Top 10 Companies Hiring This Week September 20 - 26

We know that your job search can get quite frustrating these days with more people trying to find a job and less employment opportunities available.

To ease the burden, we've tracked down 10 top companies with the most job openings this week from sales jobs to finance jobs, full-time jobs to part-time jobs. We hope you find a job that's perfect for you.

Good luck job hunting!

01. rue 21

rue21 is a leading specialty retailer offering the latest fashion for girls and guys. We continue to strive for the best selections while offering a competitive pricing strategy. As new goods arrive daily, our choices of style are always fun and affordable for that fashion-conscious customer.

Top Job Categories:

• Management Jobs
• Sales Jobs
• Retail Jobs
• Customer Service Jobs
• See all rue 21 jobs

02. Aegis Therapies

From proven clinical capabilities and professional staffing - to compliance management and exclusive rehabilitative programs - Aegis fulfills our company's mission: To improve the lives of the people we serve through compassion and innovation in healthcare.

Top Job Categories:

• Health Care Jobs
  
• Nurse Jobs
• Management Jobs
  
• See all Aegis Therapies jobs

03. Colors on Parade

Founded by Robert Lowery in 1987, Colors on Parade began with a vision to provide the automotive industry with body shop quality repairs from a mobile unit, thus allowing services to be conducted on the customer's own site; all while maintaining cost-effective pricing.

Top Job Categories:

• Sales Jobs
• Engineering Jobs
• Management Jobs
• See all Colors on Parade jobs

04. United States Army

The Army can strengthen you for tomorrow in many ways. In addition to the unique training and salary you'll receive, the Army also offers money for education, comprehensive health care, generous vacation time, special pay for special duties, cash allowances to cover the cost of living, family services and support groups.

Top Job Categories:

• Entry Level Jobs
• Administrative/Clerical Jobs
• Other Jobs
• See all U.S. Army jobs

05. Brookdale Senior Living

Brookdale Senior Living has provided exceptional service and care to seniors since 1981. Throughout out years of operation, we have remained a leading provider of senior living by focusing on one goal and one goal only - serving our residents.

Top Job Categories:

• Management Jobs
• Health Care Jobs
• Nurse Jobs
• See all Brookdale Senior Living jobs

06. Sears

Sears Hometown Stores were developed sixteen years ago to serve our customers in locations outside of major metroploitan cities. There are currently about 900 Hometown Stores throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. These stores carry all of the top home appliance brands, consumer electronics, tools and lawn and garden equipment.

Top Job Categories:

• Sales Jobs
• Franchise Jobs
• Management Jobs
• See all Sears jobs

07. Firestone

Since 1926, drivers have trusted Firestone Complete Auto Care to keep their vehicles running well. As America's auto care needs have grown, so have we. We're the leading provider of maintenance, repairs and tires for a reason: because we believe in offering a total auto care experience that perfectly meets your needs.

Top Job Categories:

• Automotive Jobs
• Retail Jobs
• Skilled Labor/Trades Jobs
• See all Firestone jobs

08. Farmers Insurance

Today, the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies, is the country's third-largest writer of both private passenger automobile and homeowners insurance. Our agents, independent contractors and independent agents, along with Farmers employees, are responsible for servicing more than 15 million customers.

Top Job Categories:

• Sales Jobs
• Insurance Jobs
• Finance Jobs
• See all Farmers Insurance jobs

9. Waste Management

Waste Management, Inc. is the leading provider of comprehensive waste and environmental services in North America. The company is strongly committed to a foundation of financial strength, operating excellence and professionalism.

Top Job Categories:

• Transportation Jobs
• Management Jobs
• Sales Jobs
• See all Waste Management jobs

10. Conklin

Conklin Company Inc. is celebrating over forty years in the network marketing business. At the core of the Conklin opportunity lie our quality products - more than 130 across six major product divisions: Agronomics, Animal Products, Building Products, Health, Home and Vehicle Products. Our products are marketed through a vast network of Independent Business Owners. The diversity in our product lines offers unlimited opportunities for sales to a variety of customers.

