Last week I put up a second post, What Candidates Look For In A Job on a webinar conducted by Monster and DDI. In that post I highlighted the disconnect between what the candidate is looking for and what the employer believes they are looking for. Age is a factor in the responses and I promised to share that information with you. So here you go, the top 4 reasons by age group in order of importance: Less than 20 Years Old A creative/fun workplace culture. A compatible work group/team. A good manager/boss. Opportunities to learn and grow. 21 to 30 Years Old Opportunities to learn and grow. Opportunity to… Read More
Continue Reading2007 Salary Trends
Salary.com put this article out earlier this month. It is a lengthy article written to employees in regards to 2007 areas of compensation, but there are some points to keep in mind not only as you are hiring staff this year but in retaining your current team. These points are complementary to one of our earlier posts on the top reasons why candidates take a job. If you haven’t read this post, let me highlight the top 4 things candidates are looking for in jobs: A good manager/boss, opportunity to advance, opportunities to learn/grow and balance between work and personal life. Salary.com’s article aligns with 3 of the 4 points… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Team Selling Approach
This article – Sell Your Team on Team Selling – from Selling Power’s Pharmaceuticals Newsletter approaches a trend we are seeing in spades these days. “The greatest benefits from a team selling approach are what I call just-in-time factors,” he says. “That includes just-in-time technical expertise to address complex and/or outside the box inquiries, decision making to solidify the deal without self-imposed company decision making delays, and the confidence gained by being a team, especially from internal support from the potential purchaser or user.” The “team” typically is composed of a single sales rep along with members from other departments (i.e. engineering, financial, operations, production, etc.). In today’s world, this… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Fog Of Job Ads
I attended a monster.com webinar today regarding sourcing from, interestingly enough, the job seeker’s perspective. I wanted to share an important finding from their survey. The number 1 job seeker complaint about finding new jobs (in sourcing terms) was vague job descriptions. I shudder as I write this because I envision companies writing even longer sales ads. The key word was vague, not short. The 3 negative outcomes job seekers perceive from a vague ad: Bait and switch – once into the process, the candidate learns that he or she is really being considered for a lesser position Misrepresentation – the ad doesn’t truly describe what the actual job entails… Read More
Continue ReadingVideo Resumes
I found this site – RecruiTV – from the ERE.net newsletter. The company that runs this site is called Wetjello (I have no idea why, but it is memorable). From their website: Wetjello provides powerful online video recruitment solutions including recruitment campaign video development, video production and integrated web video solutions. Were helping create a new online recruitment medium with powerful, edgy and impactful video campaigns for companies around the world. Their claim to fame is that they feature video resumes. I have been drawn in to watching a few of the sales resumes (is that the proper word for these). I have to admit, some parts of the videos… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Office Love Trend
Inc.com offers As Valentine’s Day Approaches, Office Romance on the Rise – an appropriate story the day before Valentine’s. Check out the lede: The number of workers caught canoodling at work has skyrocketed over the past year, according to new research. That deserves mention simply for using the verb “canoodling.” When is the last time you read that in a business article? Yeah, I know, maybe last year at this time. Anyway, the stats: Four out of 10 U.S. workers admit to being involved with another colleague at some point, according to a new survey by Spherion, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based employment firm, and Harris Interactive. … Twenty-five percent of… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Social Media Boom
From Foxnews.com – Study: Inc. 500 Companies Fast Adopters of Social Media: The nation’s fastest-growing private companies are making use of social media – including blogs, social networking and podcasts – at a rate more than twice that of Fortune 500 companies, according to a new study. The University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research surveyed companies from the 2006 Inc. 500 list, to gauge the level of familiarity and usage of six forms of social media blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking and wikis. Out of 121 respondents, generally managers and other senior-level executives, 42 percent claimed to be “very familiar” with social networking, followed by 38 percent with… Read More
Continue ReadingResume Knock-Out Factors
CareerJournal.com reposted an older article regarding resume errors that land in the “no interest” pile. From These Resume Gaffes Do Immediate Damage: These knockout factors invariably mean sure death to a person’s candidacy. They typically include: 1. An objective that doesn’t match current openings. 2. Inappropriate or insufficient educational credentials. 3. Incompatible salary requirements. 4. Poorly organized, sloppy or hard-to-read content. 5. Geographic restrictions incompatible with current openings. 6. A long list of employers in a short period of time. 7. Too much information. 8. A lack of U.S. citizen or permanent-resident status. The list is comprehensive, but I have to add one more item – misspellings. We’ve posted on… Read More
Continue ReadingWhat Candidates Look For In A Job
A few months ago I posted on Why Salespeople Leave which discussed the disconnect between how a company compensates their salespeople and what the salespeople view as a reward. Last week I attended a webinar jointly presented by Monster and DDI and was amazed at the disconnect they found in their research between what employers think candidates desire in a position and reality. Employers, or more specifically hiring managers, listed these items as the top 4 reasons why a candidate takes a position: A good manager/boss. Opportunity to advance. Opportunities to learn and grow. Balance between work and personal life. However, here is how the candidates responded in the survey:… Read More
Continue ReadingAccount Executive Requirements
From a sales ad for an Account Executive: Successful candidate must: Type 50+ wpm Be proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook) Of course there were other bullets in the list, but these jumped out at me. If you are trying to find a strong salesperson and you are concerned about their typing ability, I am doubtful you are going to hire a strong salesperson. I could be wrong, but I’ll take the odds on this one. To make matters worse, this ad was placed by a recruiting agency for an internal hire!
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