How to Spot and Avoid Job Scams

Written by adminJune 26, 2019
Real life

Currently, you might be one of the millions of people looking for a job. Perhaps you’re a college graduate enters the market for the first time, looking for a summer job, or you just want a change. Either way, the easiest and most convenient way to find work these days is through the internet. There are a ton of job boards and websites to submit your resume.

The sad thing is, there’s a lot of risk when you use these sites. The Better Business Bureau just put out a warning for all job hunters to watch for fake job postings, work-at-home opportunities, and scam opportunities. A lot of these jobs can appear to be legitimate and even have real company names and logos to fool their victims.

The key here is to remember the rule: if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. They’ll make promises of massive wages, great benefits, health insurance, and whatever they can to overwhelm you into thinking you just hit the jackpot. Then comes the scam, where they will ask you for upfront money to be trained.

The scammers will even ask you to send them money to purchase supplies. They’ll create some complicated scheme where they will want your bank account info to send you money to buy these supplies. It’s never an easy process. Before you know it, you’re being jerked around, they’ll need more money, or even say they accidentally sent too much and need the difference back.

Do Research Beforehand

Again, if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is. These scammers know how to draw on people’s desires. Who wouldn’t love an excellent opportunity to work from home or make money while shopping. We all want to do these things, so it’s quite easy to get caught up in their lies

“No legitimate job would ever overpay an employee and ask for money to be wired elsewhere,” the BBB warned. “This is a common trick used by scammers. If the job posting is for a well-known brand, check the real company’s job page to see if the position is posted there. Look online; if the job comes up in other cities with the exact same post, it’s likely a scam.”

Usually, these scams are well known. You won’t be rolling up on a fresh new scam, which is why it’s important to do research on the companies and jobs before giving any personal information. There’s already likely information out there, especially on the BBB website that will tell you if certain offers are scams.

“Be cautious sharing personal information or any kind of prepayment,” it said. “Be careful if a company promises you great opportunities or big income as long as you pay for coaching, training, certifications or directories.”

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5 Points to Consider Before Taking a Job Offer

Written by adminJune 18, 2018
Uncategorized

Like millions of Americans out there, you might be on the hunt for a job. Not just any job, but a stable source of income for you and your family. After a long decade of high unemployment, there are no more job openings than there are people looking for work, which is a huge improvement.

Yet, despite the numbers, not everything is as it seems. All jobs are not created equal and some can even have many disadvantages. A lot of young people make the mistake of taking the first decent job that pops up or deciding solely based on finances and not other factors.

In a lot of cases, you’d be better served declining a job offer rather than having a history of short-term jobs on your resume. No employer wants to see you worked at 20 different jobs in the span of 5 years. To prevent yourself from taking a bad job, you should consider these five points and reevaluate your decision:

1) Is Your Heart in It?

If you’ve been trying for months to find work, you’re behind on your bills, and you finally get an offer, you might be inclined to jump at the chance. But, are you accepting this job offer because you want this job or because it’s the only one you’ve managed to get? If your heart isn’t in it, the job won’t be a good fit and can cause a black mark on your record.

Employers are looking for enthusiastic workers who care about the work they do. Thinking you can just get a job for a few months and you show you don’t care about the job only makes you look bad. Don’t hurt your professional reputation by making lots moves and haphazardly accepting jobs your heart isn’t in.

2) What is the Reputation of the Company?

 Some companies just have atrocious records when it comes to treating their employees well. Thank goodness for review sites! For most places you should be able to find a website where you can see reviews from previous employees. Turnover rates are another thing to look at. High turnover rates can reveal a toxic culture within management.

3) Is It a Good Fit for You?

Another tough reality is some jobs aren’t made for everyone. Many can require hours on your feet doing hard labor. Others are intellectual and/or analytical. If you’re a withdrawn introvert, you might not like working in a customer service-oriented job or one that requires you to work as a team.

There’s nothing wrong with finding a job that suits your needs and accommodates your style of work. You’ll be more successful in the long run if you don’t deviate too much from a culture that is close to your own.

4) What is the Future of the Company?

You want stability as one of the biggest deciding factors. There’s nothing worse than trying to start your career with a company that’s on the skids and about to close their doors. Of course, a lot of companies try to hide the fact that they’re not doing well, but with a little bit of research, you can find out for yourself.

