My Recruiting Blog

A new round of funding will help support Raleigh medical jobs that focus on children.

The State of North Carolina recently announced that it will receive a $9.3 million grant through the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act to develop technology that tracks and measures quality of care for children.

The NC Department of Health and Human Services, North Carolina Pediatric Society, and NC Office of Rural Health and Community Care worked together to secure the grant.

"This competitive grant is vital to ensuring that children in our state are healthy and ready to learn," Gov. Bev Perdue said. "This will help pediatric offices throughout the state make better use of technology so we can be sure that children, those with special needs in particular, are receiving the care they need."

Only 10 lead states received part of the $100 million in funding from CHIPRA. North Carolina plans to apply its funding toward three initiatives for youth who receive healthcare through NC Medicaid or N.C. Health Choice for Children.

Those initiatives include:

• Improve coordinated care for Children with Special Health Care Needs, focusing on children with developmental, behavioral and mental-health disorders. The effort will help narrow the gaps and disparities that special-needs children frequently encounter.
• Implement electronic health records for children.
• Implement and establish measures to increase the quality of care for children. Funding will be given to Community Care of North Carolina to create and evaluate methods for collecting and reporting data on health indicators specific to children.

"This will be a great opportunity for us to truly implement medical home standards and to coordinate care for kids, especially the ones who have special needs," Dr. Marian Earls, president of the N.C. Pediatric Society, said. "The focus now is on shifting to electronic patient records, and to integrate quality into practice, and this grant will help us move in that direction."

Labels: Raleigh medical jobs

A new Web site will make it easier for job seekers to conduct personal background checks and discover any potential problems before a potential employer does.

TransparentMe, a site that provides individuals' public records, allows candidates to perform an online personal background check in days or minutes, revealing everything from negative information to whether or not their identity has been compromised.

"In today's hyper-competitive job market, a background check can make the difference between landing a dream job or being cast aside in favor of someone else," Jason B. Morris, co-founder and principal of TransparentMe, said. "TransparentMe equips a job seeker with information so they can be proactive with a potential employer instead of defensive."

The site offers three service levels, including a basic package for $19.95, an enhanced package for $34.95 and a comprehensive package for $69.95. Basic level results are available within minutes, while enhanced and comprehensive level results are available in one to four days.

All three levels provide:

• Identity verification - This search conducts a social security number trace, ensuring that an individual's number isn't being used by anyone else. The trace also provides a history of addresses where a customer has applied for credit. Most employers use this type of search as a roadmap to determine which court jurisdictions should be researched for criminal records and what names to check.
• National criminal records database search - A search of databases that comprise millions of records from various sources in the United States. These records are obtained by commercial vendors from several different sources including: county court houses, state departments of incarceration, state record repositories, probation departments and townships.
• National sex offender registry search - This multi-state database search provides sex offender case information in an easy-to-read report. Extensive search capabilities will check registered sex offender data sources nationwide, including: bureaus of investigation, departments of law enforcement, departments of corrections, departments of justice, departments of public safety, sheriff's departments, state attorney general's offices and state police agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The enhanced level package additionally includes:

• Current county of residence criminal records search - An on-site manual search of the superior, upper, lower, and/or municipal court records in the user's current county of residence. A national network of professional court researchers covers the more than 3,500 county court jurisdictions and will indicate if a subject has a felony, misdemeanor and possibly an infraction filing within the last seven years or longer.
• Homeland Security search - This security check cross-references the user's name against more than 14 worldwide known terrorist and fugitive databases that include individuals, organizations and companies considered a threat to global and national security. The Homeland Security check database is updated daily as various lists are modified.

The comprehensive level package includes all five services listed above and allows users to conduct a criminal records search in up to five counties throughout the country.

Individuals also can purchase add-on services, such as employment verifications, education verifications, reference interviews and professional license verifications.

"More companies than ever are conducting background checks on their job candidates - as many as 85 percent of all employers," Nick Fishman, co-founder and principal of TransparentMe, said. "Also, identity theft is forcing candidates to find out the hard way that their character and personal information has been tainted. TransparentMe arms people with knowledge so they can avoid unpleasant surprises that might impact their future career."

The economic downturn caused many people to return to school, whether to gain more education for their current job or to pursue a new career path altogether. Once you complete your second round of schooling, using a resume builder can help you market both your educational and employment experience.

A good resume builder will allow you to either upload an existing resume and tailor it to your needs or start from scratch. Either option provides a great way for you to create the perfect marketing tool for your job search.

