Tough economic times are forcing some individuals to pursue a job search after an extended hiatus.  Vandover President, Margery Marshall, offered viewers of KMOV’s Great Day St. Louis some suggestions and strategies for embarking on a new job search and returning to the workforce. View the interview here.

Vandover will participate in a career panel hosted by local NBC affiliate KSDK on Monday, November 10 from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Viewers can call 314.969.8655 or visit www.ksdk.com for a live web chat to ask career and job transition questions. The panel is free and open to everyone.

Veterans and Baby Boomers, who sometimes get lumped into one category when people talk about the multigenerational workplace, represent employees who were born before 1964. Although there are quibbles over exact dates, Veterans (or Traditionalists) include workers born by the end of World War II, while Baby Boomers are – you guessed it – the product of the famous postwar baby boom that spurred population growth worldwide.

But although these two groups make up the older end of the current workplace spectrum, this doesn’t mean they are identical. Just as it can be easy to see the differences between these two generations and the two younger generations in today’s workplace, at one time during the 1960s and 1970s, these two groups were the younger generations themselves – and they have their differences, too.

Each year, more than 600,000 new businesses are started in the US, according to the Small Business Administration.  Many of these businesses are the result of a transition in the career of the entrepreneur, whether that is a spouse’s relocation, a downsizing, or an innate desire to change paths.  Vandover, a leading provider of career management and relocation assistance, coaches entrepreneurs and recently announced that senior consultant Jim Wojtak will present on this issue at the 2008 International Career Development Conference in Los Angeles in November.

According to a recent survey by Workforce.com, overseas assignments of less than one year nearly tripled from 10% to 27% during the past seven years.  With that increase comes a greater need for innovative products and services to support the employee – and the family – facing a global or domestic short term assignment, relocation, or split family situation.  Vandover, a premier provider of global relocation and transition assistance, recently announced strategic planning initiatives to support this growing need, and has hired Karen Sztencel to lead the efforts.

Vandover, a leading provider of career management and relocation transition assistance, announced today the promotion of Linda Russell to Manager of Marketing and Communication. In this role, Russell will continue to be a central member of Vandover’s marketing team with a central focus on overseeing product development, leading internal communications efforts, and spearheading corporate website enhancements.

The American workplace at the end of the twenty-first century's first decade is brimming with a diverse group of workers. In particular, American employees are diverse partially because they represent a total of four generations between them. If you think about it for a moment, that's pretty amazing in and of itself, to have such a wide span of experience represented in the workplace.

Finding job listings online might just be the easy part: whether you’re checking the online version of your local newspaper, looking through Craigslist, or visiting any of the popular job boards you’ve seen mentioned on television or in magazines, you’re likely to find a wide array of job possibilities. (Of course, whether they’re relevant to you may be another matter.)

In 2007, Ernst & Young’s Mergers and Acquisitions Resources Index showed that there has been a steady increase in corporate acquisitions since 2004. In 2004, there were 30,000 acquisitions worldwide – or about one transaction every 18 minutes (Cartwright, S., & Shoenberg, R., “Thirty Years of Mergers and Acquisitions Research: Recent Advances and Future Opportunities,” British Journal of Management, 17, 1, 1-5, 2006.)

If your company is going through a merger or acquisition, and particularly if your firm is the one being acquired, you may be concerned about how this business change will affect your job.

At the midpoint of the twentieth century, most women’s careers revolved around raising their children and caring for their homes. While that’s still an option for many women, things have changed a bit in the last few decades: today, at least 63% of American women work in paid employment outside the home, and 54% of women hold full-time jobs.

Not too long ago, flexible work arrangements seemed to be the purview of moms juggling family and work needs, or reentering the workplace after time spent raising children. Part-time options, job sharing, telecommuting – these have long been some of the most popular flexible work arrangements for employees.

In our global résumé series, we offered a brief look at current standards in Europe, Asia, and Australia, with consideration to how those compare with American résumés. As we explored CV/résumé standards around the world, beyond the countries discussed previously, one thing that struck us was that résumé expectations around the world are becoming a bit more uniform.

Yes, in Australia, it’s called a “résumé,” rather than CV. And no, there’s nothing like the Japanese rirekisho we discussed recently: when it comes to job searching in Oz, you’ll probably find that transitioning your résumé to an acceptable Australian format won’t take much at all! Depending on your work experience, it may need to be a bit longer than your American-style document, but the general principles are the same as an U.S. résumé. And, as in many other countries, the aim of an Australian résumé should be to get you an interview.

The ubiquitous Cleaver family (of Leave it to Beaver fame) is becoming more and more of a minority in 21st-century America. And move over, Donna Reed: the American family is changing faster than ever. Americans now embrace a wider variety of family arrangements than ever before. Heterosexual marriage is no longer the only acceptable lifestyle choice, although the 2000 Census revealed that nearly 52% of Americans still pursue this option. Your own company likely reflects the changing face of the American family.

