In a recent article on Weddles.com (the website provides resources for employment, personal development and career success) titled The First Four Lines, the author discusses the importance of catching the candidates’ attention in ads. In their own survey Weddles has found most visitors to the online job boards are now spending more time on the online sites than in the past. They do provide some stats in the article, but unfortunately they do not provide a frame of reference as in per day, per week or per month or how much this has changed from past surveys. The article does give some great tips on attracting the passive candidates: Passive… Read More
Continue ReadingHiring Increases to Continue
No real surprises here from the Manpower quarterly survey of 16,000 U.S. companies regarding their hiring plans for the fourth quarter. From the report: Twenty percent of firms surveyed said they will be open to hiring in the upcoming fourth quarter, about flat with the 21% who said they intended to hire in the third quarter this year.For more than two years — 11 quarters, to be exact — the portion of firms who said they planned to hire has hovered around 20%. Interesting that it consistently stays at 20%. I’m no statistician (but I did take it twice in college for . . . nefarious reasons), but that consistency… Read More
Continue ReadingFakin’ It
We can’t stress this enough, if your first pass on applicants is to sort resumes, you are making a big mistake. Granted, you have to look at their history, but odds are you are looking at an embellished document. From workforce.com: ResumeDoctor.com says nearly 43 percent of people in a new study fibbed about their qualifications. The South Burlington, Vermont-based company scoured 1,000 résumés for factual errors on seemingly insignificant items such as dates of employment, educational and professional credentials, and job titles. The résumé-counseling company found that many people intentionally misstate or exaggerate these details in an effort to get better jobs–a tactic it says usually backfires. The study… Read More
Continue ReadingSalespeople Who Can’t Discuss Money
Another CareerJournal article – When It Comes to Job Offers,It Pays to Ask for More Money – that discusses strategies for negotiating pay in the interview process. The short article has good suggestions for candidates but I want to take a myopic view of the article for sales candidates. First, from the article (my emphasis): CareerBuilder.com’s survey of 875 hiring managers revealed that about 60% leave room in the first offer for salary negotiations, 30% say their first offer is final, and 10% say it depends on the candidate. Meanwhile, four out of five corporate recruiters said they are willing to negotiate compensation, according to a study conducted by the… Read More
Continue ReadingBad Interview Techniques
Great post from Seth Godin this morning that makes a not-so-subtle point about typical interview techniques. Here is the post in its entirety: Omer sends in this riff from Peopleware: Juggler Interview Circus Manager: How long have you been juggling? Candidate: Oh, about six years. Manager: Can you handle three balls, four balls, and five balls? Candidate: Yes, yes, and yes. Manager: Do you work with flaming objects? Candidate: Sure. Manager: …knives, axes, open cigar boxes, floppy hats? Candidate: I can juggle anything. Manager: Do you have a line of funny patter that goes with your juggling? Candidate: It’s hilarious. Manager: Well, that sounds fine. I guess you’re hired. Candidate:… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Gut is NOT the Answer
We were at a customer site yesterday afternoon and heard a great line. This is a large, national company with thousands of employees. Our HR contacts have to work with many different hiring managers and have to debrief with them after interviews. One of the lines they hear from a particular manager is that their gut tells them no on a certain candidate who has been qualified and assessed. Our HR contact said, “We don’t like ‘gut’ in HR.” Amen to that! We don’t like it either in our business. Far better to hear objective assessment analysis and direct interview responses as opposed to anything involving the ethereal “my gut”… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Silver Bullet
No, not Coors. I’m talking about interview questions. More specifically, is there any catch-all interview question that will reveal the essence of the candidate. No. I read many articles that discuss interview strategies and most of them are exercises in theory. Maybe my sales background taints my perspective, but interviews are qualifying events for both the candidate and interviewer. What I mean is that template questions tend to generate template answers. For example: Q – “Where do you want to be in 5 years?” A – “I hope to use my leadership skills to expand my responsibilities within the company and move into a leadership position.” That exchange was worthless… Read More
Continue ReadingBackground Verification
In an article on Salary.com titled – Can Your Credit Report Hurt You in An Interview? An interesting statistic popped out at me – only 1 out of 5 small to medium-sized businesses run any form of background verification. 20%! I was shocked that the number is so low. Soap box time: If you are not already completing some form of background verification, start with your next hire and all subsequent hires. A true story to illustrate my point. Roughly 2 years ago, we were working with a client that was impressed with a candidate’s ability to close the deal (ask for and start the job). They liked him so… Read More
Continue ReadingEntry-Level Pay
Good article here from CareerJournal written as a “How To” for young workers entering the workforce. A good tip for any candidate from the article: Try not to play hardball at this level,” warns Mr. Gordon. But you don’t have to be a pushover either. Once you’ve got a number, remain positive about the position. Ask, don’t demand. No one wants to hear you need more money to take vacations in Cancun, but you might have a case for a higher salary if you have to move to a new city. Ask for a day or so to think it over. Another topic to be aware of is the fact… Read More
Continue ReadingJobseekers & Sites
I thought I would pass along some stats and information I found regarding job boards & recruiting. This information can be found in a recent newsletter from Weedle’s, which is a research, publishing, consulting and training firm. They surveyed 750 job seekers and asked them how much time they normally spend on a job board. Here are their findings: 29.1% spend more than 30 minutes on each job board they visit 24.5% spend 11-20 minutes 22.3% spend 21-30 minutes 18.9% spend 6-10 minutes 5.2% blow in-and-out in 5 minutes or less They also provided some suggestions when trying to determine which sites to use in recruiting active vs. passive job… Read More
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