Just a quick thought to start this new year – one way to spot a suspect opportunity is if the employment ad spends more words describing what you don’t have to do as opposed to what you do have to do. I just read an ad that spent multiple sentences and bullet points explaining what the position did not entail. Mainly, it sounds like you don’t have to work.
Continue ReadingExtended Sourcing Times
Inc.com has a 3 paragraph article titled Job Seekers Expect Long Search. The article briefly reports on a “call-in survey.” I’m not sure how reliable that approach is, but the results are consistent with our present-day realities. Job seekers expect to spend seven to 14 months searching for work, according to a call-in survey conducted by outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Anyone who has been sourcing of late knows that it is a tight market.
Continue ReadingWorkplace Fibs (in Britain)
From Yahoo News – Gadgets seen as best way to tell white lies: More than four out of five people admit to telling little white lies at least once a day and the preferred way of being “economical with the truth” is to use technology such as cell phones, texts and e-mails, a survey on Thursday said. I’ve never seen the phrase “economical with the truth.” What a pathetic turn of phrase. This survey was conducted in the UK, for what that is worth. No surprises here: The workplace was a favorite location for fibbing with 67 percent of the 1,487 respondents admitting they had lied at work.The top lie… Read More
Continue ReadingInformation Motivation
Yesterday I posted on an interesting article involving the importance of providing information to your employees. Now I as I catch up on my RSS reading for this week, I have kicked up a complementary Selling Power article with a quick reference to the same topic – Low-Budget Motivation. From the article: 4. Keep them in the loop Your people often depend on you to be the intermediary to the corporate powers that be, and the information that may affect them and their jobs. You need to honor that role by keeping them abreast of whats going on as much as possible. In the midst of bad times, your candor… Read More
Continue ReadingUpward Mobility
Thomas Register has a blog. If you have worked in the industrial market, you probably are familiar with their encyclopedia-like register. I used to be a sales manager for a high precision sheet metal fabricator and was quite familiar with researching the Thomas Register. The fact that they have a blog today speaks volumes. ThomasNet.com (online name) has a post that plays off of the CareerBuilder.com 2007 Job Forecast that was released earlier this week. Their 7 tips are all excellent including number 7: 7) Better training In light of a seeming shortage of skilled workers within their own industries, employers are looking for transferable skills from other industries. Seventy-eight… Read More
Continue ReadingEthics Beatdown
BusinessWeek offers this article – Should I ‘fess Up to Lying on My Résumé? This one is going to leave a mark and I couldn’t agree more with the author. Some excerpts: From your point of view, stating that you majored in philosophy when you didn’t wasn’t a “big lie,” but your employer almost certainly won’t share your view. Why should they? Your résumé reflects who you are, what you value, and how much you have achieved. If you lie about something as important as your résumé, what will come next? Lying to a potential client to get his or her business? Lying to your boss about how things are… Read More
Continue ReadingAnother Cover Letter
Destined for the circular file: I am currently seeking full time employment with a company that I have the possibility to expand my resume. The statement seems innocuous enough, but reread the last part. “Expand my resume” speaks volumes to their self-focus and little to what contribution they will make to the company.
Continue ReadingNew Job Resolutions
The recently sold StarTribune offers this article that states the top 3 resolutions are “losing weight, saving money and getting a new job.” Seems logical to me in talking with others. I have to admit, I am not a fan of resolutions, but a few paragraphs from the article caught my eye. Research by Dr. Robert Maurer, based on the principles of kaizen (the industrial science of continuous improvement), can help you take the right small steps toward you next job.Example: By asking yourself one small question every day, such as, “If finding a new job were my top priority, what would I be thinking and doing now?” you can… Read More
Continue ReadingTech Time
We are in the process of updated some of the technology side of The Hire Sense so our posting has been non-existent. We should be completely upgraded today and plan to be back on the beat on Thursday. In the meantime, I give you this story from foxnews.com – Personalized Bobbleheads Catching On Among Regular Folks. Seriously, you can order a bobblehead in your own likeness. Bobbleheads, those shaky-headed 3-D caricatures, have jiggled free of their mass-produced roots of an earlier generation. Once merely featureless figures decked out in team colors and handed out on game day, they now depict just about anyone who wants one.Even Trumbo, a Des Moines… Read More
Continue ReadingOnline Ads
From Fortune/CNN Money.com: A market research firm called Borrell Associates is now claiming that in 2006, online ad spending for employee recruitment – a.k.a., help wanted – has for the first time surpassed comparable spending in newspapers. The actual amounts are $5.9 billion on the Web vs. $5.4 billion for newspapers.We haven’t seen the full report, but in a thorough post, Alan Mutter quotes this nugget: “When the history of Internet advertising is written, recruitment sites will undoubtedly dominate the first chapter,” says Borrell. “In 12 years, these sites have grown from a few job boards to hundreds of niche competitors. Online recruitment now accounts for 25% of Internet advertising.”… Read More
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