Who Are You You Recruiters Know Nothing!

Who Are You You Recruiters Know Nothing! As a recruiter you have so much to think about:   advertising jobs, sourcing candidates, competing not just with you traditional competitors, but with your clients and candidates â€" everything’s online now and everyone has access to what you have access to.   How do you differentiate yourself?   How can you make yourself stand out?   Heads are hurting all over the recruitment sector right now. Anyone who reads my blogs knows that I get very frustrated with the #job #job #job culture that social media has exposed for some recruiters out there.   I am on a mission to get them to drop the #job in favour of the demonstration of specialism #cloud #hr #mining #finance #publicsector. I know that the average recruiter does not have a time machine, and that it often feels like a big ask to get them to talk online rather than simply bleat on about jobs, so I wanted to write something to help. If you’re a recruiter, I bet you read about your specialism and even if you are classed as a generic sector recruiter, you’ll be reading up on recruitment, and if you don’t then read my mind… So, you may take a couple of minutes a day to read around your sector (recruitment and/or mining/hr/it/etc…) so why are you not sharing this with your audience?   Sharing content on your sector can: Demonstrate your specialism Help your client / candidate base with knowledge they didn’t have Improve your profile and make you stand out Give your ideal clients confidence that you are in their space… …all good stuff! I’m more likely to buy from someone who gets me! Someone said the other day that updating your status too often (and thus only doing it a couple of times a week) means that people stop listening… I do not buy that!   I agree if you’re just telling me what you had for tea last night then the hide button in LinkedIn updates gets a good seeing to.   If however you are talking about me, my sector, what I could be doing to find a new role, how my sector is coping with change, I start to associate you with good stuff!   How can that be bad? I always ask my recruitment clients to aim for updating once a day â€" this helps with getting them to engage with their audience, actually login to social media to do some vital listening and ultimately have   a presence in a really busy room. Some tips to help you share more of the good stuff You can have some cute buttons on your toolbar/bookmark bar to help you share stuff â€" even if there are no sharing buttons on the website where you are reading the content. Use the links below to drag sharing buttons to your toolbars which will help you share anything on the web via your social media profiles: LinkedIn Facebook Pinterest Twitter Google  (a bit of a mare to find on the page… look for the Share Bookmarklet heading toward the bottom) AddThis  â€" you just need 1 button on your toolbar and you select which site you want to post to Bullhorn Reach  also has a great tool for social sharing (and it does jobs and tells you when people are “on the move”), that’s definitely worth checking out. To be fair, there are loads of bookmarklets online that you can grab and add to your toolbar, so choose what works for you… …and then the ultimate challenge: saying “bookmarklet” 5 times in a row after a double GT on a Friday night after a busy week recruiting and sharing content online! Related: How Recruiters Can Use SlideShare for Branding [10 Tips] Image: Shutterstock