Our previous entries in this series have discussed the differences between a résumé and a CV, and have highlighted how these documents are used in U.S. and in a couple of European countries. On the other side of the world, however, Japanese employers expect a standardized type of job application document that is a bit unlike a western-style CV or résumé.

The July 2008 edition of St. Louis CEO magazine includes an article written by Vandover CEO Mary Quigg. In “Continental Adjustment,” Quigg highlights the importance of employee satisfaction to making international work assignments successful.

Vandover President Margery Marshall reflects on her first six months as company president and discusses key objectives for the remainder of the year and beyond. Click here for the complete PDF report.

One of the biggest challenges to job hunting in another country can be language. For example, if you’re target country is Spain, consider how adept your Spanish language skills are. For that matter, keep in mind that businesses in a country may conduct affairs in not just one, but two or more languages. In Spain, some regions of the country use Catalan – although you could likely get by on Spanish for awhile.

This blog entry is part of Vandover’s ongoing series of global résumé trends. More countries coming soon!

You may think you know how to write your résumé, but if you move beyond the U.S., you’ll probably start to notice that résumés look a little different elsewhere in the world. As we mentioned previously, you may not even see the word “résumé” listed anywhere in a job description for a position outside the U.S. – often, employers elsewhere in the world employ the term “C.V.”, an abbreviation for the Latin “curriculum vitae,” or “life story.” However, this trend is changing. No matter what you call it, the goal is the same: your CV or résumé is the first thing an employer will see about what you can offer them. Regardless of where you go in the world, your résumé/CV should be your best effort to shine and show your abilities.

Previously, we discussed employee retention as a topic very much on employers’ minds these days. The War for Talent, though, also involves employee recruitment: in addition to formulating effective talent retention strategies, you first need to be able to attract the employees that you’ll want to retain for the long-term.

If you’ve spent time in the American job market, you probably know that the “ideal” U.S. job résumé is one page long – and no more than two pages (with very, very rare exceptions). But in other countries, résumés might also include a photograph of yourself, as well as such details as your birth date, marital status, and nationality. In addition, international job ads may not even mention the word “résumé.” Outside of the U.S., “CV” (short for “Curriculum Vitae”) is a more common term.

Vandover consultants tell spouse/partner program participants frequently that a variety of strategies will help create an effective job search. Again and again, Vandover participants will hear their consultant discuss how important networking can be to finding and landing a job.

Vandover President Margery Marshall was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal for an article about the factors to weigh when considering a possible relocation.  You can read the article here.

You’ve got employees you want (or need) to relocate. For your company, it may be a business necessity – either for growth or to reallocate your resources. For your employee, however, it’s a different story: relocating will mean leaving their friends, extended family members, and all the elements of the life they’ve built – all to start over again in the new place. For many people, this is the challenging part of relocation.

Vandover is pleased to announce the promotion of Angela Kaiser to Business Development Coordinator. In this role, Kaiser will be a central member of Vandover’s marketing, business development, and account management teams to serve as an additional direct point of contact for Vandover’s corporate clients and third party partners. This addition to Vandover’s team further ensures personal, prompt, and proactive attention.

Okay, you know you need a job. But you want something more than a job that just pays the bills: you want a good job, a job where you can thrive, be successful, and enjoy making a contribution every day.

Nearly every day, we hear something in the news about monthly job cuts and unemployment rates in the U.S.  While economists and news anchors highlight job loss concerns, many corporations across the nation – particularly large companies – express that they are more concerned about how to reduce turnover in order to retain employees. A TalentKeepers survey this year revealed that 81% of HR executives from more than 600 U.S. organizations across all major industries listed employee retention as a key priority for 2008.

We all know the cost of absenteeism, but what about presenteeism—when employees are there, but not really there. Think about all the things that might distract you during the workday. Little Johnny’s behavior in school and whether changing schools might help. The spotty Internet service you want to call and complain about. The appointment you need to make with a new doctor.

Spring is in the air, and for many of us, that means it’s time to do a little spring cleaning.  As you’re clearing out your garage and attic, reflect a little on whether or not you should clean some of the digital dirt from your online identity.  Individuals often don’t think twice about posting personal or inappropriate information and photographs (of themselves and others) on blogs, forums, MySpace, Facebook, and other sites.  But they may not realize that this type of information is easily searched by current and potential employers. 

In a world of big-name business scandals not easily forgotten, corporate reputations have come to the forefront of public focus. Allegations of wrongdoings have a ripple effect that reaches beyond the threat of customers and stockholders jumping ship; it can affect an organization’s employee recruitment and retention efforts, too.

But … how do you know?

It’s a question I’ve heard before when I mention to family and friends that I work with a  terrific group of experts.

It would be simple enough for me to say, “I just know,” but there’s more to it than that.