Hank:

I had a candidate working as a mainframe programmer for one of my larger clients. After some time, the client called me and asked, “Have you seen the news today?”

“No I haven’t,” I replied, “why?”

“Go find a paper and look for yourself.”

Sure enough, I went and purchased a copy of the Boston Globe, and on the front page was my candidate in handcuffs. The state police department had crashed a meeting being held by the KKK, the leader of which was non-other than my candidate!

Ron:

I was working to find a candidate for a client facing job opportunity fixing high level architecture problems. I had found a candidate whose resume was a great match for the job opening, and immediately requested an in person interview. Unfortunately, when the candidate stepped into the office, she was wearing sneakers, a dusty suite jacket, and a Whinnie the Pooh backpack. It was apparent to me that this candidate would not be a match for the job at hand, and what seemed to be the best candidate on paper proved otherwise.

Michele:

I remember interviewing an individual who appeared to be a decent candidate on paper. After multiple conversations, we set up a face to face meeting where I was able to ask questions relevant to his field of work. After our meeting I realized he was a better candidate than I thought.

I sent him on several job interviews, but for some reason he was not getting any offers. I thought it was strange, since his background was ideal and his demeanor was pleasant.

In order to address my concerns, I had him come back into my office and performed some role playing to discover what the issue might be. It turns out that his answers to my questions were not working! His answers were unorganized and he appeared very uncomfortable.

After we worked together through each issue, I sent him off to an important client in Boston. Sure enough, he nailed it! Not only was he hired, but he became my point of contact for the client! He was very grateful for my efforts and everything ended up working out great!

Steve:

Instead of a terrible tale, I am sharing the worst interview question an applicant can ask and some terrible candidate tendencies when answering standard interview questions.

The Worst Question:

• What does your company make (or do)? – A candidate who wishes to gain employment should do some research about the business they are applying for. Knowing what a company does before going on an interview is one of the most important actions you can take.

Terrible Responses:

• Criticizing your former employer – Bashing a former employer lets the interviewer know that you will do the same if you leave their company.
• Claiming that you don’t have any weaknesses. Everyone has at least one weakness and claiming that you do not is unwise.

Lisa:

I had one candidate take a 2-way radio hand-held walkie-talkie into an interview.

Another candidate of mine had a tongue ring, which kept interrupting our conversation as he explained his last role to me. I asked if he could remove it, but he refused and walked out.

My final candidate was dressed well when we first met. However, when he came into my office to ‘prepare’ for his interview that day, he wore a suit with sneakers and white socks.

Mark:

My candidate was offered a temporary position from one of my clients. Unfortunately, she declined the offer so as not to lose her unemployment benefits. In order to help the situation, I got her an offer to become a permanent employee. But instead of taking the job, she said, “I need health care and the state is paying for all that,” and if she accepted the position she would lose her benefits she felt she had earned.

Do you use social media in your job search?  

If so, which ones?

Please post below, and tell us your own job search opinions, experiences, or ramblings in regards to social media!

]]> http://thevesumegroup.com/2012/01/26/social-media-job-search/feed/ 0 http://thevesumegroup.com/2012/01/25/video-employers-and-jobseekers/ http://thevesumegroup.com/2012/01/25/video-employers-and-jobseekers/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:02:17 +0000 czybert http://nealadvertisingmedia.com/vesume/?p=641 READ MORE >]]>

Video Interview- The Future of hiring…

Imagine having the ability to screen thousands of potential employees while saving time and money.  Or, if you are a job seeker, imagine having the ability to differentiate yourself from the crowd. With a video interview, these objectives are now a reality.

Ten years ago this opportunity may have seemed impossible; however, with modern advances in video technology, employers and job seekers are realizing the benefit of using a computer solution in the hiring process. As the tools available evolve, so should our ability and obligation to utilize them.

There is much to be said about these video tools and their ability to revolutionize the hiring process. A video interview puts employers and candidates in front of each other quickly and conveniently. These tools reduce costs for both employers and talent while streamlining the hiring process. Job seekers are able to sell themselves and their soft skills, helping to differentiate quality talent amongst a pile of resumes. Furthermore, using video tools allows for a wider geography of opportunity, eliminating location and logistics as obstacles for both talent and employers.

