Well, the latest unemployment numbers are in and they indicate that, as a nation, we are basically at full employment. The new unemployement number is 4.4% – a drop of .2% from last month and a 5-year low. Sourcing is going to be even more of an issue for companies. We are seeing this in our business as we have extended our sourcing times while doubling our efforts. If you aren’t using multiple channels for sourcing, you are going to find long lead times on strong candidates. The second part of the equation is compensation: Workers’ average hourly earnings climbed to $16.91 in October, a sizable 0.4 percent increase from… Read More
Continue ReadingLacking Basic Skills
The humorous look at cover emails and letters points to a growing problem amongst recent grads and younger employees. From Inc.com’s article Younger Employees Lack Basic Skills: Of 431 human resource managers polled, more than 70 percent said recently hired high school students proved to be deficient in academic skills, such as grammar, spelling, and written communications, according to a survey released on Oct. 4 by a coalition of business research and advocacy groups, including the Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.An overwhelming majority cited problems new hires had handling such routine tasks as writing memos, letters, and other reports, the survey… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Cover Letter King
If you’ve read The Hire Sense for any length of time, you know one of my favorite pastimes is reading cover letters/emails. There really are some bemusing, befuddling and bewildering approaches. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw this abcnews.com article – ‘Cover Letters from Hell’ Expose Poor Quality of College Grads. Ok, I’m all over that article and I have found my new hero – Bob Killian. And I thought I had some good examples but this guy is the king. This link takes you directly to the cover letter section of his website. It is excellent and amusing – I even had to subscribe to his… Read More
Continue ReadingA Good Time To Be In Sales
This article – The Hottest Industries For Sales Jobs – comes from the daily SM&M Magazine enewsletter. The market demand for salespeople is strong right now (we can attest to that fact) and is going to remain high: The trend for hiring shows no signs of stopping, according to Cindy Hazen, the founder of Sales Executives, a recruiting firm based in Nashville, Tenn. “We have been booming for the last two years in sales and project to be booming for the next five,” she says. And now for the hottest topic in hiring: The aging U.S. workforce is also changing the sales profession. Companies soon will need to replace a… Read More
Continue ReadingAnother Cover Email
First, a confession – I am a huge fan of Battelstar Galactica on the Sci-Fi Channel. I’m not talking about the old 1970’s version which is still entertaining. No, the modern version is quite gripping. Anyway, if you watch that show, you will chuckle at this email cover title: Do you need a frackin’ awesome worker? As much as I enjoy the show, I am not impressed by a candidate who uses the show’s f-bomb derivative in their cover email.
Continue ReadingMore From the Cover Email Stack
Opening sentence of a cover email: I need work.
Continue ReadingActivist Shareholders…
are two words you don’t want to hear if you are CEO of a publicly-traded company. From Inc.com: At public companies, this [turnover] is reflected in the rise of activist shareholders, Jacovitz said, seen most recently in the public ousting of top executives at Hewlett-Packard. I think there may be one other slightly significant item that had an impact on the HP ouster. The article focuses on C-level turnover, which is on the rise. But I found these graphs towards the end of the article to be more notable: Meanwhile at the lower rungs of the workforce, small employers are having trouble finding qualified workers, according to the National Federation… Read More
Continue ReadingA Different Pricing Model
We have kicked around a pricing model in jest but it conveys a point. One part of our business is assessing candidates for many different positions but sales is our specialty. We have clients that do their own sourcing and interviewing and then use our online assessments to measure the candidate’s sales skills, aptitudes, motivations and style. That being said, here is what the Rock Star and I were discussing: If a company locates a sales candidate they feel is strong, we assess them and confirm that they are strong, the fee is $500. If a company locates a sales candidate they feel is strong, we assess them and reveal… Read More
Continue ReadingMore Cover Emails
Ok, this is a different approach – asking yourself questions in the cover email: Why am I here you ask? I’m seeking a position where I can learn with room for advancement.What type of position am I looking for? I’m open to new experiences, but I would love to be in an office environment. I keep noticing these different approaches and laughing about them. But I do notice them and isn’t that the author’s intent?
Continue ReadingMore Fun With Resume Covers
I have a general weakness for the general resume cover emails. This one is great: Help! I am not an idiot! Ok-I am employed full time-but they think I am incapable of anything but answering the phone, making copies, and filing! I am so much smarter than that.
Continue Reading