Why You Should Always Give Feedback After an Interview

Why You Should Always Give Feedback After an Interview No feedback after an interview is catastrophic to the hiring process. In this post I want to take a look at the 3 parties affected by a lack of interview feedback and hope nay pray that in some small way this article might just help people understand quite how important interview feedback is. I’m going to refer to the company as XYZ Co during this article so that you might follow the process. The Candidate Today’s connected candidate (Bob) knows the world. If they’re not on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn then, to be honest, they’re living under a rock. So, Bob is contacted by many recruiters about positions â€" the majority of the time they won’t have heard of the company, so the recruiter has to do their job in explaining why it’s a good place to work AND get them interested in the position. Bob enjoys the call, gives permission for CV to be sent to client, is sent job spec / URL (FYI this is the correct way to recruit!) and wanders off to research a little more. A few days later they actually get an interview request and they hit the social channels hard â€" checking LinkedIn profiles, Twitter accounts, Google, Facebook, the lot. They absorb the company information so that they can be fully prepared for the interview. They may even look at your product offerings and be interested in purchasing them â€" for those not following my trail of thought here; interviewees are potential customers. Their friends are potential customers. Their friends friends who tweet and get retweeted are potential customers. Bob takes time off work. Bob goes to the interview. Bob spends a couple of hours in XYZ offices, comes out and calls the recruiter to tell them how he got on. Bob’s looking forward to his feedback. Bob…never…heard…back â€" the recruiter tried for feedback and got none. Bob’s future custom is lost. His friends’ custom is lost. And so on. Also, if anyone ever tells Bob that they have an interview with XYZ company, he’ll likely say ‘I wouldn’t bother, they don’t get back to you’. I feel sorry for Bob. He’ll get another job, but he’ll always remember XYZ as a company who didn’t care enough about his time to even let him know why he wasn’t right. The Recruiter The recruiter has a vested interest in the entire interview process â€" they want to live and breath your vacancy so that they can earn their fee. The majority of recruiters I know (in the UK) don’t work on any kind of retainer â€" we literally earn nothing until people such as Bob start a job. If we send a candidate to a job who isn’t right, it’s not a problem, but structured feedback is crucial. For instance, if you’re recruiting for a C# developer and I send one your way who is a C# / ASP.Net developer, and unfortunately something has been misunderstood, then we massively appreciate you telling us that you need a C# / WPF developer instead means that we wont send any further ASP.Net guys, instead focussing on WPF devs â€" see how much easier it makes the process for everyone concerned? By giving the recruiter some constructive feedback you are able to cut your CVs received down dramatically. The Client So, moving on to Mr / Mrs client nicely from the line above. The recruiter is trying to make his / her money â€" they want to provide you a service that will ensure that you make a placement through them. If you don’t provide constructive feedback you will spend so much of your time seeing poor matching CVs, or even CVs that are pretty much a zero match to your requirement. By not giving Bob his interview feedback (positive or negative) you are risking alienating people from a company that I am sure you will have spent time and effort in building up a positive image of. Summary Put yourself in the shoes of the interviewee â€" how would you feel if you didn’t get any feedback, yet took ½ day holiday and paid money to attend the interview? Annoyed â€" yep. Upset â€" likely. Interested in purchasing goods from XYZ â€" not a chance. If you think about feedback as a form of constructive criticism for interviews, you’ll very quickly see your time to hire fall and placement ratios drop.

We Become So Ugly - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

We Become So Ugly - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Often I ask myself why we have become so ugly.   As a practicing career coach, I always get infuriated when clients complain about the abuse and mistreatment they suffer from recruiters and organizations they apply to for posted job openings. What is the source of such disrespect and contempt directed at people who in the past had held very respected and eminent positions? I remember that 20 or 30 years ago, when a job seeker applied for an open position, it was customary for the prospective employer to send the candidate a thank-you in the form of a confirmation letter. That was the proper business etiquette because companies knew that good public relations with the outside world were good for company reputation in the long run. Later, the acknowledgment became a form letter that was issued automatically. Then that got replaced by a postcard. The same was the norm for communicating with applicants who’d prepared for and spent time at an interview but did not get the job. Today, most applicants are not recognized when applying for a position. In fact, 72% of applications are never seen by a human because either the prospective employer’s applicant-tracking-system software rejected the applicant’s résumé as being less than competitive with others received for the same position orâ€"even worseâ€"the system eliminated the résumé entirely because due to unusual fonts, misread characters, or tables it didn’t understand, the computer program scanning the résumé could not decipher the content. What prompted me to write about this subject was an e-mail I received from a client who’d received an uncharacteristically gracious and considerate rejection letter after an interview. The letter had been written by the vice president of human resources, and it said that although my client’s credentials were very good and everyone on the hiring team favored him, at the last minute the company decided that for the long run, it would be better to fill the position with two junior people who, based on anticipated business needs, could grow while on the job and ultimately fill those future business needs. The tone of the letter was very personal, almost apologetic, and empathetic. I was shocked when I read it, because it was something so uncommon for nowadays. But I’m still left asking myself, why have we become so ugly? After all, those who are employed today could easily be those looking for work tomorrow; in the current economy, nobody’s job is secure. The best answer I’ve come up with is that fast-emerging technologies replaced people, and those who remained had to pick up the slack created by the elimination of their recently fired colleagues. So, the pressure is mounting, and the by-products are less time and less ability to accomplish all the work. The result is change in perceived personality by those affected by the situation. And by the way, such behavior is contagious. To some extent, such behavior may be compartmentalized by geographic regions. I live in central New Jersey, right between New York and Philadelphia, part of an area called the US Northeast. I remember, though, that when I lived in Denver, out west, the people were very different: they were nicer, friendlier, more welcoming than in the east. A current client of mine told of a recent experience when he and his wife were invited for a series of interviews at a college in Ohio. He couldn’t stop telling me how welcome they’d felt, how pleasantly they’d been received, and that they’d even been put up at a potential future colleague’s house for two nights instead of just being booked into a local hotel. How genuine that colleague’s family was for opening their house and their community and even making their kids available to meet with this mere and otherwise unknown candidate for a not-even-very-high-level faculty position. I keep wonderingâ€"and simply can’t logically explainâ€"why we’ve morphed into a society of egotists, detractors, and misanthropes whose rule is “take care of number one.” And I’d certainly welcome others’ opinions.

