Jobscan CEO James Hu on CareerCloud Radio

Jobscan CEO James Hu on CareerCloud Radio Jobscan CEO James Hu on CareerCloud Radio Jobscan started from my own personal need, Jobscan Founder and CEO James Hu told Career Cloud Radio host Justin Dux. I was a job seeker myself. The herausforderung with looking for a job is the black hole. You submit a resume and you dont hear back. So we want Jobscan to be the answer to that black hole.James appeared on the podcast to discuss the ways Jobscan is arming job seekers against the outdated and ineffective applicant tracking systems that stand in their way. Heres an excerpt from early in the conversationJustin Dux After using Jobscan, what do you think are some of the first things job seekers start to learn about their resume?James Hu Looking for a job is very much, most people see a job listing and they read the description and they say, Hey, thats totally me They get really excited about it and they submit their resume without going through a detailed check like we do at Jobscan. So, alo t of times we get feedback from job seekers that this is an eye opener. They didnt know they were missing these key skills and keywords from their resume even though theyve done the same thing over and over again. Justin Dux Thats actually the experience I had with Jobscan as well. I put in a resume that I had been sending out to jobs for a few months and I really worked on that resume heavily about 6-9 months earlier, and I was stunned when my first feedback score was 38% matched. This position, exactly like you said, I felt like I was a really great match for. And so during that evening I made tweaks to the resume and scanned it over and over again to improve that score up to 80%, and thats what I was happy to get it up to. But I was shocked by the subtle differences.Listen to the full episode at CareerCloud Radio.Ready to give Jobscan a shot yourself? Try it out right here

Trash Bridges

Trash Bridges Trash Bridges Trash BridgesTransportation officials dismayed about the nations decaying bridges are turning to the bottle to find relief. And its helping.The solution isnt whats in the bottle, its what the bottles are made of, where they came from, and what theyre capable of doing. Discarded plastic beverage bottles, milk jugs, detergent containers, and other household plastic trash can become, through the magic of werkstoffs engineering, a totally green building material for new bridges and other infrastructure upgrades.Non-biodegradable thermoplastics are anathema to our nations waste-management system. Improved recycling programs have reduced the sheer volume of plastic in landfills, but theres still the harte nuss of what to do with all of that recycled material. The supply of second-generation plastic far outstrips the demand. Recycled structural composites (RSCs) based on technologies developed at Rutgers University and commercialized by Axion International, New P rovidence, NJ, transfasson mountains of melted down and remolded plastic waste into an all-green building material for heavy-duty infrastructural projects.The U.S. Army was an early adopter of the new material, in part because it has regulatory autonomy over the infrastructure on its bases. Since 1998, the Army has been driving jeeps, tanks, and trains over short-span plastic bridges at forts Leonard Wood, Bragg, and Eustis, providing case data that is driving the technologys acceptance in civil projects in both the U.S and Europe.In 2011, for example, the company completed the first plastic vehicular bridge in Europe, a 90-foot span over the River Tweed near Edinburgh. The pre-fabricated bridge was shipped in six sections to Scotland, where crews rapidly reassembled them. We were able to complete construction on-site in just two weeks, said Steve Silverman, Axions president and CEO. Putting the pieces together, in fact, took only four days out of that process, he said. The remarkab ly fast erection time for a 90-foot bridge is a major benefit.Assembling a plastic vehicular bridge over the River Tweed. bild Axionintl.comSpurning Bridges?The degradation of the U.S. infrastructure is not a new problem, and bridges are one of the areas of gravest concern because of the obvious health and safety issues associated with a potential bridge collapse. Although the nations bridges fared much better than schools, roads, levees, and most other categories graded in the American Society of Civil Engineers most recent Report Card for Americas Infrastructure, they still only eked out a C. With one in four bridges either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and a $17-billion annual price tag for necessary improvements, theres little question that transportation officials will take interest in any technology that offers a lower-cost alternative to traditional steel and concrete construction.Converting Garbage to a Gar-BridgeThe process of manufacturing the RSC materi als is straightforward. Axion receives giant bundles of sorted plastic it has to be high-density polyethylene, the kind stamped with a 2 recycling code. The plastic is comingled with the other principal component, glass fibers coated in polystyrene or polypropylene, generally scrap material from the manufacture of car bumpers. The raw materials are ground into tiny flecks, then subject to high but below melt point heat. The precision of the heating process is critical to getting the otherwise incompatible properties of various polymers to work together to form a stronger material. The hot glop is extruded through molds into its specified shape and allowed to cool.The company forms its thermoplastics into standard construction shapes such as I-beams, pilings, and boards, and also can pre-build an entire bridge or boardwalk to a customers specifications. Thomas Nosker, Ph.D., the Rutgers materials engineer who pioneered the technology, has said the individual pieces come together l ike a childs play set to form bridges that are cost-efficient and easy to erect.High-Performance AssembliesEngineers have been experimenting with composite bridges made of space-age carbon-fiber-reinforced polymeric materials since the mid-1990s, and efforts have focused on high-performance assemblies engineered for specific performance properties. Their performance, however, suits them well toward applications in new construction and retrofits in earthquake-prone regions, harsh marine environments, or other situations where the long-term durability will offset their higher first costs, according to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. But these advanced composite structures require exotic raw ingredients and specialized fabrication methods that drive the price up.According to Axion, the lions share of the plastic bridge market is on the nations secondary roadways where spans of 15 to 25 feet are commonplace. From a performance standpoint in those applications, thermoplastics wo nt rot, rust, splinter, crumble, or attract bugs like wood, steel, or concrete. They are lighter, dont need to be painted, and require no special tools or training to install. The initial cost of building a plastic bridge is about the same as a similarly sized traditional structure, but they are cheaper over their 50-year expected lifespan because they avoid these costly ongoing maintenance chores.State transportation officials concerned about the public perception of plastic as a flimsy material are heartened by military videos showing the bridges holding their own against 70-ton tanks and 120-ton locomotives.Axions Silverman said the company is developing other infrastructure applications for the STRUXURE components, including sound walls, retaining walls, marinas, jetties and piers, culverts, and platforms. The Container Recycling Institute counts approximately 1,755 thousand tons of HDPE sold annually in the United States, meaning there is likely to be a sustainable supply of ra w materials for this emerging sector of the sustainability market.Michael MacRae is an independent writer.We were able to complete construction on-site in just two weeks.Steve Silverman, president and CEO, Axion International

