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.… Read More
Continue ReadingWarning: Dinosaur Title Writer
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?
Continue ReadingWhat Qualifications Determine Sales Success?
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… Read More
Continue ReadingCulling The Applicant Herd
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… Read More
Continue ReadingHow NOT To Describe Your Education
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.
Continue ReadingThe Cleanest Cities In America
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. Miami, FL Seattle, WA Jacksonville, FL Orlando, FL Portland, OR San Francisco, CA Oklahoma City, OK Tampa-St. Pete, FL Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN San Jose, CA
Continue ReadingWhat NOT To Mention In A Cover Letter
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.
Continue ReadingAlways Be Scouting
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… Read More
Continue ReadingTime And Title
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.
Continue ReadingSmall Company Rewards
One of the real draws of working at a smaller company is the opportunity to have direct access to management-level decisions. As larger companies trim their payrolls, skilled employees will enter the candidate pool. These candidates may find a smaller company provides new opportunities for their personal skill set. The Wall Street Journal discusses this topic in Moving to a Small Company Can Lead to Big Rewards: That close proximity to upper management often leads to quicker action. Mr. Macdonald, the former Bristol-Myers worker, says he has the power to get things done more expeditiously at his new employer, Acorda Therapeutics Inc. in Hawthorne, N.Y. “There’s less bureaucracy,” he says.… Read More
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