For example, what are their stock prices? Are they falling? Any clues about potential mergers? Has the CEO stepped down or considering it? Was there a major PR incident that forced this company to get blasted in the news? While you’re checking their reputation, also look at the financial side of the business to get a clear picture.

5) Is There Room to Grow?

There’s nothing worse than being stuck at a dead-end job, with no opportunities for advancement, raises, or leadership opportunities. That means, no matter how well you do and outperform others, you’ll remain where you are. Good companies will offer not just advancement, but great development opportunities to help you advance.

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5 Ways to Make Extra Cash this Summer

Written by adminJune 13, 2018
Saving

The first official day of summer is fast approaching. Most of the kids across the U.S. have already finished the school year. College students are settling into their summer life. It’s a good time to relax and unwind, if that’s really how you want to spend your time.

But, if you’re highly motivated, there are plenty of opportunities for you to get your side-hustle on and make a bit of extra cash for whatever you need it for. Maybe you want to pay off debts, get a down payment for a car, or need a little extra income for travel. Whatever you need it for, right now is the best time to earn it.

Here are the benefits to finding a summer job:

-Close to home. You don’t have to go very far from home to find extra work.

-Save money on gas/travel.

-Convenient. You can do it whenever you get extra time.

-You get a chance to meet interesting people and your neighbors.

-Easy to get going. Just print off fliers and cheap business cards offering your service.

-People around you know who you are, so it wouldn’t be difficult to convince them to hire you.

-Cash. You don’t have to wait for a paycheck. Do the job and get paid right away.

These are typical jobs that you might find a teenager doing, but it’s not bad work if you apply yourself and need a bit of extra cash. There are people who make an extra $1,000 per month doing these jobs.

The best part? There are all sorts of apps that can help you in ways that you couldn’t even imagine. I certainly wish I had these options when I was growing up, but now you can wield the power of the internet at your fingertips to expand your reach.

Here are the five ways you can make extra cash this summer:

1) Lawn Care

In the summer, there’s no shortage of lawns that need constant care. There are plenty of people who would rather shell out a few bucks to have someone else do it for them. Depending on what services you want to provide, you can make a killing.

You can even use a subscription-based model to make even more. You can offer regular lawn care for $100/month. If you find 10 clients, that’s an extra $1,000 every single month just mowing lawns on the weekend.

Also, during the summer months, a lot of landscaping companies are hiring to keep up with demand, so you can look into that as well.

2) Pet Sitting

This is one of the easiest ways to make money out there. There’s a variety of ways it can be done. Pets mostly take care of themselves minus being able to put food in their bowls and go out for a walk to relieve themselves. Most of the time, it’s a quick job and it pays well.

Summer is a great time when families go on vacation. You can save them a lot of money by offering to pet sit so they don’t have to take their furry family member to the kennel. A lot of clients will allow you to stay in their home, eat their food, and watch their TV while paying you good money to make sure their pet is well taken care of while they’re gone.

Also, there are new apps that people can use to hire dog walkers. Sign up for that and you can represent your neighborhood!

3) Housekeeping/House Sitting

If you love to clean (or even if you don’t, but it’s tolerable) you can make money doing it for others. There are a lot of people out there who will pay you to help organize their stuff, clean out garages and/or basements, do final clean-ups after moving out, or maybe they’re disabled and willing to pay for extra help for a while.

To reuse the point about vacations, people need more help than just watching their pets. They could use someone to check on their home, water plants, bring in the mail, and do a few other chores to keep things looking good while they’re away.

Either way, this is a great way to make money while providing a needed service.

4) Tutoring

If you’re pretty good at something, you can get people to pay you to teach them. This is especially true if you’re willing to work with kids, as exasperated parents could use a bit of help teaching their kids math, science, history, or whatever subject they’re struggling in.

Summer is the best time for kids to pick up these extra skills before heading into the next grade year. Since this is specialized knowledge, tutors can make anywhere from $25-$100 per hour!

5) Uber/Lyft

Most of the jobs I mentioned are labor-intensive. You might not want to mow 10 lawns twice a month. That’s okay! With today’s technology, you can make pretty decent money just driving people around.

The only downside with Uber and Lyft are the ‘tough’ requirements. Your vehicle must be under 10 years of age and there can be some wear on tear from the additional driving. But, if you fit those requirements, it might be the best way to make extra money.

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