Millions of dollars are spent annually on marketing research by savvy companies aiming to maximize their marketing dollars when showcasing their products and services to their prospective clients. They recognize that to capture the attention of a potential customer and successfully elicit a subsequent purchase, their wares must be targeted specifically to their clients' needs. Unprepared companies that lack thought and consideration in their marketing research and going in blindly with their promotions are often left feeling disappointed at the lack of response their advertising campaigns receive.

When it comes to your job search and 'advertising' campaign, which company are you most like? Do you carefully plan and perform extensive research of your potential 'buyer' enabling you to align your experience with their needs, or do you just go in blindly? Strategic research and revealing the needs of your potential 'buyer' is also crucial for a job seeker. Just like the company not paying much attention to their clients' needs, if the company's needs are neglected by the job seeker, they too may be setting themselves up for disappointment.

If you are not currently performing any real research and are not convinced this process is vital to your job search and interview campaign, here are a few of the key reasons why you should.

Researching a company and job requirements will allow you to:

1.Prepare responses with relevant examples pertinent to the job's requirements avoiding elimination as you will be positioning yourself as a serious contender for the role;

2.Demonstrate a fit with the company culture;

3.Strengthen your understanding of the company's structure;

4.Establish whether or not you believe this position and organization is a good fit for you, to prevent a possible fallout down the track were you to accept the role only to realize that it was not as expected.

Your research should endeavour to pinpoint:

1.The company's products and services;

2.The company's target market;

3.The company's competitors;

4.The interviewer and their role within the company. [If you gained this interview opportunity through one of your network contacts, you may be fortunate enough to gain inside information as to characteristics, mannerisms and communication style of the interviewer];

5.Special projects the company is working on (that perhaps you may have been involved in during previous employment);

6.Whether the organization is a large or small enterprise which can impact on salary negotiation. Large and longer established companies could have a larger revenue base and may be able to offer a larger salary base compared to a smaller/start-up organization;

7.What structure the interview will follow. Whether it will be a panel (who is sitting on the panel); a group panel, involving psychological assessments etc;

8.Allows you to develop powerful questions to ask the interviewer.

To begin your research regime you can try the following resources:

*Company website

*Advertising brochures and other promotional material

*Newspaper articles, professional journals

*Your contacts that may have dealt with, or are dealing with the company including suppliers, customers, existing/former staff

*Business Review Websites

*Company Research Websites, and the list goes on

The information you compile will assist you in preparing relevant situations from your work experience, qualified with past performance and examples. This information should be strategically aligned to the needs of the organization, thus positioning you as the best candidate for the job.

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Finding work as a corporate flight attendant can be an arduous process as, unlike the commercial carriers, most business jets do not require a flight attendant to work onboard an aircraft. Add to the mix that many operators do not opt to use flight attendants and the market tightens up even more. Still, there is work out there for those who aspire to fly on a private jet. Before heading down that road, many companies do require that you have some sort of corporate specific training before you can even apply for a job. Let's take a brief look at various types of training programs available and what they have to offer.

Culinary Training
If you already have a culinary background, you have a leg up in this industry as the food customarily served to passengers on business jets is akin to the food served at five star restaurants. Still, it is important for the successful candidate to know how to order catering, how to accurately plate food, understand what exemplary food service is, know proper food handling and safety techniques, and have a strong background in wine service. Training companies such as Integrity Flight Crews, LLC, The Corporate School of Etiquette, Corporate Flight Attendant Training, and Corporate Flight Solutions can all be beneficial in teaching you food service techniques. Most of these types of classes are one to three days in length.

Basic Indoctrination
If you have never flown before or if you have never flown on a corporate jet, companies offering training geared toward working on a private jet have training programs in place. These programs usually include food service techniques, cabin safety training including security training, emergency evacuation, fire safety, first aid, and ditching. Some programs meet certain FAR requirements including those found under FARs 142, 135, and 91. Training companies such as Corporate Flight Solutions, Alteon Training, LLC, FACTs/AirCare, FlightSafety International, and Beyond and Above Corporate Flight Attendant Training all provide training geared toward helping people find work as a corporate flight attendant. Most of these types of classes last up to five days.

Specialized Training
While not a necessary part of flight attendant training, there are companies offering specialized training that goes beyond the training offered by the atypical corporate flight attendant training program. These programs include Jeff Hare Safety and Survival Systems, S.T.A.R.K., MedAire, as well as a few others. These types of classes are typically for one or two days.

Keep in mind, since the FARs do not specifically require a corporate flight attendant to be onboard an aircraft with less than twenty passenger seats, that no training that you take makes you a certified corporate flight attendant. There is no such designation recognized by the FAA. People take training to learn the skills necessary to work private jet cabins and galleys as well as to give them an edge when it comes to hiring. Most people who call themselves corporate flight attendants pay for their own training which can cost them upwards of $5000. There is no guarantee that you will find employment once you complete your training either.