By AOL Jobs

Tapping Into the Hidden Job Market: Uncovering Unpublicized Job Leads

Have you ever conducted a job-search and thought to yourself that there must be more job openings than the ones found through online job searches? Guess what? The answer is a resounding yes. If you are simply searching online (regardless of whether you are using Monster, Indeed, or Google), you are missing out on at least four times as many job leads, job leads that go unposted publicly.

To make matters even worse for you as a job-seeker, the job leads you actually discover online may be so old that the position has long been filled or closed.

In order to track down the most job leads leading to the most interview and job offer opportunities job-seekers must go beyond online job boards and search engines and attack the hidden job market. As much as 80 percent of all job openings are filled through (direct and indirect) referrals, not through job postings.

Why Job Openings Often Go Unadvertised
The actual hiring process is a long and winding road that begins when a hiring manager requests a new position or when a current employee leaves his or her current position. The first step is getting approval to fund (or continue funding) the position and approving the recruitment plan. What happens next is a multi-stage process that eventually leads to a public job posting if all other measures are unsuccessful.

During the initial time of the request, hiring managers put out feelers to find internal candidates for the expected position. Strong and proven internal candidates are almost always favored by employers over the unknown quantity of new outside hires. Once funding has been approved, the next step is an internal job posting, again with the intent of finding an internal candidate to promote. At this stage, hiring managers may also contact their network and inquire about possible external candidates (referrals).

Only when it's been decided that there are no viable internal candidates and no known external candidates is a position publicly posted.

Strategies for Uncovering Hidden Job Leads
There are two main strategies for uncovering a wealth of unpublicized job openings: networking and cold-calling. These strategies both work because they break into the middle of the hiring process before positions are publicly broadcast. Even better for you as a job-seeker, if you can make a strong case for your fit with an unadvertised position, you'll face much less competition from other job-seekers, immediately improving the chances that you'll get a job interview.

Career Networking
Just about all of us network everyday throughout the day by chatting with our fellow commuters, making phones calls or sending emails to our suppliers or customers, updating our Twitter or Facebook status, talking with our colleagues at work, meeting with friends or family for drinks or dinner after work it's just that most of us don't think of it as networking.

But that's the basic premise of networking and why networking is such an easy job-search tool. Networking is simply about building and maintaining relationships with the people around us. The more people we know and the more people the people we know are connected with the more powerful our network. Remember to not only maintain your current network, but strive to regularly add new contacts especially those who work at prospective future employers. As a colleague of ours likes to say, job-hunting is now a contact sport and the more (relevant) contacts you have, the better your chances for success.

When you're ready to seek that next job or when you need to seek that next job the simple way of uncovering hidden job opportunities and leads is by asking people in your network if they have heard of any openings for the job you're seeking. There are two keys to being successful. First, you need to know exactly the type of job you are seeking. Second, you are not asking your network contacts for a job, but rather for information that may lead to a job.

It's best to use a combination of traditional (face-to-face) networking and social (online) networking, as well as a combination of personal (family and friends) and professional (present and former colleagues and bosses, peers, suppliers, customers, and the like) contacts.

To really ramp up your networking techniques discovering new ways to develop and maximize your networking opportunities, review our many networking tools in our Career and Job-Search Networking section.

Cold-Calling
Cold-calling is an old sales technique and an even older job-search technique that works as well today (if not better) as in the past. The basic premise of this approach is that you identify specific employers and send them an unsolicited cover letter and resume requesting an interview.

The first step is determining the exact type of job you are seeking. The better you know the position you seek, the better you can find employers that hire job-seekers for those positions and the stronger you can target your cover letter and resume.

The second step is identifying employers. You should target employers based on location, industry, or values/reputation. You can find employers through industry associations, chambers of commerce, and lists of best companies.

The third step is researching the employers so that you can understand their culture (using some of their own language in your cover letter and resume) and uncover the hiring manager (department head, division manager, etc.) for the position you seek.