In today’s economy, employers are receiving more resumes than they know what to do with, and the screening process has become even more tedious and time consuming. Hours of time go into reviewing resumes as employers sift through candidates to identify what they believe to be, “the top contenders.” However, what looks great on paper is not always a reflection of the overall candidate. Often times, upon meeting these “top contenders,” employers discover that their once perfect candidates seem less suitable for the role at hand. This can be avoided with a video interview, helping to identify top talent and their  soft skills simultaneously.

Job seekers tend to get lost in the crowd. However, with these new tools candidates no longer need to hope that their resume does not get lost within the pile. Just as a video interview helps employers identify quality candidates, job seekers can use these tools to illustrate that they are indeed a perfect fit. Within the medium of video, candidates can differentiate themselves immediately with a face to face conversation. This conversation proves paramount as it allows candidates to illustrate  soft skills in a forum that allows for a two way stream of information. Employers can direct the questions while candidates sell themselves.

In addition to more efficient hiring, video interviews save both employers and candidates’ time while reducing costs. For employers, time and cost is saved through eliminating in person interviews with unqualified job seekers. For job seekers, money and time is saved through eliminating the need for travel. Furthermore, candidate searches are opened to a much broader pool of individuals, as a video interview can be conducted from anywhere in the world with nothing more than a video camera and a connection to the internet. Without the being restricted to local talent, finding the best possible candidate increases immensely.

Concern of logistics is also alleviated through use of a video interview solution. Scheduling a meeting is convenient and flexible, as a video conference is not a static event. Because the “where” has been eliminated, the only restraint possible is time. However, with timely communication, an interview can easily be scheduled or changed.

Video interviews is also a “green” approach to hiring.  Video interviews require no paper to transfer ideas, providing the world with but another paperless alternative. There is no gas involved in traveling to an interview, reducing pollution. Becoming ‘green’ is an important focus for industry, and any means in which pollution can be reduced should be considered and implemented.

Video solutions are slowly, but surely, changing how we work. The internet has given way to many innovative and inspiring tools that have revolutionized how we share data with others. It has now changed how we interview and source candidates for hire. Video interviews reduce costs and time, helps identify the best talent from an infinite candidate pool, all while providing a better service to our planet.

Below are 10 practical strategies for using staffing to reduce overhead, manage operating costs, and improve organizational performance.

1. Convert Fixed Cost to Variable

If your company is like most, labor is the biggest line item on your P&L. To minimize that expense, implement a planned staffing model. Reduce core staff to levels necessary to maintain normal operations. Then partner with qualified temporary staffing vendors to supplement your staff to meet peak production demands as needed. This strategy is particularly effective for industrial labor, as well as for technical and professional projects.

2. Eliminate Overtime

Overtime is an extremely expensive way to get work done. Using temporary employees in place of overtime can reduce labor costs by 20% or more.

3. Limit Benefits Expense

On average, benefits cost 20%-25% in excess of payroll expenses. Where appropriate, use temporary and pay-rolled employees (employees who are paid through a staffing firm or professional employment service) to eliminate benefits expenses. This option is most often used for interns, project professionals, and other short-term employees. Using temporary and pay-rolled employees in place of independent contractors will also reduce your unemployment risks.

4. Reduce Training Costs

Training is expensive- and not just the hard dollar cost of the training program. There are also the soft costs of lower productivity and poorer quality that result from employing novice staff. By working closely with your staffing partner, you can gain access to candidates who are well trained and have experience in the skills you need. To enhance productivity further, partner with your staffing firm to create an initial orientation and training program for new hires.

5. Shift Administrative Burden

When you use temporary staff instead of direct hires, all costs associated with processing and administering payroll and benefits are transferred from your company to the staffing firm.

6. Prevent Unemployment Claims

Unlike short-term direct employees, temporary personnel work for your staffing partner- not you. Consequently, their unemployment claims don’t effect your rating or your bottom line.

