Some of these articles get frustrating in that many of these errors can be avoided with a proper hiring process. From Inc.com’s Employers Often Misread Job Applicants: Similarly, out of 400 human resource managers polled, 59 percent said they have misjudged an applicant as being a good fit for the company, while 85 percent said they had lost an employee that simply wasn’t suited to the firm’s work environment, the survey found. According to Diane Domeyer, executive director of OfficeTeam, the interview is a prime opportunity for job seekers to assess the organization. “The interview is a two-way street,” Domeyer said in a statement. “Employers are looking for clues to… Read More
Continue ReadingSales Traits Series – Conceptual Thinking
Complex selling requires salespeople to have a long-term perspective that they incorporate into their short-term tactics. This trait can be measured in candidates and existing employees. Conceptual Thinking The ability to identify and evaluate resources while planning for their utilization throughout the execution of comprehensive, long-range plans. This trait is much more abstract than concrete organization; it deals with the ability to allocate resources in a mental scenario and accurately visualize outcomes. A salesperson with strength in this trait can mentally role-play the execution of the long-range projection and make accurate predictions concerning the possible outcomes. A salesperson with weakness in this trait may have difficulty clearly seeing such a mental scenario, thus tending to… Read More
Continue ReadingWhere The Tech Jobs Are
CNNMoney.com’s 10 great job markets for techies uses job listings from Dice.com to determine where the overall highest number of tech jobs (programmers, network administrators, etc.) are located. Their findings: 1. New York/New Jersey – 11,044 postings 2. Washington, D.C. – 7,971 postings 3. Silicon Valley – 6,755 postings 4. Los Angeles – 4,546 postings 5. Chicago – 4,241 postings 6. Boston – 4,167 postings 7. Philadelphia – 3,156 postings 8. Dallas – 3,084 postings 9. Atlanta – 2,987 postings 10. Seattle – 2,309 postings I wouldn’t call it scientific, but it is certainly indicative of the tech boom that is underway. We have done some work recently finding salespeople for… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Boomers Will Not Retire…Sort Of
The Baby Boomers are huge in numbers and quickly heading towards retirement. Generation X is a small generation in terms of numbers. This disparity is the basis for the impending worker shortage. Ah, but the market often has methods for correcting and adapting itself. The Herman Group’s latest newsletter (sorry, no link) offers a look at one adjustment that is underway: The good news is most Baby Boomers simply don€™t want to retire, at least not in the traditional sense. They are much more interested in re-careering. Here€™s why: *22 percent are bored with the mere thought of retirement. They don€™t want to sit on front porch in the rocking chair… Read More
Continue ReadingOnline Job Posting Trends
Weddle’s offer’s a bi-weekly newsletter about Internet resources for recruiting & HR professionals. In a survey conducted between March 10 and May 10, 2007 they asked the following question: Of the openings you’ve posted online, what level were they at: Hourly positions? 7.7% Entry-level professional positions? 23% Mid-level professional positions? 46.2% Senior-level professional positions? 7.7% Managerial positions? 11.5% Executive positions? 3.9% It is interesting that Mid-level professional is the largest group followed second by entry-level. I believe we’ll continue to see these two categories grow in the coming years. It will be interesting to watch the growth of niche job boards and of the networking sites liked LinkedIn, Jigsaw and… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Whole Truth In An Ad
This excerpt is from a sales ad for an entry-level salesperson (my redaction): In other words, this position is a perfect fit for an ‘up-and-comer’ who is looking to be a key contributor to a high-growth organization that is helping to define the ______ future. Beyond your ‘role,’ you will be an integral part of an overall pioneering team and can be called upon, along with everyone else, to shuttle out-of-town visitors to airports, take out trash, do dishes, whip up hot cocoa for guests, or chase down the FedEx truck to take just one last package. You name it, if it moves the enterprise forward, you’ll likely be called… Read More
Continue ReadingA Bigger Monster
We are awash in a sea of change in the sourcing options available to hiring companies. Yahoo! news reports in Monster signs up more newspapers that Monster.com has moved into more locally-owned community newspapers. Community Newspaper Holdings has 93 daily newspapers and is based in Birmingham, Ala. Under the deal announced Monday, each of the 80 new sites cobranded sites with Monster will be tied to a daily newspaper from Community Newspaper Holdings. It appears that Monster, CareerBuilder (even though they are owned by 3 newspapers) and HotJobs are attempting to displace the long-standing newspaper employment classifieds. Whether this will be sustainable in the long run is difficult to predict. I am… Read More
Continue ReadingThat Giant Sucking Sound From The Newspaper
The Pioneer Press offers up an utterly worthless piece of agenda journalism regarding CEO pay. At the risk of upsetting the Red Bird, I have pulled some quotes from You’re fired! Take these millions and go (all my emphasis): If 3M ever fires George Buckley, one of Minnesota’s highest-paid CEOs, there is one detail Buckley won’t have to sweat: health insurance. The Maplewood-based manufacturer will kindly pick up much of the tab for Buckley’s health care for two years as part of the $38 million goodbye he’ll get on the way out the door. (ed. – we learn later in the article that this “supersized pay” health care equals $28,430) Buckley’s… Read More
Continue ReadingA Quick Lesson On Millennials (Gen Y)
ABCnews.com offers a comprehensive article explaining some traits of the Millennial generation – Meet the New Millennials. The lengthy article provides many different insights into this generation. Here are some anecdotal highlights: “We recently had to tell a young woman employee that this was not an underwear optional workplace,” he told ABCNEWS.com. “This generation needs to be deeply coached about wardrobe, and a lot of them are used to getting up at 10 or 11 a.m. Forget about them showing up to work at 8 or 9 a.m.” “They grew up with an ‘everyone gets a trophy’ sense of entitlement,” he said. “They are members of a generation that thinks… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Selling CEO
CareerJournal.com’s Company Leaders Are Spending More Quality Time With Customers covers a timely topic in today’s market – CEO’s directly involved in the selling process. We have seen this change in our mid-sized customers for the past few years. This article provides a good example – the CEO for Intel getting involved in a large deal with Apple: He heard grumblings that this change wasn’t possible — at least not anytime soon — but Mr. Otellini pushed ahead. “Instead of saying no, we can’t, let’s say yes and figure out how,” he recalls telling his senior team members. He won them over and soon had a new packaging design to… Read More
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