the form of sandwich placements are not only deemed more desirable to employers but also research has demonstrated they attain higher level degree classifications than those graduates without such experience.

In these countries they have split the types of internship in unpaid or paid. The unpaid internship are mostly the ones that are chosen by students who are either still in school and doing an internship as part of the requirements of school or who have just left school. The purpose of these internships are to get understanding about how work is conducted in the English-speaking world and to improve one's English. Another plus is to learn about work ethic and to experience cultural diversity. The paid internship is mostly for people that want to come to these countries to improve their English. The job for them is not something that they are specialized in, but see it as something that will give them enough money to support their living in these countries.

Germany

In Germany there are different kinds of internships as well. As in most other countries, most students take their internship during the third or fourth year of their degree. One of the biggest differences to other countries is that most internships are paid. The average pay is 400 a month because jobs under 400 are free of social contributions. In some fields of study it is common to write the final thesis in a company. Another type of internship has emerged, the post graduation internship. The high unemployment in Germany during the last years has made it hard for people to find the right job, especially for people that have just graduated and lack work experience. Because of this, many offer to do an internship at their preferred place of employment while earning very little, in the hope of landing a job there in the future.

France

At the French universities it is also most common to do an internship, in France called stage, during the third or fourth year of your studies. The duration of the internships varies from 2 to 6 months, but very seldom longer than that. In France it is also becoming more popular to do an internship after one has finished studying. Mostly for students that did not get the chance to do an internship during their study career, and try to gain some working experience this way. Most times with the thought of getting hired after the internship period. An internship in France is also popular for international students. The number one reason to do an internship in France is to learn the language. A lot of French companies seem to be open to students from different countries. It is a big plus for companies to have employees who speak multiple languages.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands it is also common to do an internship during college. Just like in France it is called stage. Students will go intern for approximately 5 months. Companies are not obligated to pay the student, so sometimes small companies won't pay anything. The normal stage compensation rate in Holland is around 300.

Denmark

It is not seen as appropriate to work without pay unless it is done as part of a work-trial where a person is tested by the authorities as part of plan to get the individual back into the workspace. The company is then compensated and the intern gets welfare during this period, which normally lasts about three months. The Trade Unions monitor this area very thoroughly so an intern cannot result in the loss of a paid job.

A new system of qualification for higher education imposed by the Department of Education does punish those students who take a period off to work for charity.

Volunteer

Volunteers fit new windows at The Sumac Centre in Nottingham, UKA volunteer is someone who works for a community or for the benefit of environment primarily because they choose to do so. The word comes from Latin, and can be translated as "will" (as in doing something out of ones own free will). Many serve through a non-profit organization – sometimes referred to as formal volunteering, but a significant number also serve less formally, either individually or as part of a group.

A volunteer may or may not get paid or receive compensation for services rendered. General Andrew Jackson's Tennessee Volunteers were paid by the General personally, although he did seek reimbursement at Washington for his expenditures.

Volunteering comes in many forms: serving food at the local homeless shelter, providing computer technical support to a non-profit organization, acting in a leadership capacity on a charitable organization's board of directors or coordinating the emergency response in the case of a disaster. Around the world volunteer centers exist to support the voluntary sector and make a difference in the communities that they serve.