7. Reduce the Risk of Hiring Mistakes 

A bad hire can cost you between 2 and 7 times the employee’s annual salary. Staffing firms follow rigorous screening procedures for both temporary personal and direct hires, which increases your chances of getting the right person. They will most often provide candidates who not only possess the skills and experience you require, but who also have the personality traits needed to thrive in your work environment. To further reduce your hiring risk, you can also take advantage of your staffing partner’s temp-to-hire services and direct placement guarantees.

8. Take Advantage of a Staffing Firm’s HR Capabilities

If hiring duties are sidetracking your key employees, use your staffing partner to handle screening, testing, interviewing, and reference checking. Their expertise can free your personnel to concentrate on critical activities and can reduce your time to hire.

9. Cut Costs by Hiring

Capacity constraints are a significant source of cost. Constraints may affect the throughput of a plant or the productivity of an executive. To eliminate the bottlenecks, consider adding temporary of full-time staff. Bringing in administrative support frees key personnel to focus on core job duties (not only do you get a more productive employee, but the administrative work gets done for significantly less cost). Add labor to relieve process constraints and improve productivity. Use technical and professional temps to keep projects on track. By adding the right people, work will get done more efficiently, with less administrative headache, and for less cost.

10. Aver Costs Associated with Burnout

Many companies may take the concept of “lean thinking” too far. They push direct staff to produce more with fewer resources. And as the stress increases, so do problems with quality, productivity, absenteeism, and turnover. Take the pressure off by using temporary employees. The additional personnel will help your staff avoid burnout, reduce the cost of defects, avoid productivity losses, and limit turnover expanse.

Branding is defined as the process of creating a unique name and image for a product in the eyes of consumers. The goal is to establish a strong presence in order to attract and keep valued customers. When considering new employment opportunities, potential candidates should consider that the definition and goals of branding are identical to pursuing a new career.  Who you are, in both text and physical presence, create the product that is yourself. Hiring managers are the consumers that you wish to attract as you attempt to differentiate who you are from others applying for the same position.

Selling yourself as you would a product is no easy task. Properly branding yourself will vastly increase your chances of finding work, while simultaneously allowing you to become a trusted and knowledgeable leader within your field of expertise, but it will take time, knowledge, and experience.

There are two main facets in which personal branding can occur: In person and on the internet

Branding yourself in person is the easier of these two methods. When considering your immediate physical presence, be aware of how you dress, your personality, and communication skills.

What you wear: Sure, it sounds a bit shallow, but how you dress is a large indicator of who you are to others- Determine how you want to be viewed. Are you a suit and tie, business all the time type of employee? Or are you more of a business casual type, dressed for success and comfort? Perhaps you despise the idea of formal attire and will never be seen in anything but jeans and a t-shirt.

Regardless of your own style- own it.

Be mindful of the jobs that you are applying for, because changing your brand, or in this case your pants, could make a large difference in a hiring decision. Better understanding how you would like to dress might alter your own decisions in where you look for work.

Be Loud- Okay, so not audibly loud, but blatant in your interests. Your personality should promote what you are interested in. Your passions, your goals, and your expertise should be exciting to you, and you want other people to know it.

Your second medium in which to brand and broadcast yourself is the internet. Since the development of social networking sites, your personality and knowledge has become widely translatable to the World Wide Web. This is a great place to showcase your abilities, your interests, and your work history. However, the internet has also caused personal and business existences to blur together, making your web presence a balancing act. Because of this, one must become aware of how you are represented on all accounts.

First off and foremost, be wary of your privacy settings. If you are comfortable placing personal information out into the web, it is crucial that you be wary of who has access to it. This is particularly important on sites such as Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter. Keeping your business presence and your personal presence separate is highly advised.

Second, acknowledge the importance of growing a network. Using social media, such as Twitter and Linked in can advertise what you know about the professional world, and will allow you to build a network of like minded individuals. Follow those that speak to your interests and begin communicating. As you share information and opinion with others, they will begin to follow you. This give and take of information establishes you as a trusted source, giving you a large presence within communities across the net. As your followers grow, so will your knowledge, your image, and most importantly, your network. Your network is a vital resource that can be used for new ventures, work advice, and an example of your prowess others will see.