Finally, not all programs are equal and not all programs offering "corporate flight attendant training" are programs that are recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration or by members of the National Business Aviation Association. Shop around and learn more about what business aviation is all about on reputable forums and web sites including the Corporate Flight Attendant Community.

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You are one of the fortunate few who have not been downsized. However, your current job isn’t exactly fulfilling. Perhaps it isn’t what you enjoy doing. Maybe the hours are too long. Perhaps you are having some conflicts with your supervisor. Your salary may not be on par with average job salaries for the same type and level of position, or not come close to what you feel you are worth. Whatever the reason(s), you have decided to enter into a job search.

So you begin your search. You work hard and spend quite a bit of time searching for your new job. Your efforts are finally rewarded; you have received an offer. Congratulations! Now comes the hard part. Wait a minute! Did I just say “now comes the hard part”? What am I talking about? The hard part is finding your new job, isn’t it?

If you are employed while searching for a job, you must inform your present employer that you have received an offer of employment elsewhere. When you give notice, two things can happen. Either your present employer will accept, with regret, your decision, or they will do whatever they can to persuade you to stay.

Your present employer probably spent a lot of time and money hiring and then training you. They are accustomed to your work habits and abilities, and know you work in harmony with your peers. You have achieved a number of accomplishments during your tenure there. To find your replacement at this juncture would be costly.

Your company will most likely attempt to retain you with a counter-offer.

A counter-offer represents the company’s monetary sense of what it’s going to take to retain you as an employee. It will be fashioned as an offer difficult to refuse, and include a substantial increase in your compensation along with whatever other perks are deemed necessary to win you back. What should you do?

The answer can be found in the reason you went looking elsewhere in the first place. If you accept the counter-offer, you will make more money, but in every other respect, your situation will remain the same. You need to ask yourself if the added income and perks will let you overcome whatever it was that caused your lack of fulfillment. Temporarily, you may be satiated, but you will most likely reach a point where you eventually seek a new position.

While it may be difficult to turn down a counter-offer, it may be your best option. The sooner you find yourself in a more fulfilling position, the more creative and happier you will be.

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Toiling away at our daily grind, we dream of running away to Hawaii or the South Pacific where we can lie on the beach and do absolutely nothing.

Some of us are lucky enough to take a vacation there and temporarily cut ourselves off from the world of responsibilities and demands and worries. We breathe easier, sleep deeper, eat more heartily. It is truly paradise.

It's wonderful because we have a life waiting to be reclaimed when we step off the plane. Our job is waiting for us and we go back to work with renewed energy and zest from our long overdue break.

It is like the first few days of unemployment, that honeymoon period when we find ourselves with extra time on our hands and no reason to get up early or fight the rush hour traffic. But honeymoons are not designed to last forever and it is only when they are over, that reality and the hard work of building a marriage starts.

The obvious stressors of unemployment are widely recognized: financial strains, the drudgery and frequent humiliation of job search, the family disruption, the loss of self-confidence and self-esteem. While none of these can be lightly dismissed, we are going to concentrate for a moment on an area that is often overlooked. It can cause inner turmoil, pain, significantly increase the emotional fallout of layoff, and exacerbate the depression, anxiety, and negative self-view that so often follow.

To feel productive seems to be an inherent human need. We feel good about ourselves when we are contributing -- to our own independence, to our family, to our community. Many of the great discoveries, inventions, and explorations of history were made by individuals born to family wealth who had no need to ever lift a finger to ensure adequate self-support. Yet these individuals wanted to contribute to the world in some way and left their homes, worked through the night, and even died trying to be part of some enterprise.

Those who sat back on their laurels, and never found any venture to engage them, lead empty lives, drifting through their days without personal value or commitment. Today we see their empty faces in the society pages and read the tabloids to hear about their drug problems and their tawdry efforts to find excitement and meaning.

Those of us - most of us - who have no choice but to work, dream of having enough money to have a choice. Few of us really want to drift around the world without goals or ambition. We simply want to do something meaningful to us rather than the career we fell into which has long since lost its charm and excitement.

It is when that career, boring and humdrum though it may be, is suddenly taken away, that we realize how much of ourselves is invested in the role we have worn for so long. Our belief in our own value is tied up and interdependent with our productivity. We feel a vital part of our marital partnership, someone our children respect and follow, an important person in our community who has earned the right to voice an opinion or vote for a principle. We bear ourselves with a certain pride in that we are bonafide members of the working class and clearly differentiate ourselves from those who fail to contribute: the welfare class, the criminals, the idle rich, the various parasites who dot the fringes of our society.

When we lose our job, the lines start to blur. Our sense of personal importance starts slowly to fracture. We see the reflection of ourselves in the eyes of our friends and family start to change. While we concentrate on finding other work and jumping through the multiple hoops required by any job search campaign, we also withdraw more and more into ourselves, seeking to escape the new image of ourselves emerging in the minds of those around us.

As a vocational counselor, I heard a repeated litany of concerns from spouses and family: "Since this happened, she's totally changed . . . He's not the man I knew . . . I don't know who she is anymore . . . he won't talk to me about what's bothering him . . . I want my husband back. I don't care if he's working or not . . ."

