Innately sweet and raised by a mother who fostered several children, Leigh was able to decline the offer and remain on good terms with her would-be employer. The hiring manager expressed her gratitude and encouraged Leigh to apply in the future for positions that might be a better fit.

Making Connections

Following graduation, Leigh and her boyfriend evaluated where they wanted to find work and live, settling on Charlotte, North Carolina. Upon hearing about Leigh’s move, her Aunt Joan asked her friend Nancy (who was from Charlotte) if she had any ideas for Leigh’s job search. “I liked Leigh right away and was flattered that of all the places she could have picked to live, she chose my hometown”, said Nancy.

When Nancy was 40 and had three young children, one of whom was disabled, she lost her husband. Nancy understood all too well what it was like to need work and had been fortunate enough to turn her volunteer service into employment working in social services.

Decades later and remarried, Nancy found herself in a position to help others. Seeing a spark in Leigh, she introduced Leigh to the agency that placed her son in his residential home and also introduced Leigh to her daughter who worked for a different social service agency.

With Nancy’s recommendation, Leigh met with the agency and began working with them on a part-time basis. Leigh continued to keep in touch, frequently emailing Nancy with updates as the months went by.

During this difficult time she remembered, “When I was in graduate school, I joked around about how I wasn’t concerned about getting a job, because really… who wants to work in Child Welfare? After I graduated and turned down the Family Assessor position, I assured myself there would be more options. Time went on and I started to re-think the position I turned down, but my awesome support system kept helping me remember the reasons I turned it down. I remained cautiously optimistic that something would come around soon. I had struggles working in a part-time job that didn’t require a college education, but I knew I would reach my goal soon, as long as I kept working towards it.”

In late February, many months after moving to Charlotte and after regularly checking several websites for new job postings, Leigh’s wish list job of a Foster Care Social Worker surfaced. She applied the week the job was posted, interviewed, was offered the position soon after the interview, and started on April 15.

Lessons Learned

Leigh says, “My best advice is to surround yourself with people who believe in you and even if you’re feeling down on your luck, you have to remember to keep working hard and your time will come.”

Broadcast your job needs to your family. Say yes to help. Trust your gut enough to say no to the wrong job, even if it means sacrifice. Keep all your patrons informed along the way. Don’t wait for companies to notify you of jobs—even those that try to hire you and say they still want you. Assume they won’t make the first move and proactively follow their websites. Pounce immediately when the job is posted and call in your network to vouch for you.

P.S. Last names have been omitted due to the sensitive nature of Leigh’s work and to respect the privacy of Nancy’s special-needs son.

photo credit: University of Denver via photopin cc

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Those were the days, weren’t they? Life was good, tweeting was easy and the cotton was high.

Romney offered up those “binders full of women” like a batting-practice fastball to a home run-starved big leaguer in need of a game-winning dinger. He made the gaffe during the second presidential debate, and by the following morning he had created a cottage industry of satire on the InterWeb.

Romney’s comment went from debate misstep to a viral sensation in the land of Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and all things cyber-ly considered as the phrase rose to cult status. By the next day, the Facebook page “Binders Full of Women” had 274,000 likes; Tumblr pages were created, at least one career had been saved and scores of tweets had been sent.

While there were binders they weren’t literally filled with women, what the Republican presidential hopeful so ungracefully referenced were the folders filled with the resumes of women that had been submitted to him as governor of Massachusetts when he sought out qualified female candidates for state cabinet posts.

Romney had unleashed Pandora’s can of worms, and the Internet loved it, especially the twick or tweeters who hang out waiting for such things to bounce into their bags of good fortune.

I have this ongoing love-hate relationship when it comes to Twitter, particularly when it comes to job seeking. While I fully embrace Facebook and LinkedIn as valuable tools in the search for contacts and job openings, with Twitter, the end-game is not so clear cut.

The example of Romney’s miscue brings up some good points, not the least of which is that you never know what will go viral. Twitter is the ultimate muse of the “look-at-me” generation of cyberwarriors, so I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a land filled with cults, causes, white noise and little else.

By cults, I mean cults of personality. A quick check of actor Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter account shows he has roughly 14 million followers. Should Ashton choose to tweet, I’m sure his voice would be heard, just not by anybody I know.

Now let’s say you are the average Twitter user with a couple of hundred followers and you’re looking for a job, a quick shout out about needing work isn’t going much of anywhere.