This can play a vital part in your acquisition of employment. With great references and group/networking prowess, you will be recognized not only as a member within your field of interest/employment, but a go to source.

As a side note, YouTube is perhaps the most versatile of any social medium as you can converse with like minded individuals. Creating a YouTube channel discussing your interests, particularly those that pertain to your desired field of work, can generate interest around you!

When you are applying for a job, you are selling yourself to a decision maker. When you are interviewing a candidate, you are selling your image to future employees. How you carry yourself, and how you represent yourself on the web is a lifelong ad campaign- so make sure you aware of brand “you”.

We live in a world of technology- an important understanding to have when applying for a job. As technology advances, our society continues to adapt and innovate in order to make things easier while helping individuals stand out. When considering the job application process, a video resume proves to do just this. Being a product of technology and innovation, video resumes can do wonders to differentiate a candidate from the crowd.

It is a common misconception that these short 1-3 minute videos will someday replace the traditional resume. Instead, consider the video resume to be a compliment to an online resume. Your resume is meant to illustrate why you are qualified to fill a position, whereas a video resume is an advertising tool for job seekers. Showcasing your personality, presentation, and other skills through a video medium will greatly compliment a strong set of hard skills.

Human intuition and interaction are two very important tools used in the hiring process. In fact, decision makers can sometimes tell that someone is not going to work out by first impressions alone. One must consider that there are plenty of individuals who look great on paper, sound better on the phone, but turn out to be a terrible candidate in person. The most skilled are not always the most qualified, as personality and ability to communicate can vastly change the effectiveness of any learned skill.  The ability of a video resume to illustrate personal qualities help eliminate the guess work involved in determining a perfect employment fit.

It all comes down to soft skills and personality. Candidates have always been able to showcase their hard skills, however there is little to be said for their soft skills. Within a video, candidates combine talking about their past experiences while illustrating their other more hidden abilities in a controlled atmosphere. The important aspect of this is the controlled atmosphere. In a process where a resume is your only form of controlled impression, expanding what you can and should illustrate becomes vital.

A video resume can be valuable to any candidate-

• For those with the required experience for the job at hand, they will be able to illustrate why they are a valuable asset besides just what they know.
• For those lacking in required skills, a video resume will allow the leverage of your soft skills to illustrate yourself as the better fit over someone who may have more experience. It is a chance to show a potential employer your potential.
• The candidate who stands out will be the one who finds employment. A candidate with a video

A video resume illustrates valuable key components of job seekers and has played a positive role in the acquisition of employment. It is not about looks, contrary to popular consensus, but rather to provide a showcase for experience, personality, presentation, and gives insight into forming healthy group dynamics in the workplace. Building your team should come with utmost attention to detail, which means that seeing and hearing a candidate should not be overlooked, but rather utilized to its fullest potential. We live in a world of technology and it is not going anywhere. Instead of debating whether or not to use a video resume, instead ask yourself

 what is the best way to present your video?

Businesses often debate if and when to outsource the responsibility of searching for candidates from their personal Human Resource department to the expertise of a staffing agency. The answer is unclear, however many employers have come to find that supplementing their HR department or hiring process benefits their overall success. Below I have compiled a short list, to illustrate some of the reasons why I believe a staffing agency should be considered-

• The first reason is simple; HR is busy. The Human Resource department is filled with responsibilities including employee advocacy, keeping the business legally complaint, maintaining employee benefits, 401ks, and much more. Not to mention, HR bears the most substantial risk of a bad hire, as they are the sole department responsible for the ultimate decision

• Second is the accuracy a staffing agency provides. When filling a niche position, the candidate search becomes difficult. Recruiters that work within a certain niche market, for example in the placement of IT positions, will have an upper hand in identifying the best candidates. Because a niche staffing agency has nothing but contact with the employees you are searching for, they will instantly have the upper hand in finding the appropriate talent.