7 Great Perks the Best Work From Home Jobs Provide

7 Great Perks the Best Work From Home Jobs Provide7 Great Perks the Best Work From Home Jobs Provide In the past few years, the number of people working remotely has exploded. According to GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com , regular work from home arrangements have grown by 103 percent since 2005.Hundreds of companies offer full-time jobs that you can do from anywhere , and you dont have to sacrifice benefits like health insurance or schreibstube equipment.The best work from home jobs provide employee perks, even if they look different than they do in a traditional arbeitszimmer setting. So if youre looking for zugnglich work, prioritize positions that offerthese seven employee perks and benefits.Even if youre not going into an office day after day, you can still find a company that offers health insurance. Many health insurance companies offer plans across the U.S. Even if your kollektiv is scattered across all50 states, a remote company isstill able to provide covera ge.If your company doesnt offer a specific plan, it might reimburse you for health and wellness costs instead. It could cover some or all of the cost of your health insurance premium. Plus, it may throw in a little extra to cover other wellness necessities, sucha gym membership.IBM and Humana , for instance, both offer health insurance to a variety of remote employees. Apple provides health insurance to its at home advisors in customer support. If a company wants to stay competitive in the remote working space, it should provide health insurance to its employees.When you work from home, you dont have access to the resources of an office. Thats why the best work from home jobs provide a stipend for you to set up a home office. This stipend should cover all your home office needs, includinga computer, desk , office chair, monitor, headset, or printer.Many companies will let you keep these purchases even after your employment with them ends. A few may collect the equipment if you q uit within a few months, however.When working remotely, youll likely conduct most of your work online or over the phone. Ideally, your company willreimburse you for your working costs. They might cover your internet or cell phone bill or buy you a membership to a coworking space .If youre worried about your phone bill or a quiet space to work, dont let these concerns hold you back from searching for a remote role. The best work from home jobs provide the technology and space you need to getyour job done.Are you worried that an online jobmeans working in a vacuum? Remote jobs should stillprovide plenty of training and onboarding . Instead of leaving you to sink or swim, companies should help you learn the ins and outs of your position and become part of the team.Most online companies with distributed teams rely on communication technologies to stay in touch. They use Google Hangouts, Slack, or Zoom, for example, for chat, calls, and video conferences.Automattic , the company behind WordPress, also uses an internal blog to keep everyone connected. Remote company Buffer relies on Timezone.io and Hipchat to talk across time zones.If youre joining a remote company , you might learn some new communication technologies for onboarding and collaborating. With these online tools, youll learn how to succeed in your role and join the company fold.Just like traditional full-time jobs, remote jobs should offer paid vacation days . Groove, for instance, offers unlimited paid vacation time to theiremployees.Remote company Toggl provides 28 paid vacation days, plus the national holidays of whatever country their employees live in.Another traditional benefit you dont have to sacrifice for online work is a 401(k) account and employer match .Health insurance company Humana, for instance, made it into the top 20 of FlexJobs list of remote companies. As part of its robust benefits package, Humana offers 401(k) retirement plans with a 6 percent employer match.Beyond chatting onl ine, some remote companies bring workers together through team retreats.Buffer, for example, has taken its team to Lake Tahoe, Bangkok, Cape Town, New York, Sydney, and Reykjavik in the past few years. According to the Buffer blog , these retreats provide an opportunity to work together, participate in team bonding activities, and enjoy fun excursions together in a new city.Working online doesnt mean giving up workplace benefits . In fact, many companies with distributed teams are leading the way with employee perks.These forward-thinking companies support their workers with wellness reimbursement, technology stipends, and even team retreats around the world. Many also provide reimbursement for continuing education and professional conferences.If youre looking for online work, prioritize jobs that offer these benefits. Plus, youll get one of the best perks of all the ability to work whenever you want from wherever you want.This article was originally published on Student Loan Hero . It is reprinted with permission.