Which brings us to the causes category of our show. Much like #bindersfullofwomen took off overnight, many causes or events (re: #finalfour, #worldseries, #grammyawards) create these tremendous trails of followings. Many people and businesses try to anticipate what the hot hashtag will be and use it to their advantage by joining the slipstream created in the wake of the trending hashtag.

But I’m not sure what use posting links to your portfolio or Twitter handle might be in the midst of a conversation like #jodiariastrial or #TwitpicYourReactionIfYouWonTheLottery.

Now there are hashtag conversations set up for job-hunters. I’ve tried using some of these, and they can be useful in finding hints and tips, but they are also frequented by people preying on the unemployed and underemployed in an effort to line their own pockets or egos.

And then there is the ceaseless white noise of Twitter. Stop me if you don’t want to know that I’m in the drive-thru at Wendy’s or I saw this really funny sign and took a picture. Why is these folks can’t simply butt-dial themselves and share the word with … well … themselves?

So as a job-seeker, what’s your motivation in getting in this giant stream of information that is polluted with the white noise of everyday life? To borrow from an old saying, would you really want to work for someone who hires people based on tweets?

At the risk of sound like a crotchety old bird, I say stick to places like LinkedIn and Facebook where you know the hiring managers are hanging out. Maybe Mitt Romney will drop by with a binder full of jobs.

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via photopin cc

If you’d rather have a strong program, attracting top intern talent, you should probably avoid being a horrible boss.

Here are seven ways you should not use your summer interns:

Hire them without a plan.

If you’re hiring interns this summer, you should have an actual need for them. Write out a practical plan of what they will accomplish during their internship. The plan should include specific goals and methods of accomplishing these goals. If you hire interns without a plan, your program will be unorganized and your interns will be unhappy.

Give them irrelevant work.

Your interns applied for a position in your company because they wanted to learn. They want real-world experiences to help them advance their careers. It’s OK to give them busy work like making copies and filing paperwork every once in a while, but these tasks should not fill the bulk of their day. Interns should have opportunities to work on real projects that benefit your company.

Send them on personal errands.

Interns are employed by your company — they are not your personal assistants. Don’t ask them to run to the store for your personal shopping or to Starbucks for a complicated coffee order. They’ll resent you if it happens too often and you’ll lose your interns.

Research for your personal life.

Interns also are not your personal search engine. Don’t ask them to research things, like a gift for your dad for Father’s Day, to make your personal life easier. These things shouldn’t happen at work, anyway. You are just as capable of using Google as they are, and you should do it on your own time.

Neglect learning opportunities.

Spend the summer consistently introducing your interns to new learning opportunities. Provide them with a mentor who will provide insight into the company and the industry. Invite them to meetings, assign them projects, and give them achievable goals. Monitor their progress and give them feedback. Skipping out on any of these opportunities is a disservice to your interns.

Exclude them.

Your summer interns should feel just as important to the organization as any other employee. Include them in all of your company events like gatherings and meet-ups. If they feel like part of the team, they’ll enjoy the internship more. Not to mention, they’ll have more interest in remaining with your company at the end of the internship.

Treat them rudely.

Being rude to your interns might be the worst offense of all. As the boss, it is important to remain in control, but there is a fine line between the two. Do not belittle them just because they have the lowest status. Treat your interns with as much respect as any other employee in your company.

Even one of these actions will have negative consequences for your summer internship program. Avoid doing all of them and you will have a much better program as a result.

What are some other ways you should not use your summer interns?

I don’t recommend that job seekers say no to a job offer unless there’s a good reason. That’s why when one of my most promising customers told me she was reluctant to accept a job offer at a leading hotel corporation, I advised her to consider the circumstances.

First of all, she would be assuming a great deal of responsibilities. And second she’d be making 70% of what she previously made. Both of these factoids seemed the equivalent of doing hard labor in a rock quarry and being paid minimum wage.

I only needed to point out the disparity of salaries for her to decline the offer, even though she had negotiated a $4,000 increase. (Actually she’s smart enough to realize this.)

There are times when you should decline an offer. My customer’s story is just one of them. A ridiculous salary offer isn’t the only reason for declining an offer. Here are three others.

Motivation

When pundits say you’re not the only person interviewing you, they’re correct. The responsibilities of said position have to motivate you to be your best. Motivation is a key factor in being a high achiever, and you don’t want to settle for less than being your best.

One of my best connections and an expert on motivation-based interviewing, Carol Quinn, states that motivation-based interviews is one of the best ways for interviewers to determine the potential of a candidate. So it figures that not only should the employer be concerned about your motivation; you would want to be motivated as well.