• In addition to #2, niche recruiters have a knowledgebase that HR departments might not. In order to fill an open position, a recruiter must understand the job and the skills required to perform said job. Let those with the knowledge make the proper recommendations.

• Recruiters also have the strength of their network. Because recruiters require an in depth understanding of the field in which they recruit, they begin to network with a plethora of candidates connected within a very particular circle of professionals. This includes other niche recruiters, employers, and candidates. Not only is their network large, it is impressive. There are many well connected recruiters devoted to finding the best talent.

• One of the most valuable advantages to using an agency for your staffing needs it a recruiter’s resources. While recruiters do have plenty of established resources through their own personal networks, there are other, and often costly, means to access candidates. While there are plenty of job boards such as Indeed and Craigslist, there are certain positions where these avenues just don’t make the grade. There are alternatives to posting, such as Dice, an online job posting board directed specifically towards tech related job seekers. However, the prices one must pay to have access to posting may not be justified. Staffing agencies, on the other hand, do use these tools. Use a recruiter’s access to these boards to your advantage, and save money in the process.

The use of a staffing/recruiting agency proves to supply many benefits to any company looking to hire, especially those with a niche market of employment opportunities. Furthermore, it will do wonders to lighten the load of work placed onto Human Resource departments. Staffing/Recruiting agencies have the skills to assess a proper candidate, the pool to pick them from, and the best sense of what needs to be accomplished post-hire. So when considering whether or not to supplement your job hiring process, remember to consider the substantial resources, knowledge, and networks you can have at your disposal.

The elevator pitch is one of the most powerful tools any businessperson can have in their arsenal. However, despite its ability to make or break a networking situation, many people do not know what they are, or do not have one. Here, we will be going over what an elevator pitch is, how to craft one, and how to use it.

What is an elevator pitch?

An elevator pitch is a short pitch to catch the attention and interest of others. It is called an elevator pitch because of its intended brevity, and should take no longer to say than your average elevator ride. It only takes 30 seconds for one to gain or lose interest, and 30 seconds before their thoughts drift elsewhere.

The elevator pitch has many applications, including gaining new clients and building professional relationships.

A good pitch should:

• Be no more than 15 seconds
• Include a directed idea/pitch for a niche market
• Illustrate (a) problems within said market
• Include how you can solve these issues
• Develop what makes you unique
• Provide a short story that illustrates the outcomes you produce
• Beg questions from your audience

Here are some examples of elevator pitches

A recruiter might say-

“I match great talent with great jobs”

Or

“I am a staffing professional that uses innovative tools to streamline your hiring process”

Keeping your pitch short will keep the attention of your audience. It should illustrate the problems you solve, followed by how you solve them, in order to develop the immediate interest in a potential connection. Through providing a brief synopsis of how you were successful in your endeavors you boost the credibility. Using a vague enough pitch to draw questions and continued interest from your audience will turn your elevator pitch into a fruitful conversation, which leads to fruitful endeavors.

But creating the perfect elevator pitch is more than just following the above guidelines. Crafting your pitch takes time, revision, and practice.

How to craft an elevator pitch-

Step 1. Write everything down. Go over everything that you may want someone else to hear about your pitch. Some good places to start include covering-

• Who you are and who you work for
• What do you do, and why are you excited to do so?
• What do you offer? Or what problems do you solve?
• What are the benefits of how you solve these issues?
• How exactly do you do it?

Step 2. Gut your entire presentation. Eliminate jargon and details, strip the unneeded words, and begin to shave your long presentation into an outline of its original form. Be sure to keep all of the important details without sacrificing your message.

Step 3. Once your pitch has been trimmed down for length and time, begin to connect your pitch together. Fluidity is the focus here, because not only does your pitch have to carry weight, it also needs to sound good. Make sure your ideas are clear and congruent.

Step 4. Practice, practice, practice. You never know when you will have your opportunity to network, and you will never know exactly what someone else might say. In turn, prepare yourself with a slew of pitch variations to target different audiences, and remember what you have to say. The business world is not a static environment and so your pitch should remain just as active and always at the ready.