The online job posting statistics provide a look at general hiring trends…I think.  My question is always in regards to which online boards are being tracked.  We are seeing a marked migration away from the big boards to the still-developing niche boards.

That migration may be skewing the data from this Inc.com article - I’m not certain.  Nonetheless, the year-over-year tracking of the big boards is still noteworthy (emphasis mine):

The number of online job postings last month declined 16.4 percent from a year ago, the Conference Board reported Friday.

In total, there were 2,591,500 new jobs posted online in April, with healthcare and management accounting for more than 450,000.

Alaska continued to lead the online job market last month, followed by Nevada and Massachusetts, while the sharpest declines were reported in Maryland, Vermont, and Connecticut.

If you're new here and like what you see, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Comments(0)

I haven’t heard this term before, but I absolutely love it.  From the Wall Street Journal’s How Stay-at-Home Moms Are Filling an Executive Niche:

The decision among some highly educated women to stay home with children is sparking a countertrend: The rise of the mommy “SWAT team.” The acronym, for “smart women with available time,” is one mother’s label for all-mom teams assembled quickly through networking and staffing firms to handle crash projects. Employers get lots of voltage, cheap, while the women get a skills update and a taste of the professional challenges they miss.

What a fantastic idea.  The differentiation:

Skilled workers taking temp projects isn’t new, of course. What’s different about these teams is that they’re available on short notice because the women are usually at home; they tend to work cheap because their main motive is to keep their skills fresh; and they’re often extraordinarily well-qualified, having left the work force voluntarily when their careers were on the ascent.

The work world becomes more flexible every day.

Comments(0)

I just read an employment ad for a sales position that had this for the title:

Salesmen

Honestly, how out of touch can you be?

Comments(0)

Here’s what we often see from hiring managers or recruiters that focus on a wide variety of positions.  They tend to look for qualifications in their sourcing activities.  Obviously, this approach is warranted and required when sourcing for positions like accountants, medical personnel, IT, engineers and so forth.

But what about sales?  What qualifications determine sales success?  A college degree?  5, 7 or 10 years tenure?  Industry experience?

The difficulty in sales is that there are so few, if any, verifiable qualifications that properly filter applicants out.  The better approach is to list the skills that the sale requires.  Notice I didn’t write “position?”  The typical sale is what needs to drive the skills for the position.  This is why our initial task, before sourcing candidates, is to profile the sale.

I can’t stress this enough, job descriptions typically won’t define the skills needed for a strong sales hire.  They work for other positions, but sales is vastly different.  I think this is where general recruiters get into difficulty.  I’ll go further and say even experienced sales managers get in trouble here.  Many of our customers tell us that they have tried to hire salespeople themselves without any tools or processes and it was just a crap shoot.  All - all - of them have more than one sales hiring nightmare story.

Here is the crux of the problem when it comes to determining what is needed to hire the right salesperson - bachelor’s degrees and time in the industry do not predict success in sales.  “Ability to develop territory,” “strong hunter” and “service existing accounts” are not going to cut it.

You need to understand the sale.  There is a difference in skill sets needed if it takes 5 contacts to close 1 deal versus 55 contacts to close 1 deal.  There is a difference in skills needed to close a 1 year sales cycle versus a 1 week sales cycle.  This information provides the qualifications to determine sales success.

For instance, if the typical sale requires 75 calls (to suspects) that filter down to 1 sale and the average sales cycle is 2 weeks, you have to source candidates that have the ability to build rapport quickly, qualify efficiently and handle rejection easily.

Understanding the critical aspects of a typical sale is the starting point for a successful sales hire.

Comments(1)

Forbes.com offers up an article about companies hiring large numbers of employees.  How large?

Infosys received 1.3 million résumés last year. “In peak seasons we receive around 6,000-10,000 resumes in a day,” says Nandita Gurjar, vice president of human resources development at Infosys.

And you thought you had a pile of resumes to get through.  The article explains how many of these companies are using online tests or questionnaires at the first step in the process.  Clearly, as cold as it sounds, they would have to do some sort of first-pass, automated filter to handle this level of response.

After the initial culling, one casino uses a unique approach to role playing:

Once the initial pool is culled, candidates go to an audition, which is what the job interview is called. Since hotel and casino employees have so much interaction with customers, managers want people who deal well under pressure, interact positively with customers and can demonstrate that they can do the tasks their jobs require.

Hiring managers use software to rate candidates on their performance during a series of scenarios. For instance, a roulette dealer must go through several rolls of the dice while the hiring manager acts as the customer.

Yeah, I know - roulette “dealer” and “several rolls of the dice” - they appear to mixing positions, but you get the point.  The casino is using a strong approach to their hiring.  We use different techniques in our initial phone screen with candidates without their knowledge.  This approach allows us to get a glimpse into their ability to handle specific interactions.

Comments(2)

This sentence is from a cover email regarding a sales position:

I am educated up to an MBA.

I still am not sure what that means.

Comments(0)

Maybe the list from Forbes.com (via ABCNews.com) provides some assistance in recruiting candidates for relocation?  The Twin Cities is ranked no. 9 on the list.  A definite advantage until weather (i.e. winter) is discussed.

1.  
   1. Miami, FL
   2. Seattle, WA
   3. Jacksonville, FL
   4. Orlando, FL
   5. Portland, OR
   6. San Francisco, CA
   7. Oklahoma City, OK
   8. Tampa-St. Pete, FL
   9. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
   10. San Jose, CA

Comments(4)

I have been searching through online resumes and came across this commentary in a cover letter:

I am a 63 year old male just recently let go from my job because I’m too old. Don’t worry, I’m fighting it but in the meantime, I need a job.

You know, some things are better left unsaid.

Comments(0)

From Human Resource Executive Online’s Uncertain Economy, Uneven Hiring (emphasis mine):

Richard Fanelli, president of Fanelli McClain Design Studios, a commercial interior planning and design firm located in Fairfax, Va., says that his company is not hiring right now, but they’re scouting.

“We have to have the workload to support new hires,” he says. “But if I were to find the right person, I might hire them and then market harder to justify the hire.”

That is an interesting turn of phrase, isn’t it?  “Scouting” is an excellent verb to use in this context.  This is a practice we preach, but most companies don’t scout consistently.  This lack of consistency leads to a mad scramble after a salesperson walks in on a Friday afternoon and resigns.

Today’s high productivity, fast-paced market may make these scouting activities difficult for a sales manager to accomplish while growing revenue.  That is where a company like ours can stand in the gap and provide scouting reports on available candidates.

Comments(0)

I’m digging around the resume pile again and came across a title that I actually enjoyed (slightly edited by me):

Sales Pro Seeking New Dragons To Slay

I know, it is a bit quirky, but it stands out which is important in it’s own right.  I opened up the resume to look at the details inside and found this piece of information under the Education section (redacted by me):

_________ University
1986-2001
Liberal Arts

So much for the good title.

Comments(1)