Scents That Will Help Boost Productivity

Scents That Will Help Boost Productivity Many people don’t realize what a powerful tool aromatherapy can be. Scents are tied directly to the part of the brain that is linked to memory and emotion, so scents can influence both. This can work very well in the business world, influencing employees to work harder, retain more information or stay alert. In fact, studies show that certain scents can affect memory, concentration, sustained attention and cognitive function. FragranceX took a look at the scents most likely to boost productivity. For example, the scent of rosemary has a positive effect on memory and increases alertness. The scent of vetiver caused improved brain patterns in one study. What better way to influence the mood and output of your team? We all know that coffee can increase alertness, but did you know that the smell of it can have a similar impact? One study points that just the scent alone can help people perform better on analytical reasoning tasks. One scent that is particularly good for office workers is lemon. In one study, the scent caused participants to make 54 percent fewer errors when they were typing. It’s fascinating how a certain scent can have such a profound impact on something so unrelated, but it’s been proven by science! The scent of jasmine has been shown to stimulate the nervous system, re-energizing those who take a whiff. Could you imagine what pumping the sent of jasmine into the break room might accomplish? Another scent that is great for the office is citrus. Its bright aroma helps keep people alert and shortens response time. A diffuser of citrus sitting on your desk could help keep you or your employees engaged throughout the day. Another great way to administer this would be a lightroom spray! Cinnamon, a scent that is often associated with cooking, can actually be a wonderful addition to the workplace. Research has shown that the scent of cinnamon can boost performance, especially on tasks that require heightened attention. On top of that, it’s been shown to increase memory! Peppermint has a similarly culinary association and most people know that a quick whiff can be incredibly energizing. However, most people don’t realize that the scent can increase the accuracy of memory and help keep people alert. A scent that can help you fight fatigue, at the office or at home, is ginger. Ginger tea can be made to not only offer a great smelling remedy, but the tea is quite healthy as well. It’s been shown to have mild painkiller properties, so it can be perfect for someone who needs to power through a deadline or who might have a headache from staring at the screen for too long. One scent many people don’t consider is the scent of fresh pine. Walking through a forest can have tons of positive impacts on the body, but smelling the artificial scent can have a similar effect. It’s been shown to reduce stress and have a somewhat antidepressant quality. If you or someone you work with seems like they have been more stressed than usual, adding a diffuser of pine to their workspace could be beneficial. Lemongrass, used in many popular spa-like scents, can also be a great addition to the workplace. It not only smells amazing but has been shown to help ease anxiety and reduce stress. Depending on which scent you prefer, either lemongrass or pine can have similar effects. Studies show that reduced stress leads to better morale and even improved output from employees, so a natural, low-cost solution like scent could be just what you need. Simply diffuse the scent or find a room spray that features the scent prominently. One last scent that works for productivity is lavender. You may be surprised at this one because lavender is typically known to have a sedative effect. However, this particular scent should be used after work. Studies have shown that lavender improves concentration by recharging the brain when it’s time to rest. What better way to prepare yourself for a productive workday than getting the proper rest and relaxation. Aromatherapy might be one of the more non-traditional ways to boost productivity, but it can work wonders. As we mentioned before, it’s low cost, readily available and effective. Try one or more of these scents in your workspace and see what happens! Take a look at this infographic for a quick guide. About the author:  Shannen Murphy is a writer, blogger, and filmmaker aiming to change the world through genre storytelling. She writes, shoots, edits, and posts product videos for perfumes and colognes featured onFragranceX.com.