Bad Work Environment

Another reason for not accepting an offer is sensing a volatile work environment. A former colleague of mine would often confide in me that where she was working was a toxic work environment. Management was distrustful of its employees and would often be abusive.

During an interview you should ask questions that would uncover the company’s environment. A simple one is, “Why did the former marketing specialist leave?” Or, “What makes your employees happy working here?” What about, “How do you reward your employees for creativity and innovation?”

Sincere answers to these questions will assure you that you are entering an environment with your eyes wide open, good or bad. Vague responses should raise a red flag. The best way to determine what kind of environment you may inherit is to network with people who work at a potential organization.

Security

A final reason for not accepting an offer is the financial status of the company. If you discover through discussions that the company is at risk of closing its doors soon, it’s not wise to accept the offer, even if you “just want a job.” This also goes for grant-funded positions. A position that will end in less than a year should make you consider if you want to join the organization only to be let go before you even get your feet wet.

Some of my customers have told me that they’ve been taking temp-to-perm positions that have spanned over many years; and that they’re tired of the short-term stints. Additionally, their resume resembles one that shouts, “Job hopper.” Your current unemployment can be a time to be strategic about where you want your career to go, a time to experience clarity, not throwing darts at a wall of short-term jobs.

While I wanted my customer to land a job in a short period of job seeking, I would have kicked myself for telling her that a bird in hand is better than nothing. I have tremendous faith in her abilities and tenacity.

She will be land soon. That I’m sure of.

Thanks teresatrimm for the photo via Flickr

Here are ten signs that you’re in the wrong job:

1. You complain about your job to everyone.

You’re in the wrong job if you’re so frustrated that you tell people about your negative experiences. You find yourself telling your friends that you dislike your co-workers or are doing meaningless work.

2. You view your job as a chore.

If you don’t have fun at work, you end up seeing work as a chore that you have to do, like cleaning the dishes or doing laundry. People only do chores because they have to, and if you only go to work because you have to then it may be time to look at different career options. Over time if you keep doing a job you don’t like, you will end up having a bad attitude and losing your job.

3. You could never get paid enough to enjoy your job.

When you feel like you would be unhappy regardless of your salary, then it’s a sign that you need to look elsewhere. Happy employees will work longer hours, get along with co-workers better and push for a higher salary and more responsibilities.

4. You find yourself watching the clock during office hours.

If you are constantly procrastinating and not focusing on your work, that’s a bad sign. I know a lot of friends who will just stay on Facebook or text their friends all day instead of doing work. Although they may eventually find time to accomplish tasks, it takes them a lot longer because of the distractions. Employees who love what they do aren’t easily distracted.

5. You never go above and beyond your job description.

If you aren’t pushing yourself to take on additional responsibilities, then you probably don’t really care about your job or your company. Employees who love their job will ask for more and more responsibilities, pay increases and promotions. If you don’t do that, then you know that you’re just there for a paycheck.

6. You avoid all corporate activities.

If there’s a group barbeque, a team building activity or a team sports team and you avoid them all, then it’s a sign that you hate your job. Employees who participate in outside activities involving co-workers typically enjoy work more and are more engaged.

7. You’re already searching for other jobs.

If you find yourself going on LinkedIn or Monster.com at work or even outside of work, then you know you need to make a change. Employees that love their jobs might be open to new opportunities, but aren’t actively searching for them.

8. You don’t recommend your company to anyone.

Happy workers will recommend their companies to their friends, families and acquaintances. If you’re enthusiastic about your job and company, you will naturally want to talk about it and recruit others to share in the same experience.

9. You’re not learning anything and feel stuck.

I see a lot of people who aren’t challenged or just aren’t pushing themselves at work. They end up getting stuck and wanting to leave their position.

10. You’re ashamed of your job.

If you’re embarrassed about your job, then you end up not wanting to talk about it. It’s a bad situation to be in because the people that surround you will sense that something is wrong when you avoid work related questions.

What are other signs that it may be time to find another job that you’ve noticed, either in yourself or coworkers?

With a new flock of college graduates about to enter the work force, hiring managers will soon have some decisions to make. They will have to choose from the myriad of new hire candidates that will soon be sitting across from them at the interview table. The decision-making fun, however, will not be limited to the hiring managers. The millennial candidates have some choices to make also. Will you accept the entry-level position that lacks glamour, status and high pay to gain knowledge, experience and relationships?

