|
Social media networks, key job-screening tool |
|
Job Search
|
By Bob Weinstein
An increasing number of organizations are using social media websites as a screening and recruitment tool.
According to a recent survey of recruiters and HR professionals by Seattle-based Cross Tab Marketing (http://www.cross-tab.com), 75 per cent report that their companies have formal policies in place that require checking out job candidates online. More than 8 in 10 employers said that a positive online reputation influences hiring decisions.
Smart job hunters are learning to use social networking proactively, as a competitive tool to “boost their personal brand, and create buzz that improves their visibility and desirability to employers,” according to social media expert Sherrie A. Madia.
Madia is director of communications at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Online Job Search Survival Guide.
The power of social media networks
“Job seekers can no longer ignore the power of social media networks in the hiring process,” Madia said. “Increasingly, sites like LinkedIn are critical in building an interpersonal network that can open doors to job opportunities at target employers.”
When job hunting, skillful social networking can help you meet the right people, make a splash in professional circles, get your name out there, and position yourself as an expert in your field, said Madia.
Yet many job seekers forget that every single tweet, blog posting, and Facebook entry has a long lifespan, she added. And she cautions, “If you’re not using social media as a way to enhance your online presence and reputation, there’s a good chance that it could hinder, rather than help, job search efforts.”
Tips to help avoid social networking mistakes
To avoid making critical social networking mistakes, Madia offers these tips:
Create a strategy. Target fields and organizations you want to approach. Position yourself carefully through well-written and carefully-considered profile pages.
Build a brand. Branding is not a title or job description, a laundry list of degrees, awards, and accomplishments, or gimmicky self-promotion, such as a signature hat or a power tie. Branding is an idea, an image, a promise. It’s about what makes you different from everyone else, and what others can expect to gain from you.
Give before taking. When networking during a job search, always start by giving something of value. Offer an insightful comment on a blog. Pose a question to an industry group, or engage in an information-sharing dialogue on best practices. The trick is to demonstrate expertise and position yourself as a helpful expert. People will be inclined to return the favor.
Hang out your shingle. You’ll need a place to broadcast your online presence. Register your name in the form of your own URL (for example, www.sallyhewson.com). If you already have a blog, add a social media resume; audio or video clips of client testimonials or professional referrals; or a speech at an industry or trade show. Include social network page addresses on your social media resume (Facebook, LinkedIn). Make your social media resume easy to share, with reciprocal links to and from various social media vehicles and tools, and put a small form on your social media resume that allows people to email/forward it to interested parties.
Harness the power of Twitter. The most recent statistics about Twitter are mind-boggling. Twitter now has more than 105 million registered users, and new users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day. “The potential of microblogging for job hunters is still being discovered,” said Madia. Have a complete and professional Twitter profile page. Tweet information that demonstrates your expertise, help for fellow job seekers in your industry, retweets of articles in your industry, and other items that will establish you as an expert.
Use Squidoo and articles sites. Squidoo is a site that enables easy setup (no fee) of a page on a topic of your choice. The site is a collection of linked, user-generated “lenses,” which are nothing more than individual pages about a specific topic. Write articles or recycle your blog content on Squidoo, which establishes you as an expert in your field. Google finds and displays Squidoo lens pages quickly. You also can post your pieces on article submission sites, such as www.ezinearticles.com or articlebase.com.
Carefully choose social networking sites. If your Facebook page is largely about your family and friends, and reads like a snapshot from Ancestry.com, think twice about inviting the boss or senior leadership team to post on your wall. Best stick to sites geared toward professionals, such as LinkedIn or Plaxo.
Avoid gate-crashing. If you have a name and reputation in your field that gives you special currency, don’t assume this gives you carte blanche to enter any social network. Get to know the audience you’d like to engage first. If there is an administrator of the special-interest community, you might start with a quick introduction, the reason for your call, and a query as to whether members would be OK with your involvement. Members might be pleased to have an expert in their midst, but only if you’re honest and sincere.
Mind what you share. If you’ve posted content to a public site—regardless of the privacy settings you have in place–then it’s public content. Be careful what you casually share, because prospective employers will read it.
SOURCE: Troy Media
|
|
How to handle job-interview stress |
|
Job Search
|
By Bob Weinstein
Whether during good or bad economies, interview stress is a given in the job-hunting process. It’s especially intense in high-demand IT fields.