Have you, or someone you love, fallen into this trap?

Address the problem now, before a situation not of your choice and for which you bear no blame, mushrooms into the too frequent personal devastation of the unemployed - broken marriages, family dispersion, substance abuse, shattered lives.

The discomfort and emotional pain of losing your job also provides an opportunity to cement bonds and build strength if you take action to address problems head on. Above all, communication must not lapse. In fact, it needs to be expanded and enriched. Reach out to family and friends, those who love you as you are, "warts and all" as the saying goes.

Express your fears and your worries. Let them know how uncomfortable you are and how disappointed you feel that you cannot contribute to the family in the way you always managed in the past. Seek out ways to be a productive, even if non-working, member of the team. Take on new chores and responsibilities around the house and with the kids. Pay extra attention to your spouse. You may not be able to afford presents or a night on the town, but you can give of your time and your appreciation, gifts more valuable than anything you could buy at a store.

Share the rigors and discouragement of your job hunting efforts. Those who love you want to share in your failures as well as your successes. Encourage them to share their own feelings and fears about your plight, and express their anxieties about the future. Not only do we tend not to express our deepest fears, we also tend not to consciously formulate and define them. They just sit at the back of our minds as a faceless, nagging worry. When we fail to bring them out into the open, where they can be clearly defined and therefore contained, we live in a constant state of unease. To comfort ourselves, we look for something or someone to blame: "Everything was fine until she lost her job . . . if he hadn't got laid off, I'd be registering for college this year . . ." It is an easy slide from such vague thoughts to full-fledged blame and you become the scapegoat on which all problems can be hung.

If you are newly unemployed, take steps now to ensure that such a direction is avoided. If you have been out of work for a considerable period of time, and may have already seen this pattern develop, take the time to stop it in its tracks. Redirect your energies into developing a positive team spirit in which all can have a voice and a contribution. It can turn the destructive nature of unemployment into a lightning rod of family cohesion, strength, and deepened affection.

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Identifying your skills and getting that job

When applying for a job, it is ideal that you identify your strengths and weaknesses and get prepared to address them. By knowing your advantage, the chances of getting the job that you want will surely get easier. But you should not get too confident since this is one of the common mistakes that plague job applicants. Appearing too confident or as somewhat of a know it all person will only get you labeled by your interviewer as unfit for the job.

Identifying your skills

First thing's first. You should identify your skills. This is your ticket to get that job and you should be able to articulate your abilities and expertise as best as you can. Many people have a hard time telling their skills and abilities as this may seem to be bragging. But you should not be shy or afraid to discuss your skills. In fact, it is important that you convey to your potential employer what your talents are. You should be able to sell your abilities to your employer. That is how you will get the job that you want. It is important that you don't appear arrogant or condescending but you should also avoid selling yourself short. If the interviewer asks you about your strengths or what separates you from the other applicants, you should be able to readily give a good answer. But before you even go to the interview part, your resume should highlight your skills and talents for your prospective employer to see.

Type of skills

There are two main types of skills, hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are tangible in the sense that these are things that you do like: knowing how to operate different kinds of machinery, knowledge of a specialized computer program, ability to type fast, skills on using many types of tools, credentials regarding special crafts, etc. Soft skills are skills that are rather abstract in nature like personal qualities. This may include the folowing: being a good team player, having the ability to work on your own, being enthusiastic or organized and decisive.

The steps to follow

Making a list of your previous jobs and experience acquired

First thing to do is to make a list of all the companies that you had worked for and the things that you learned from these jobs. There will be a lot of things to list and you should be careful enough not to forget even the smallest things or activities that you were part of or organized. It is also a good idea to list the volunteer activities that you participated in.

Include a list of your hobbies

Although it might sound trivial at first, it is also very helpful to list all your hobbies. There are a lot of abilities that your prospective employer may get from your hobby list. This will also give an idea of your personality. For example, if you were part of the school's debating team, then your employer may deduce that you have good analytical skills. If you were a champion chess player, then your employer will have the impression that you are good at making critical decisions. Think of your daily routine and the things that you do and often take for granted. Are you an organized person who always keeps your things in proper order? Are you an extrovert that can easily make friends in a matter of minutes? These may seem ordinary to normal things to you, but your future boss might think otherwise.

Deciding what career you want

After listing all your skills and all the things that you do well, you may now decide what field or career you want to take a crack at. Select the skills contained from your list and partner it with the employment you are seeking. Always take time to consider if your skills are relevant to the job that you are aspiring for. Don't be bothered if you have to cut out some of the skills from your list. It is also important to include in the list your skills that the prospective employer will probably value.

Stand by what you write

You should be realistic about your skills and the level of expertise that you have with it. For example, if you indicate that you are a very organized person, then you should be able to show this to the interviewer by being able to organize your thoughts and effectively use the time that was given for your interview.

It is important to know your skills every time you are job hunting. Always put your best foot forward and good luck!

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