10 Top Stories for Job Seekers in 2014

2014 saw the economy climb even further out of recession, with increases in hiring and resulting upward pressure on salaries and benefits as the unemployment rate plummeted. Job seekers were better able to negotiate and found their skills and knowledge in great demand, and employers faced with the possibility of losing key talent realized the need to double down on engagement and retention. Here, we highlight the most popular career stories for job seekers from 2014.

1) Top Paying IT Jobs for Every Stage of Your Career

Demand for highly skilled IT workers isn’t slowing down – research, managed services and staffing firm Upp reports that the unemployment rate for IT careers is hovering under 4 percent in every U.S. state, well below unemployment rates for other industries. But some hot, in-demand roles pay more than others.

Using data from research and compensation benchmarking provider PayScale’s databases, we’ve put together the top five highest-paying IT roles for every career stage – whether you’re just starting your IT career, have a few years of experience under your belt or are moving into the C-suite.

Compensation data is median pay based on total cash compensation (TCC). Median pay is the 50th percentile – half of workers doing the job are paid more, half are paid less. TCC combines base annual salary or hourly wage, bonuses, profit sharing, tips, commissions and other forms of cash earnings. It does not include stock, retirement benefits or the value of healthcare benefits, for example.

2) Eleven Job Search Mistakes That Can Kill Your Chances

Even the savviest job seeker is bound to make a mistake here and there, but in a highly competitive talent market, a small mistake could cost you the job of your dreams.

“It is easy for even the savviest of job seekers to make mistakes. By learning how to navigate potential pitfalls from the outset, your job search will be more productive and yield more positive results,” says Ford R. Myers, career coach, speaker and author of “Get The Job You Want, Even When No One’s Hiring. Here are the top 10 mistakes job seekers make and our experts’ tips on how to avoid them.

3) IT Resume Makeover: When (And How) To Break the Rules

The ironclad rule of resume writing is to highlight your career in reverse chronological order – all the time, every time, right? Wrong. Resume expert Donald Burns explains why.

4) Ten Outlandish Resume Lies That Will Kill Your Job Search Chances

A recent CareerBuilder survey found that 58 percent of hiring managers and HR professionals have found a lie on a candidate’s resume, and 33 percent of the 2,188 respondents said lying on resumes has increased in this post-recession job market. Aside from the ‘standard’ lies like fudging dates of employment, embellishing a job title, or claiming greater responsibilities, respondents found some truly laughable whoppers that stuck with them over time. Here are the most unusual lies employers caught on candidates’ resumes.

5) Six Job Search Hacks That Will Get You Hired

In a tight IT employment market, landing a job isn’t easy regardless of how well-qualified you are. However, there is way you can gain an advantage. These six job search ‘hacks’ can give you a competitive edge on other candidates and put you on your way to a great career move.

6) How Colleges Are Failing Their Students

Most traditional four-year colleges are great at teaching students theoretical knowledge, critical thinking, history, literature and even computer science, but where these institutions fall short in a key area: teaching graduates the skills they need to land jobs after school and manage their careers.

7) Know When to Walk Away: Top 6 Deal Breakers 

You’ve heard all the workplace gripes: coworkers that don’t pull their weight, long hours, projects that go sideways, compensation woes and the list goes on. But at what point do workplace annoyances become ‘deal breakers?’ That is, what makes someone decide it’s time to pack it in?

A recent survey from BambooHR polled 1,034 U.S.-based employees and asked them to rate the reasons they left previous jobs to find out exactly why and when enough is enough.

8) Why Ruby is the Crown Jewel in a Developer’s Resume

Over the last five years, demand for Ruby on Rails skills has quadrupled and is proving to be a lucrative feather in the cap of developers, according to data from PayScale, an online salary, benefits and compensation information company.

The relative ratio of workers who report it as a skill critical to their role in the last year is 4.5 times higher than the ratio of workers who reported it as a skill critical to their role five years ago, according to PayScale’s data. And Ruby on Rails skills can really make a difference for developers’ career satisfaction and employment outlook.

9) Eight Simple Ways to Increase Your Office Productivity 

Do you spend more time looking for documents, supplies, emails or your mobile phone charger than you do working? If so, you’re losing valuable productivity. However, the good news is getting back on track requires only a little planning, commitment and consistency.

These eight office organization tips culled from the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) and Simplify Me Now can help you transform your workspace from stressful to serene, and help boost your productivity by making it easy to find files, documents, supplies, and keep up with ongoing projects and deadlines.

10) Six Ways to Nail the Job Interview

Learn what hiring managers say are the most common interviewing mistakes and how to avoid making them. (And, if you’re a millennial, pay particular attention.)