How New Managers Can Make Strong Decisions for the team - CareerMetis.com

How New Managers Can Make Strong Decisions for the team Source : Pexels.comSo I hear you landed the promotion.Congratulations on your new manager role!But while your skills have taken you this far in your career, taking on a managerial role can still be a challenging feat.evalAnd if there’s one skill that will help you overcome these challenges and succeed as a managerâ€"its strong decision making abilities. But don’t just take my word for it.Mike Figliuolo, Founder and Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS believes that: “good decision making is the hallmark of a great leader”.Just like Mike, many other successful leaders in history have been able to rely on their decision making abilities to propel them to even greater success.That’s why, in the following article, I’m going to share with you my top insights on how you, as a new manager, can make strong decisions for your team.1. Understand the power of your decisionsPrior to becoming a manager, your role was more or less an individual contributor to a team or department.Becomi ng a manager not only means making decisions you’re held accountable for but now on behalf of others on your team as well. Suddenly, the power of your decision is much greater.Consider for a moment all the critical milestones that must be hit to complete your next project.evalYour decisions will impact how the timeline runs, the delegation of the budget and even the day to day tasks of individual contributors on your team.As a new manager, it’s important to understand that in order for your team members to fulfill their expectations and hit KPIs, they need strong and timely decisions from you.Expressing to your team how and by when you will reach decisions that impact their work exemplifies that you can hold yourself accountable to team decisions, but most importantly, that you respect their time and efforts.2. Align your decisions with company core valuesAs with most established companies, with the exception of startups, company core values are usually clearly defined and visib le in the workplace.evalIf you’re starting a new job, you’ll want to know these core values!Knowing your company core values plays a key role in building your KPIs and aligning your priorities with company goals. Ultimately, your decisions should be aligned with company core values because it’s what’s expected of you.For instance, if “providing world-class customer service” is one of your company core values and you encounter a problem that involves a dispute between an employee and customer; what would you do?Your company core value of “providing world-class customer service” provides a guideline for what decision you should be making because it indicates the outcome your decision should achieve.In considering how this customer problem should be overcome, you should be thinking “what would delivering world class customer service look like in this scenario?”.Continue to align your decisions with company core values in all future management decisions you make and you’ll be guaranteed to deliver outcomes that company stakeholders are striving to achieve.3. Clear roadblocks to move initiatives forwardThink of a time before you became a manager where your work was placed on hold because your manager hasn’t yet made a decision on how to move forward. Frustrating isn’t it? Don’t be that person.There’s no doubt that in your new role as a manager, you’ll encounter a lot more moving parts in your day to day than any other team member.That said, it is your responsibility to make decisions that will help clear roadblocks to move initiatives forward. “But how do I start?” you might ask. The solution is perhaps simpler than you might think.evalAll you need to do to start clearing roadblocks for your employees to do their jobs is asking the question, “how can I help you move forward?”. That’s it.Without asking this question, you’ll never be able to pinpoint the specific needs of your team members. Remember, you should know the cha llenges of your employees but it doesn’t mean you can’t ask them directly.In fact, studies how shown time and time again that most employees appreciate checking in with their manager once a week at the very least.4. Help team members make their own decisionsIf you’ve ever been micromanaged, you’ll know that there’s nothing more demotivating. So what can you do to keep your new team accountable without micromanaging?The answer is simple: help your team learn to make their own decisions.evalLike I mentioned earlier, it’s important for you to align your priorities and decisions to company core values. So make no mistake when supporting your team members; help them align their priorities and KPIs to your team and/or department goals and have them make their own decisions.When you provide employees with the freedom and responsibility to make their own decisions, it’s not only building individual accountability but shows a degree of trust that empowers growth.It’s not abou t having everyone make the same decision, it’s about guiding your team to achieve the same goals in a way that leverages their individual strengths.5. Always have a Plan BWhat’s even better than having a great game plan? Having two!As a manager, you will no doubt encounter situations where you’ll be required to provide more than one solution to a problem.It’s up to you to decide whether a Plan B is necessary in every such scenario. This is especially true when faced with a tight timeframe and potentially negative outcome to making the wrong decision.No only does it appeal to your team that you have more than just one game plan during times of crisisâ€"your boss will appreciate it too.Having multiple solutions to one problem suggest that you’ve dissected the issue from various perspectives and encourages others to voice different thoughts.Final thoughtsNot to rain on your parade, but the decisions you’ll have to make as you gain momentum in your career will only become mo re difficult. But do remember, your ability to make the right decision is what will truly set you apart as a strong manager and leader.Whether it’s cleaning up a crisis or having to let go of a team member, it’s up to you to train your decision making muscle early and often. So make sure to include it as part of your career mapping.

