I thought I'd take a moment to share an inspirational video for entrepreneurs, inventors, and anyone facing tough obstacles along the path of realizing your dreams.

Check out this short video about about a guy who is chasing the American Dream, but facing difficulty along the way.  Despite the hardships, this guy has pledged to never give up, and embraces  hard work, determination, and true grit.

Take comfort that we're all in this together, and stay strong!
 

Watch the Quick, 4 Minute Video:

jump start your job search…

You know who has the best jobs in the US? The meteorologists. I mean these guys knew what they were doing, and get paid a salary most of us can only dream about. I’m not putting down Al Roker or Bill Evans or even that semi-pro Valentina Avanzi. (Yummy) But you have to admit it, their job security looks way better than ours, and they’re allowed to be wrong.  

Absolute genius! 

So what can you do if you’re not blue screen material, and you’ve lost your job, or need to find a new career?

Be proactive because it’s job hunting season!

Yes, we’ve been watching it on TV, and have read the news articles published on all the top websites about the wretched economy, the dwindling job market, and how the Canadian Dollar is catching up to the Good ol’ American Greenback. (I’m kidding, sort of) but it’s enough to make you invite Jack, Jim, and Johnnie Walker over for a week long liquid lobotomy.

Before you do though, we want you to put your resume out there. Seriously. Even if you like the job you have, it doesn’t hurt to be available. 
 

Here are Three Reasons Why Getting Your Resume Out There is a Good Idea:
 

1. Company’s are taking this year to trim back their talent budgets, even if they don’t need to. Not to say they’re holding back but in many industries, salaries have been frozen and promotions are few and far between. Makes great strategic sense if you’re the CFO looking to keep a cushion in your PnL sheets, but as an employee, there’s no incentive.

    

2. It’s good to know the market, and the best way is to leave a little bait out there. Your resume can tell you how much you might be worth in the job hunting world.

    

3. And our last reason – networking. You build it, it’ll take care of you. Simple.

    

Spend some time on these sites we’ve listed and see what’s your flavor.

1.  Search for jobs in your area on SnagAJob.com  

2.  Executive Career Opportunies: $80,000 to $500,000+

3.  Risesmart – this is a unique job board that offers personal HR specialists

4.  Climber.com: Dating for Jobs. Find the company and career that fits you the best.

Use common sense: the more sites you’re on, the more chances you’ve got. Then once you’ve pimped yourself to the business world, pour yourself a Johnnie W. on ice and start Googling: "Valentina."

Sip. Click. Enjoy!

Where You’ll Find Jobs that Pay $100k+

Review by John White

RiseSmart.com is quite a bit different from the major job boards primarily because REAL people are behind the operations at RiseSmart. You’ll have your own RiseSmart Concierge.  RiseSmart features teams of specially trained human resource professionals that are at your service. These HR pros will help and guide you along your path to a new job by reviewing your resume, site profile, and job preferences.  Your RiseSmart concierge will search for you from nearly a million jobs that pay over $100K. Your Concierge uses the latest tools for filtering, discovering, and matching you with the very best opportunities and best fit available.

So you want a new job, but you don’t want to go it alone?  Well, buddy, it’s time to polish up that resume, and give RiseSmart.com a look.

What Makes RiseSmart.com So Special?

Convenience

Well, if you value your time as much as you value elastic pants on Thanksgiving, and if your time is more pressed than your dress shirts, you might want to consider giving RiseSmart.com a try.

RiseSmart is ALL About Saving Job Seekers Time, And Searching More Efficiently.

RiseSmart is a job site that offers a totally kick-ass and best-in-class Concierge Service for job seekers who are searching for (or dreaming of) positions in the 100k+ salary range. Once a job seeker registers at RiseSmart, they fill out their profile and enter important job preference stuff in their RiseSmart Search Profile, then their concierge steps up to the plate and goes to work.

The job-seekers RiseSmart Concierge will review their profile and begin a in-depth and careful search of job openings in the job preference area that the job seeker specified. You can kick back and look for a high-paying big-shot job without having to do all that tedious work yourself!

The RiseSmart Concierge Service is the most convenient job board I’ve tested.  Having a full-time concierge match you up with the best fit jobs is worth its wait in gold.

I would give RiseSmart a perfect 5 out of 5 Rating for convenience, except that I thought the registration and profile information fields felt a little more lengthy than other job sites.  This is likely because there are human beings using the information to provide a service to the job seeker, but it did make getting into the job search a little more tedious than I expected.
 

Features

I.  RiseSmart Concierge Service

The Concierge Service is really the most unique way worth mentioning that RiseSmart differs from all the other job search boards. When the job-seeker completes their profile, it is passed along to their Concierge, a real-live, honest-to-goodness person.  The conceierge will review the profile in order to get a grip on what type of job the job seeker is searching for, and what type of jobs are realistic for the applicant to expect to fill.  With that background information in hand, the Concierge will sort through the hundreds of job opportunities to find the ones that match the job seeker’s background.

The Concierge service welcomes input, comments, suggestions, and feedback on the jobs that are being sent to their inbox, because it will help them better customize their future searches.

II.  RiseSmart Resume Writing Service

Job applicants may submit their resume to RiseSmart.com to be evaluated by a seasoned human resources professional, and RiseSmart also has Professional Resume Writers who can help update  or write resumes that are in need of help.

RiseSmart offers free resume critiques done by a professional RiseSmart writer.

III.  Salary Calculator

PayScale, RiseSmart’s partner, offers their proprietary salary calculator for free to get an idea of what the salary range is for the job you currently toil away at, or the new gig that you are interested in pursuing. For a small fee, you may also get a more detailed report based on your job title, location, education, skills and background experience.

RiseSmart.com offers unique, human powered features that cannot be found on any other job board.

Value

The most important question for job seekers is whether they want to cough up the dough to find a job.  When you’re unemployed $43.95 a month may seem like a lot of green just for someone to screen job listings for you. But compared to other $100k+ job boards, such as TheLadders that charge close to $50/month, RiseSmart offers quite a bargain.  The human powered concierge service, combined with resume critiques, and a salary calculator makes RiseSmart.com quite a good deal.

Not sure RiseSmart.com is worth $43.95?  No problem, buddy.  They offer a free trial to help you decide.

It truly is a risk-free, no obligation trial. If you don’t like the service, cancel it, and you’re charged nothing.

Overall, RiseSmart.com is worth a try. 

Click Here for a RiseSmart – FREE Trial