I once heard a pastor say that the one circumstance where we “receive” before we are expected to “achieve” is salvation. It made sense to me right away when I heard it. You “receive” Christ as your personal savior, and then comes the ability and expectation to “achieve” great things. I guess the one other place where I would argue this applies is in sports. We see a lot of young athletes get paid a lot of money before they even step foot on the pro field or court. Maybe the sports examples have something to do with the frustration that many members of corporate senior leadership have expressed with entry-level millennials expecting to “receive” before they “achieve”. Has being exposed to a generation of high paid athletes being compensated for their potential, affected the way this generation approaches salary and benefits expectations?

The process of achieving and receiving works differently in corporate America though. It always has and I suspect that it always will. You receive after you achieve. It’s that simple. I often hear from older generation leaders that millennials “don’t want to pay their dues”, or “they aren’t willing to put in the work”. I’m sure this may be true in some isolated incidents, but I don’t believe this to be an accurate description that can be applied across the board. This is a very driven group that aspires to impact change and leave their mark.

Because of the effects of technology with the millennial generation, this group has been conditioned to expect things faster. But they have also been equipped and conditioned to do things faster. There is some validity to this group having an instant gratification mindset, but I think that is very different than not being willing to put in the work.

My suggestions to organizations to manage the perceived “receive before you achieve” expectations are as follows:

1. Establish and communicate clearly defined success measures
2. Outline exactly what needs to be accomplished to receive increases and promotions
3. Map out a plan specific to the individuals trajectory within the organization
4. Reward performance and not just time
5. Provide constant feedback and eliminate the guess work and surprises
6. Include them in the evaluation process to make it more transformational and not just transactional
7. Take time to explain specifically WHY when rewarded and when not rewarded

My suggestion to my millennial crew is simple:

1. Unless you are getting saved or signing an NBA contract, you have to “achieve” before you “receive”. Put in the work!

“We must give more in order to get more. It is the generous giving of ourselves that produces the generous harvest.”

#Millennials #Graduation

1. Not enough knowhow

If there’s one thing I often hear from HR managers, it’s that they would like to be able to do a better job of their general employer branding activities. Especially when it comes to the use the power of social media in their recruitment efforts. But they’re not sure exactly how – and engaging in conversations with outside agencies can leave them with the feeling that they know less than when they started. Then, if the decision is made to go with a particular online platform, there’s the need to be able to work with visual and verbal aspects of any branding task. You need access to art directors, copywriters and perhaps strategic planners. Pretty soon, it starts to look like a major project – and projects like that tend to get approved for HR once a decade at best. The idea that this type of activity may, in fact, be an on-going requirement is most often foreign to the thinking of those who determine the annual HR budget.

2. Not enough money

Traditional HR spend levels for B2B companies range greatly. Some have ample funds for recruitment and evaluation, others are starved of the necessary wherewithall, leaving them scraping and begging to live up to the continually more complex demands of increasingly global organizations.

For most, there’s a significant gap to close. According to a 2011 survey of American HR managers by Employer Brand International, 71% of respondents said that obtaining an adequate budget is their number 1 challenge in managing an employer brand. So finding faster, more affordable ways to design and implement employer branding platforms is a must for the vast majority of HR departments.

3. Not enough time

HR isn’t the marketing department, equipped to handle branding and the long list of tasks that follows any branding or tactical campaign. Employer branding, therefore, is typically a side issue rather than a focal point for its activities. Yet doing a good job of employer branding takes a great deal of time and energy – much like the key success factor for an Olympic high jumper, everything that doesn’t get you to the right level can just make you look, well, like a loser. And few HR departments can set aside enough time to embark on and follow up on a well planned and executed employer branding strategy. Just think about the effort required to arrive at a good employer value proposition (EVP)!

4. The IT department’s job queue

Let’s get this straight: we need the IT department for all sorts of excellent reasons. And that’s at least one of the reasons why it’s so hard to get things done through that hard-working group. The IT department is usually involved in major projects such as bringing in a new ERP or CRM system – or performing smaller, related projects to augment and integrate such systems. Contrast that with the more nimble (I carefully avoid the word “agile” to avoid complicating things) needs of a good online employer branding platform that can be quickly adapted from one day to the next. Something like that is tough for most HR managers to get their IT departments to help with. So an online platform is needed that can easily be managed – and re-designed as needs change – without involving technical administrators or software developers.