Salary Negotiations Playing Poker with Your Financial Future - Pathfinder Careers

Salary Negotiations Playing Poker with Your Financial Future - Pathfinder Careers Salary Negotiations: Playing Poker with Your Financial Future Would you laugh if someone told you to put down how much you’ve earned under each job listed on your résumé? Obviously, yes. Why on earth would you do that? But what if an employer directly asks you to tell them how much money you made in your previous positions? Um… excuse me? Chances are you’ve had this happen before. This request is an all-too-often ploy used by many employers to try to force job seekers’ hands into showing their salary ‘cards’ and effectively sweeping any negotiation power out of the candidate’s hand. Many unemployed people are so desperate that they cave in right away for fear that they might not get the job if they don’t ‘play nice’ in the employer’s cat and mouse game of salary negotiation. Have you experienced this at some point in your career? Then you know the drill. You are in the hot seat for an interview, things are getting towards a definite ‘close’ and it is clear that a deal is now in the works. Then the employer drops their bomb in an interview by casually asking, “So, what are your salary needs?” or “What are you earning currently?” or, in the application process, they require you to state your salary history or requirements in your cover letter. So, it all comes down to this moment. Time to deal the cards and start playing strategically… what you do now completely impacts your financial earnings over the course of your entire career. So what is a job applicant to do? What are your options? Here are five approaches you can take when it comes down to handling the thorny issue of salary negotiation. There isn’t any ‘perfect’ way to negotiate because each situation is subjective to the company culture and the person interviewing you / making the hiring decision. But being educated about your options and also having a good ‘read’ on the internal company environment can help provide you with the necessary business intelligence on the best way to approach this discussion. 1) Give them what they want. Know when the chips are down and the employer is fixated on a specific answer to the salary question. If the job opportunity truly hinges on whether you give them an answer to this question, then you have to make the decision whether to divulge your salary to give them what they want or not. The obvious downside to providing that specific number is that now you have absolutely no negotiating room whatsoever. The company knows exactly what they can ‘get’ you for, salary-wise, and it will be very difficult to go upwards at this point. Let’s face it: most employers aren’t going to pay you a higher amount out of the sheer goodness of their hearts. Their strategy is to hire the best asset to the company for the best price possible. 2) Provide a range. Do your research on what is a reasonable expectation for salary for the type of position for which you are applying.  Then make your move by providing a similar range, with your current salary level somewhere inside that bracket. Depending on what you are willing to accept (even if it is below your most recent earning level) , make sure the upper number isn’t in outer orbit… otherwise you can quickly get tossed out because of a too-high salary requirement. 3) Dodge #1: Let’s talk later. Until a job offer is actually on the table, any preliminary discussion of salary is actually a fishing expedition. The employer is testing the waters to see if there is a match between their salary number and yours. Proactively stepping into the discussion can work for you if you know this tactic will work.  A good way of framing it up nicely: “Until a job offer is being made, I would like to request that this discussion take place later… right now, I am very interested in learning more about this job and how I can help your company.” 4) Dodge #2: We’re in the same ballpark. Again, you can be assertive while dishing out a compliment that holds them accountable: “I am highly confident that your company offers an industry-competitive wage and with that understanding, I know we’ll be able to reach a compromise once we get into actual negotiations.” 5) Avoid the issue. This is a tactic some people take because A) They don’t really know how to handle it or B) They assume that by avoiding it, the employer wont not notice that the applicant didn’t address the question. All of which can completely and utterly backfire. Salary numbers are absolutely going to be a hot button for an employer, and they’ll be specifically scanning for that reference mentioning your salary history in the cover letter. The most successful tricks to negotiating your salary is being flexible, willing to negotiate on other options including benefits, having a good knowledge of what jobs of this type typically pay, and being centered on what your value is without being overconfident. In the long run, if you take a positive, collaborative approach in negotiating your salary, chances are that the employer will respond positively, and you’ll be happier because you kept your cards close to your chest while keeping up your poker face. It could mean a substantial long-term gain in overall career earnings if you are smart and savvy about how you negotiate your next salary.