The fourth step is crafting a compelling cover letter and focused resume that work together to land you an interview. These documents can be sent electronically or by postal mail -- or through both methods.

Find more details in our article, Cold Calling: A Time-Tested Method of Job-Hunting.

Final Thoughts
These strategies will help you uncover numerous hidden job leads when you are actively seeking a new job, but what can you do to tap into these unpublicized leads when you are not on the job market? You can indirectly uncover hidden job leads even when you are not actively searching for a new position by having employers and recruiters find you for fresh job leads they are seeking to fill.

Develop your personal career brand through social networking sites, industry and professional association participation, writing relevant articles and blog posts, and developing your personal Website.

by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.

Follow Up All Job Leads: Don't Wait by the Phone (or Computer)

Does this scenario sound familiar? You're in the market for a new job, and after conducting all your research, you send out 20 cover letters and resumes to potential hiring managers. Weeks go by and you wonder why not even one of those hiring managers has called you for an interview. Is the problem too obvious? It must not be for situations like this one are the most common we hear about when job-seekers ask our advice about their situation.

If you remember nothing else from this article, please remember these words if you want to succeed in finding a new job: follow up, follow up, follow up. Following up job leads shows prospective employers your interest in the company and position and gives you another chance to sell your qualifications. Some job-seekers fear sounding desperate or annoying when making follow-up inquiries, but as long as you do it right, you will come across as interested, not desperate.

Determining Best Method of Follow-Up
How you follow-up your job leads depends partly on how you initially contacted the employer, as well as your own personal preferences. For job-seekers who simply hate talking on the phone, e-mail may be the best (or at least initial) method of follow-up, but for people who are natural extroverts, the phone may be the best way to showcase your personality.

But, don't waste time debating the method you choose. The important lesson here is that job-seekers need to be aggressive in following up all job leads because employers are not going to call you when hundreds and thousands of other job-seekers are applying for the same position. Choose a follow-up method, review the follow-up tips listed below, and get moving toward a more successful job-search!

Tips for Following-Up
Here are some useful guidelines to consider before you follow-up with prospective employers.

General Tips:

• Always make time to follow-up all job leads, no matter how busy you are.
• Follow-up in a timely fashion usually a week to 10 days for conventional job-searching, sooner for online applications.
• Create a job leads log, so you have a record of your job-search and follow-up.
• If you apply online for a position, consider following-up the online application with a cover letter and resume sent to the hiring manager via postal mail. You will stand out over the other online applicants because few will also send a hard copy.
• Keep your follow-up brief, to the point, and professional.
• Focus your follow-up around your fit with the position and organization and your USP. You might also ask the hiring manager if he/she needs any further information not included in your original application.
• If you recently completed training, received an award, or earned some other recognition that would make you an even better candidate for the position, be sure to mention it in your follow-up.
• Continue following-up regularly, but don't overdo it.

By Phone:

• If you are nervous, consider developing a short script about what you want to say (such as your fit with the job, knowledge of the company, USP).
• No matter what, you should at least make an outline or some notes of the key points you want to make.
• Keep a copy of your resume nearby in case you need to refer to something on it.
• Make the phone call from a place where you can talk calmly and not have distractions - and avoid following up from your current place of employment.
• Be prepared for a short screening phone interview by practicing answers to common interview questions. Use our interviewing resources.
• End the conversation thanking the hiring manager for his/her time and asking about the hiring timetable/next steps. If you are extremely confident, you could ask when you might expect an interview.

By E-mail:

• Always address your email to the hiring manager. If you are having difficulty finding hiring managers, read this article: Sleuthing Out Hiring Managers Is Key to Job-Search Follow-up.
• Keep your email short and to the point. Simply again state your interest in the job and your key qualifications for it.
• Be sure to spell-check and proofread your e-mail before sending it.
• Remember to check your email regularly.
• Because e-mail is such a one-way communication, and you don't really know if your e-mail is even being read, consider asking for a phone number so you can then follow-up by phone. (And if you get no response, do your research and uncover the phone number yourself.)

By, Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.