Job candidates experience stress prior to the interview and during the interview. During both occasions, the stress can be equally intense, according to Ken Siegel, a management consultant in Beverly Hills, CA, and Sharon Keys Seal, president of executive coaching company, Coaching Concepts, Inc., in Baltimore, MD.
Don’t be passive and hope the interview will run smoothly. “That’s unrealistic thinking,” says Siegel. “The worst thing you can do is make assumptions about outcomes. Expect some stress, minimal at best, and find ways to deal with it.”
Siegel and Seals list suggestions for managing stress. First, some before-interview stress reduction strategies from Siegel.
1) View the interview as a mutual exploration. The employer is learning about you, but conversely you are learning about him as well. Fear is triggered if you view the employer as controlling the interview. Without being aware of it, your defenses are down.
2) Learn about the company’s strengths and weaknesses. What concerns you the most?
3) Think of the interview as a conversation with another human being. The interviewer does not hold your career in his hands. Often, decisions are made after two or three interviews. If you make a good impression, you are passed on to the next manager in the corporate hierarchy.
And here are Seals’ before-interview tips:
1) Use the process of visualization. Visualization involves imagining what it would be like working for the company. This is possible if you invest time in researching the company. Thanks to the Internet, all it takes is a few hours to get an accurate picture of what the company is all about.
2) List several reasons why you should get the job. This is a standard question that’s likely to be asked.
3) Think carefully about the clothes your wear. It ought to meet the company’s standard and fit the corporate culture. Conservative attire is always the best bet.
During the interview, Siegel suggests:
1) Asking a lot of questions. It helps manage anxiety and focus on the mission at hand, which is impressing the interviewer with your knowledge.
Seals’ tips for controlling stress during the interview are:
1) Avoid caffeine (coffee, tea, chocolate) prior to the interview because it exacerbates tension and stress.
2) Maintain eye contact. It focuses attention on the interviewer rather than yourself. It gives you a certain amount of control over the interview because your attention is riveted on the interviewer. You are also displaying confidence, which is impressive.
Positive first impressions score points
It’s been said before, but Seals stresses the importance of making a strong first impression. A poor first impression can ruin your chances of being considered. Even though it’s an irrational response, the interviewer is not likely to change his opinion.
“The interview begins the moment you arrive,” Seals says. “Everyone you meet, from the receptionist to the hiring manager, will form an impression of you.” To make sure the impression is positive, remember that your words and mannerism affects the image your project.
Finally, don’t walk into an interview thinking your career hinges upon the outcome. “No matter how tough the job market, you must constantly remind yourself that there are many other jobs in the wings,” adds Seals. “It helps reduce stress so you can turn in a great performance if you are turned down.”
SOURCE: Troy Media
|
|
Don’t be seduced by high starting salary |
|
Job Search
|
By Bob Weinstein
Newly minted college grads make the mistake of jumping at any company dangling a high salary and attractive benefits package.
Compared with a decade ago, colleges are more diligent about preparing grads for the real world, but they still fall short when it comes to teaching them how to assess job offers so they make smart decisions.
Despite what college placement counselors say about the care and attention placed upon finding grads great jobs in a desired field, they’re still more concerned with getting them jobs so the schools’ placement rate looks good. It’s very impressive when a school can boast that its placement rate exceeds 90 percent.
More than a great job
What college career specialists don’t teach graduates is the importance of evaluating first job offers so they lay the foundation for building a career. Even students with some work experience have a limited knowledge of the vast job universe awaiting them.
Whatever industry sector you’re considering, target jobs at established companies rather than underfunded startup ventures. By the same token, don’t pick just any established company. Many large companies, for example, will file you away in a cubicle with dozens of other techies doing grunt work eight hours a day. Before you know it, you’re a forgotten cog in the corporate machinery. Unless you’re a superstar, or a brilliant or outrageous overachiever, it could be years before you get noticed.
Instead, consider companies that are intent on recognizing and developing talent. When starting out, you want to be put in a department where you get assigned to good projects and where you work closely with senior employees who can guide you. Consider companies that seem sincerely interested, rather than ones that feed you a string of clichés, such as, “We’re all about developing people rather than product.“
Be wary of companies that overplay their mentoring programs. A progressive company will encourage managers to develop new talent any way they can, rather that put too much stock in formal programs. Mentoring has risen more from demand than from vision. Companies are fast realizing that there is no formula for grooming talented workers. Often, it’s as basic as giving strong prospects more responsibilities and incentives to do good work.
