Let’s keep the “so what?” principle going before the weekend. Recently in a face-to-face interview for a business development role candidates were asked – “How have you developed territories in the past?” The question was purposely vague to see if they would ask for clarification to understand what we were specifically looking for before responding. Ideally, the candidates would not only explain how they went about developing a new territory, but the impact it had on their company (the so what? factor). One candidate stood out from the rest and not in a good way. He did not ask qualify the question nor did he give it much thought. In… Read More
Continue ReadingDecreased Employee Loyalty
Inc.com has an article from earlier this week discussing worker loyalty in regards to age. I don’t think there are any surprises here in that older workers are more loyal than younger workers. First off, I think this analogy is one of the best I have seen to describe Gen X and Y’s approach to employment: Kevin Marasco, vice president of marketing at Jacksonville, Fla.-based Vurv Technology, a provider of Web-based workforce-management systems, explained that younger employees manage their careers as they would an investment. Just as they want to buy and sell a stock at the right time, younger workers want to build career equity by joining and leaving… Read More
Continue ReadingU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Website
I had some fun bouncing around the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Website yesterday. Pretty dangerous for a numbers geek like me. You can imagine that I soon found myself knee-deep into numbers. As you probably know, we are spellbound by lists here at The Hire Sense so this site was rich with stats, numbers and lists. Beautiful. Well anyway, here are some interesting numbers I found that I thought I would share with you. As I posted earlier this week, the United States unemployment rate is at 4.7%, but if we look at the number of job openings as a percent of total employment, 2.8%, we… Read More
Continue ReadingThe “So What?” Factor
I thought I would tie in to the Rock Star’s post about Attracting the Passive Candidate. Let’s look at it from the other side – what do candidates have to do to “be attractive” to the hiring company. I was catching up to an older post from Guy Kawaski’s blog and something jumped out at me. Guy playfully submitted his email cover and resume for a Yahoo position and allowed these 2 items to be critiqued by a recruiting manager from Yahoo. I thought her analysis was excellent. This part caught my attention: The resume calls out the positions held and a brief description of the responsibilities. What it lacks… Read More
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