We are pleased to announce that NextUp Careers has now launched in Beta!  Beginning today, we will be working with hiring companies to post new jobs. Professionals can search for some of the freshest reliability engineering and predictive maintenance jobs out there.  Yet, despite finally going public there is much to be done on the NextUp site and many of core features are in the final stages of being developed and tested.  This is where we need your help.  We think we’ve done a great job in building the various features and site functionality, but we really need the opinion of professionals like you to tell us what we got right, what is wrong and what you think we need to have.  If you are willing to help us out, please upload your resume here, or drop us an email at mvann@nextupcareers.com.  We appreciate your support.

Just came across this  post and thought it was pretty relevant for reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals who are currently seeking jobs.  Over at Cheezhead, a blog focused on the world of job boards, they have this post about Careeer Bulders Resume Critique.

A quick synopsis of the post is as follows.  A career counselor who does a fair amount of resume writing sent in her resume to Career Builder to see what they their free review would find.  The result was a pure sales pitch and it was very clear that they didn’t even review her resume.  Its unfortunate that a company like Career Builder would be that blatant in their efforts to take dollars from an audience that is likely unemployed.  The perils of corporate America!

If you believe that your resume needs some help, we suggest that you contact the Resume Lady.  The Resume Lady has been in the reliability engineering & PdM space for a long time and knows the insides and outs of crafting a resume that works for our industry.  Whether your a reliability engineer, vibration analyst, planner/scheduler or have any type of job in the reliability engineering and predictive maintenance profession, we strongly suggest that you check out the resume lady at www.myresumelady.com.  Have a great Memorial Day, and be sure to look for a link to our site in next weeks Reliability Web email blast.

Great news for reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals looking for jobs in the Cleveland, Ohio area.  On Wednesday, Ford announced that its idled plant – Cleveland Engine Plant #1 would be restarted after being idled for the past 2 years.  The reactivation will add 250 jobs.  You can check out the article “Ford Plant Restarts Engines with Skilled Training” over at Industry Week.

Beyond the excitement of 250 new jobs, Ford and the UAW credit the introduction of lean and other cultural practices for getting the plant back up and running.  This is great news for reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals as it shows the real world impact of reliability practices in a manufacturing and production envirionment.

We know we’ve been saying it a lot lately, but NextUp Careers will be launching in Beta within the next couple of days.  We are in final testing and will have several hundred of the freshest reliability engineering and predictive maintenance jobs available for search.  Over the coming month, even more features will be added.

CNN has a great article posted today – “I found my job using Twitter” which details how some people are using social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for searching for a job.  The post has some pretty good tips and insight.

If you are a reliability engineer or predictive maintenance professional, there are a number of industry specific groups out there that you can join on these sites.  Far and away, LinkedIn probably has the most resources as you an join these groups and get access to the entire membership.  Also, each group has a place for job postings which might highlight some jobs you won’t find on the traditional job boards like Career Builder and Monster.

Facebook doesn’t seem to have much in the way of specific groups that have any size to them; our guess is that Facebook isn’t really being used for career purposes as much as personal.  After all, its kind of awkward to have your boss see pictures of you passed out or downing tequila shots!

Twitter is becoming increasingly popular with the reliability engineering and predictive maintenance crowd.  A lot of industry professionals are Twittering, including us.  You can find us at www.twitter.com/nextupcareers.com.  Be sure to follow us and all the other reliability engineering professionals out there.

I just came across this article over at PC MAG entitled “The Best iPhone Apps for the Unemployed” and thought it would be helpful to all the reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals who are looking for jobs.  We saw plenty of iPhones at the RCM show so we know that a lot of you are using the phone.  Personally, I’m waiting until the 3.0 version comes out in June; I’m counting the days because I really want one!

Of the applications that the article mentions, not all can be classified as job hunting tools.  I love using Mint, but I don’t consider a personal money management tool to be a tool for job hunting  However, being able to get Careerbuilder listings while your out and about is certainly helpful, and having access to your LinkedIn is also great since you never know when someone in your network will post a job.

For those of you waiting for NextUp Careers to become live, your wait is nearing and end.  We are putting the final touches on the first career portal dedicated to reliability engineering and predicitve maintanence professionals who are looking for jobs or to manage their careers.  We hope to have a beta version of the site ready to run next week.  We will be looking for your feedback and participation.

Okay, not that we would suggest this exact approach for a reliability engineer or predictive maintenance profesional who is on the hunt for a job, but you have to admire the creativity.  As reported in today’s Boston Herald article “Laid off ad-man gets creative with job search“, Lawson Clarke has certainly found a way to stand out.

“In his naked ambition to land a new job, Lawson Clarke doffed his clothes and struck a humorous come-hither pose on a bear rug to pimp himself as the ultimate “male copywriter” to potential employers.  It’s a sendup of Burt Reynolds’ 1972 centerfold spread in Cosmo magazine, but a vintage TV set replaces a strategically placed hand in the ballsy parody.”

If you want to see the results, you can check out the site at www.malecopywriter.com.  If, strategic full frontal nudity isn’t your cup of tea, we suggest that you check out Guerrilla Job Hunting blog which has all sorts of resources on how to get creative with your job search.

Of course, you can also utilize the resources here at NextUp Careers to help you with your job search.  The launch of the first career site dedicated to helping reliability engineering and predictive maintenance professionals find jobs and manage thier careers will be launching any day now!  In the meantime, you can submit your resumes by clicking here.

This weeks issue of Business Week highlights on its cover (Help Wanted: Why that is a Bad Sign) an issue that is well recognized by those companies who have job openings and are looking to hire Reliability Engineering and Predictive Maintenance professionals – a lack of qualified people.  As the article notes, there are approximately 3 million unfilled jobs in the United States; employers are begging to fill these jobs.  For the reliability engineering and Predictive Maintenance industry, this problem is only going to get worse, as this white paper from ATS details. You can check out a brief synopsis of the details and find a link to the paper by clicking here.

The number one solution to this problem is increased training.  Our industry has a wealth of training companies that can provide training across all the predictive maintenance technologies and in all the areas of Reliability Engineering. This list is by no means all encompassing, but here are a couple of training companies in the industry to check out for advancing your skills:

• Technical Associates of Charlotte – vibration training from intro to advanced vibration techniques
• Mobius – vibration training, including distance learning capabilities
• IVC Technologies – is an ASNT corporate partner, and provides certified ASNT classes
• GPAllied - a comprehensive offering ranging from Lean & Six Sigma to Reliability Engineering Statistics and Life Cycle Costing.
• Life Cycle Engineering – a wide selection of reliability related training classes
• The Snell Group – industry leaders in infrared training and now in Motor Circuit Analysis.
• The Infrared Training Center – IR camera manufacturer Flir’s training group
• Hellier NDT – a full complement of training in all the NDT methodologies
• Noria -  a vast array of courses for oil analysis

In addition to these, you may also want to check out Reliability Web.  They have a series of free iPresentations that are bound to be helpful.