And don’t be lured by fancy job titles. Job titles are ambiguous and ultimately meaningless. More important is finding out precisely what you’re going to be doing five days a week.
Ask questions
The only way to find out whether the company you’re considering is an aggressive thoroughbred is by asking intelligent questions, such as: “How do you develop talented workers?” and “Do you have a formal program to accomplish that end?”; “How do you get employees up to speed?”; “Where do you expect me to be in a year, and how do you expect me to get there?”; and “What is your policy for moving around the company?”
Even go as far as to speak to the managers and associates you’ll be working with closely. They’re more likely to tell you what the job is really like and what your prospects are.
Ideally, a first job should have structure, discipline and opportunity. You’re not likely to find these conditions at an out-of-the-gate startup company, which is treading water to stay afloat. You might have a decent salary and get to work on interesting projects, but it also may be a seat-of-the-pants operation that may not be around next month. You also can count on working 70-hour weeks.
Do your homework
Don’t be lazy about researching companies. When considering a job, check out the company on every website you can find. Finally, follow recruitment ads closely. A solid and established company spends a lot of money on recruitment campaigns. It’s very specific about its job openings and the kind of people it’s looking for to fill them. It also includes a lot of information about the company.
The amount of money spent on recruitment advertising tells you a lot about a company and the kinds of job opportunities it offers. Established companies know that whatever they spend on recruitment ads, they’ll get back a hundredfold when they hire top people. One of those people could be you.
SOURCE: Troy Media
|
|
Older workers toughest goal: Selling themselves |
|
Job Search
|
By Bob Weinstein
Older workers must first understand the realities of the career world as it exists today before they are ready to pitch themselves to employers.
Your goal is to convince employers you’re not a vestige of a bygone work era but a high-energy chameleon who quickly adapts to any environment. Picture yourself walking out a revolving door then walking back in with a new attitude and a new take on life.
Here’s what organizations, particularly technology companies, are looking for:
Recyclable workers. Just as you’d recalibrate, redesign or rebuild a machine to produce new and improved widgets, companies want workers who can wear many hats. Employers want to know you can spin on a dime to do whatever is demanded of you.
Clutch players. It’s a new philosophy toward hiring. Companies have discovered creative ways not to make long-term commitments. The new thinking is, “Why put anyone on the payroll if we don’t have to – or unless we have no choice.” Hence, the term just-in-time hiring. In the past, companies stockpiled workers. They hired more than they actually needed so work could be spread out. Now, it’s wait until the critical last moment and hire a Terminator clone who can do the work for a dozen people. Other employers are opting for short-term relationships, which are either project-based or contractual arrangements.
It’s as simple as hiring people for a clearly defined task and then showing them the door when they’re finished. Cyclical and seasonal companies do this all the time. Clothing and toy manufacturers and department stores require more bodies around the busy Christmas season to make, package, ship and sell their good. If they are lucky, at the end of the season, these people will be reassigned to other areas where their skills can be tapped.
Don’t be put off by the temporary nature of the work. There are no guarantees and you could be back on the street in three months. But it’s also an opportunity to learn and make contacts. Even if it doesn’t materialize into a long-term job, you’re head of the game because you have more skills to market.
New take on job hoppers
Remember when job hoppers were considered rootless, itinerant screw-ups who couldn’t hold down a job if their life depended upon it? The prejudice against job hoppers was part of the old work ethic. Companies searched for stalwart workers who had only two or three jobs throughout their entire career. Let’s not forget about IBM and a slew of other Fortune 500 companies that promoted the concept of lifetime employment and then abandoned it when the going got rough. What they withheld from their troops until the last grueling minute was that profits were more important than people. But give them a big round of applause for removing the stigma against job hopping – the survival tactic of the future.
Package experience
Don’t apologize because you’ve had five jobs over the last 15 years. See it as a strong selling point. Tie the experiences together to make a compelling case for your consideration. The point is to make each job into an opportunity to learn and grow. Each one took you farther along the vast career highway. Security isn’t the thing; it’s improvement and self-fulfillment. In other words, you’re a better person for each job. Even career changers can take this tack by finding a common skill to sell from two totally different industries.
A recommended exercise is making a list of all the jobs you’ve had and then writing out the good and bad points of each one. Uppermost, jot down what you learned from each. The painless exercise will help you sell yourself better when you are asked about prior jobs.
Now you’re ready to explore avenues you’ve never considered – or even known about.
SOURCE: Troy Media
|
|
Resource 