How to Use Resume Profile Samples

How to Use Resume Profile SamplesIf you want to get a job interview, and have never written a resume or cover letter before, it can be very overwhelming at first to come up with resume profile samples that you can use for your own. A resume is the first thing you're going to see by an employer, so you want to be as professional looking as possible. There are a few different ways to do this, and one of the most common is by using resume profile samples.Resume samples are a great way to see how a particular employer will view your resume. This can help you understand what kind of things they will be looking for, and make sure you have all the proper things included. The best resume profile samples will include sample resumes that contain all the proper information for the position you're applying for. This means that you need to take the time to look through all the resume samples available and get the information that you need.Resume samples have come a long way since the days when co mpanies just posted their resume in the classifieds. Today, many employers will review samples to see if the resume is relevant to the position they are currently filling. It's not only important to list your resume in the right section; you also need to make sure that the resume includes the right information about you. In order to learn how to prepare for an interview, try to include as much information about yourself as possible.Certain jobs don't require a cover letter, but others do. When you are first starting out, a cover letter is a good idea. Employers often use these letter examples to see if a person is qualified for the job or to check for any jobs that they may have overlooked. Keep in mind that resumes samples aren't the only ways that employers find out about people; they will simply be your best source of information.There are some other things that you can include in your resume profile. They should be as specific as possible, but not too specific. You want to inclu de anything you feel could make you stand out from the crowd, such as hobbies, awards or honors. While you don't need to list these items in your resume, they do need to be listed somewhere.Other things that may be listed on your resume include any experience with online courses or classes, or any skills you have that would prove useful to the company. If you've always had bad grades, then you should have no problem listing this information. Don't include anything that may be a red flag to the employer. For example, if you've been fired from a job, or resigned from a job because of poor performance, then you don't want to list this information.It's also important to keep in mind that the interviewer will probably ask for some feedback on your entire resume. If you have a list of awards or any other accomplishments, include a few sentences about how you felt you performed that particular part of the job. If there are some things on your resume that you feel may be misleading, then do not lie on them. Tell the truth about everything you can, because honesty is a quality that you need to display, no matter how hard it may be to believe.You can choose which resume profile you will use to create your resume. Usually they are basic samples, where you just provide a few pieces of information and you can put them together as a whole resume. Once you get more creative, and are comfortable with creating a resume, then go ahead and begin creating your own resume profile.