5. Current alternatives to the IT department

Let’s start with all from small software developers or communication agencies who have built their own, proprietary content management systems or web solutions. The first couple of years running your employer branding platform on these can be very pleasant. You’ve got a good relationship in place, it’s a small agency where you know the people so you can get things done and they’ll be happy to help. But what happens when their strategic focus drags them elsewhere? Our company has tried that with a content management system (CMS) provider on whose proprietary CMS we had based an important website. The agency stopped developing and supporting the CMS, moving to focus on other business opportunities. We had to start from the ground up again, at a significant cost. You may also be unlucky that your supplier crashes, as was the case for Zoomio, which left a lot of quite large companies high and dry, unable to conduct their usual email marketing campaigns.

Then there’s other, more established online platforms such as LinkedIn. Naturally, there are plenty of attractive capabilities offered by this choice, including access to well over 100 million business users. LinkedIn should be a key part of your recruitment activities, but remember: you have little real control over LinkedIn as an employer branding platform. I was recently reminded of this when a LinkedIn message sent to members of a client’s online scientific community led with a large headline proclaiming that Tom Cruise was up to new tricks that the email recipient just had to know about. Basically, you don’t want somebody else hijacking your employer branding activities for their own purposes, so you need to put platforms in place that you control – the category of solutions known as “owned” media.

What can HR departments do to boost employer branding?

So where can the HR department seek help? One place is the marketing or communications departments. In fact, in the USA, the marketing department is responsible for employer branding in around 18 percent of companies (Employer Brand International again). Corporate marketers, in particular, are often supportive to the point where they push the HR department’s own ambition level – and they provide many of the resources that make good employer branding possible. But – and there’s a but – marketing or communication departments that aren’t charged with employer branding as a prioritized task have their own work to do, and the here-and-now needs of a modern HR strategy can be pushed far down the list.

At EFI, we’re currently working with a number of companies, including two top world-wide brands to address issues like these. One of the keys, we believe, is to create a non-proprietary, customizable online platform for employer branding that makes HR best practices available to other companies that don’t have the necessary focus or resources to present themselves as an employer of choice. We’re also addressing the need to be able to create videos, such as employee testimonial videos, at an affordable cost without compromising quality (i.e. not by using someone’s iPhone camera, which just makes your company look like a bunch of amateurs).

We already have the first five companies implementing their employer branding on this new platform and will be developing our thinking and the platform’s capabilities as we go along. In my next post, I’ll tell you more about the wishlist of specifications for the platform and our general approach and findings in relation to the task.

The answer you give could set the tone for the rest of the interview. For instance, if you were to indicate that you were bored or burned out at your last job, the interviewer would quickly become concerned about your performance at this company. The question can be especially tricky if you’ve had less than favorable conditions regarding your departure from a company. Regardless of the circumstances that have caused you to move, or are causing you to think about moving, you should be prepared to answer this question.

Below are examples of possible answers to this critical question. After reading them, try to determine which is the strongest answer.

• The company had a re-organization, and my department was eliminated. The work had begun to dwindle so it was not a complete surprise. I liked my job and the people I was working with so I had been hoping that it wouldn’t affect us but unfortunately we were all let go. I would like to find a job similar to the one I lost.

•  I am looking for a new challenge. I have been with my current company for two years now and don’t find the work as interesting as I once did. I am looking for a company where I can take on new challenges and grow. My current job is dead-ended for me.

• Since there are no advancement opportunities within the company, I have decided it would be a good time for me to look outside. I have set some career goals for myself that I could not achieve at that company. What I am looking for is a job with a bigger company where I can contribute, but also move on a career path that has more responsibility.

Have you selected the strongest answer? See if you agree with the advice.

(Excerpts taken from “Boost Your Interview IQ” – Carole Martin – McGraw-Hill – Second Edition 2012)

For more information: www.interviewcoach.com

The answer is to “focus” – focus on what makes you unique.

Let’s assume that you have an outstanding resume and that you make it to the top of the stack of resumes of people to be called for a job interview. You, and maybe nine or ten other equally qualified people for the position, that is.

Because companies have so many candidates to choose from, they are interviewing more people so that they can select the “best.” When you are lucky enough to be invited to an interview, it is essential that you be ready to sell yourself, to let the interviewers know what makes you unique, what added value you can bring to the position—in other words, why you are the best person for the job.

• Step 1.

- List the skills and experiences you have that would be required in the type of job you are seeking. For instance, a technical job would focus on programs, languages, and platforms, etc.

• Step 2

- Give some thought to those skills in which you excel, those that are referred to as the “soft skills.” These skills can be viewed as transferable– you can take them with you to any job you hold.