Here are five tips to keep in mind when using a resume builder, as compiled by FastWeb:

1. Highlight important dates - Many job seekers are afraid to include graduation or employment dates in their resume for fear that employers will automatically reject older candidates or those with significant time gaps. It's more likely that employers will be suspicious if you eliminate important dates. It's better to be honest up front than to leave employers thinking you have something to hide.
2. Use your resume as a marketing document - Instead of listing your entire career history, research the company you're applying to and feature what you can do for them in the future, instead of what you've done in the past.
3. Show employers how your past career experience will benefit them - Researching the company also can help you understand where it's going and what it's looking for, allowing you to highlight your experience in those areas. Keep in mind that the average person spends only seven seconds scanning a resume, so make sure what you have to offer stands out.
4. Consider using a functional resume - This type of resume, which often has a profile section at the top, offers you the chance to showcase your skills instead of your experience. Even more importantly, you can show how your style will fit in with the culture of the organization.
5. Have an "experience" section instead of an "employment" section - This is especially helpful if you think your previous work experience is irrelevant to the job you're seeking. An experience section also can include internships, class projects and independent study.

Labels: Resume builder

Anyone in the midst of a job search received some good news today.

The U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the national unemployment rate declined from 10 percent to 9.7 percent during January. However, another 20,000 jobs were lost during the month.

The total number of unemployed people decreased to 14.8 million during January. Teenagers saw the biggest unemployment rate, at 26.4 percent, followed by blacks at 16.5 percent, Hispanics at 12.6 percent, adult men at 10 percent, Whites at 8.7 percent, Asians at 8.4 percent and adult women at 7.9 percent.

Gulf War era II veterans had an unemployment rate of 12.6 percent, while non-veterans had a rate of 10.4 percent. People with a disability had a 15.2 percent unemployment rate, compared with 10.4 percent for those with no disability. Foreign-born people had an unemployment rate of 11.8 percent, while native-born people had a 10.3 percent rate.

The construction industry lost 75,000 jobs during January, with nonresidential specialty trade contractors losing 48,000 workers, accounting for the majority of the decline. Construction industry employment has declined by 1.9 million workers since December 2007.

Employment in transportation and warehousing decreased by 19,000 workers, mainly due to a 23,000 job loss among couriers and messengers.

After several months of severe declines, employment in the manufacturing industry only dropped by 11,000 workers, mainly because of 23,000 job gains in motor vehicles and parts, and 6,000 job gains in plastics and rubber products.

Temporary help services increased by 52,000 jobs, and has added 247,000 jobs since reaching a low point during September 2009. Retail trade employment increased by 42,000 jobs, mainly due to a 14,000 job gain among food stores, a 13,000 job gain among clothing stores and a 10,000 job gain among general merchandise retailers.

Employment in the federal government increased by 33,000 jobs, including 9,000 temporary positions for the 2010 Census. However, more jobs were lost in state and local governments. Healthcare employment also continued to increase, with ambulatory healthcare services adding 15,000 job over the month.

Labels: Job Search

Those looking for Dallas teaching jobs have hundreds of opportunities to choose from.

The Dallas area is home to 337 public schools, 89 private schools and 38 colleges, according to Wikipedia. Teachers in the area have a low unemployment rate and can expect to be paid relatively well.

The Dallas-Plano-Irving area's education and health services industry employed 255,900 workers during December 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is up from 254,600 workers during November and a 9.4 percent increase from December 2008.

According to Salary.com, the average pay for a public school teacher in Dallas is between $44,292 per year and $58,836 per year.

The majority of public elementary and secondary schools in the city are operated by the Dallas Independent School District, which is the 12th-largest school district in the country, with an enrollment of more than 161,000 students.

Several of the district's schools are well-known. During 2006, 2007 and 2009, Newsweek named the School for the Talented and Gifted the best school in the country. The School of Science and Engineering Magnet was named eighth on that list during 2006 and second during 2007. Other schools named to the list include: Hillcrest, W. T. White, and Woodrow Wilson high schools.

Most school districts in Dallas County, including DISD, are served by Dallas County Schools, a governmental agency that provides busing and other transportation services, access to a media library, technology services, ties to local organizations for education and community integration, and staff development programs.

There also are many private schools throughout the Dallas area.

When it comes to higher-education, there are many notable institutions in the area. Dallas County Community College District serves as the main two-year community college in the county. The district has seven campuses, with branches in Dallas and the surrounding suburbs.

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, which is part of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and one of the largest grouping of medical facilities in the world, also is located in Dallas. The school is extremely selective, admitting only about 200 students per year and enrolling 3,255 postgraduates.

The city also is home to the University of North Texas at Dallas, which became the first public university in the city in 2009.

There are many private higher-education institutions in the city, including two branches of Texas Woman's University, one that specializes in nursing and one that specializes in occupational therapy and physical therapy.

Other private schools in the city include: Dallas Baptist University, with an enrollment of more than 5,100 students; Paul Quinn College, a historically black college with an enrollment of about 3,000 undergrads; Criswell College, a Biblical and Christian subject school with an enrollment of about 400 students; and Dallas Theological Seminary, an evangelical school with about 2,000 graduate students.

Other colleges and universities near Dallas include:

• Dallas Hall at Dedman College at Southern Methodist University
• Southern Methodist University
• The University of Dallas
• The University of North Texas
• The University of Texas at Arlington
• Dallas Christian College
• Texas Christian University
• Texas Wesleyan University
• University of North Texas Health Science Center
• Austin College
• Texas A&M University
• Navarro College

Labels: Dallas teaching jobs