• Step 3

- Next , think of the personal traits that make you unique. Maybe you never miss deadlines, or perhaps you are willing to do above and beyond what is asked, or perhaps you have a great attitude. (Don’t dismiss these traits–many people have been fired for negative personal traits rather than for lack of knowledge).

• Step 4

- Make a list of those strengths and some examples of when those strengths have helped you achieve results on the job. It will be essential that you can not only identify your strengths, but that you also have examples and stories of times when you demonstrated those strengths in the past.

• Step 5

-The next step is to make a list of 5 points you want the interviewer to remember about you – the ones that combined – make you unique.

When you walk out of that interview room, your interviewers may not remember all five of your points; but if they remember even two of the points that make you unique, you will be ahead of the game!

If you want to put together your five points you can do it with the help of a new, quick, software tool – at Job Interview Brand.

Click Here to see the best answer: www.interviewcoach.com/blog

If you were to ask 60 in-house recruiting leaders from companies such as HBO, Cornell University, Liberty Mutual, J. Crew, and PwC what method they’d chose, they’d go with employee referrals as their recruitment method of choice — and, in particular, they’d go with a platform called Zao.

Recently, a group of HR leaders were presented with the following question at Recruit Camp’s New Venture Pitch-Off: If your department was allotted $5,000 to spend on hiring efforts, how would you use this money? They went with Zao, is a social employee referral management platform.

“We’re always hearing that the number one source of hire is employee referrals,” said Ziv Eliraz, Co-founder and CEO of Zao. “Zao automates this process by pairing a great hiring strategy — referrals — with social recruitment, gamification, and extended rewards, all of which are known to engage current and future employees.”

The Zao difference is simple: It pairs employee referral programs with social recruiting, which makes sure only the most qualified candidates are presented to an organization. The result leads to higher engagement with referrals and applicants. The platform also ensures secure access to this social networking data, so current employees don’t have to worry about their privacy.

So, how did Zao beat the other three New Venture Pitch finalists? By being grilled by top recruitment leaders and then offering solutions to their questions. These questions ranged from describing the business or service, to coming up with their competitive advantage,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       to addressing the market size. In the end, the judges went with Zao, giving them some pretty solid bragging rights, as well as free sponsorship to the next Recruit Camp NYC and RIDE (Recruitment Industry Dance Event), held in Amsterdam.

“Zao won because sourcing candidates through other methods does not typically yield the same results. However, employee referrals almost always result in better hires. Zao makes the process easy on everyone, from the HR leader, to the employee, to your extended network. So, not matter what job you’re looking to fill, Zao can assist each person involved in the hiring process,” Eliraz said.

For more information about Zao including some helpful resources, check out their website, Facebook, and Twitter.

What do you think? Would you use Zao?

Here he shares three qualities that Buffet looks in a person:

• Integrity
• Intelligence
• Energy

He also thinks that without the first, the other two don’t matter much.

This reminded me of my mentor and his principle’s while deciding to work with someone. His list was as below, in the order of importance:

• Integrity
• Passion
• Ambition

Again, he said that without the first, the other two are a sure recipe for disaster. However, when you add that in the mix, it plays the role of a “Philosopher’s Stone” and transforms the person.

Strangely, these are exactly the qualities that I look in a sales executive.

You can’t infer a person’s ability to sell by looking for these qualities. However, in my opinion, if you have these three qualities, one can succeed in any role that they get into. If you observe, none of these is a skill. They constitutes our character.

Skills can be learnt, but character needs to be built and it takes a long time to build one’s character.

Now, the question is how do you check for these qualities before you hire someone.

Its easy to check if someone is ambitious or passionate from their past works, social profiles and the initial discussions. The most critical and difficult thing to check for is the integrity of a person.

My mentor did a few things to check the integrity of the person:

• He would leave a 100 rupee bill in an empty room and get the person to wait in the room. The currency is not on the table but in a place where it will be definitely be seen and observe what the person does with the bill. This tells a lot about the person and his integrity.
• He would get one of his assistants to serve coffee/tea to the person and that person would deliberately spill some tea or coffee and observe the reaction. He always used to say that the true identity of a person comes through in their conduct with people weaker than themselves.
• In the middle of the conversation he would plan to receive a call on his phone and get all worked up about a situation on the phone and react in a way that he would not want to react/behave. He would then start chatting about the situation with the person and gradually bring up how he reacted and ask this person what he thought about his action. The response will say a lot about the integrity and character of this person.

Some other interesting ways to try and understand the person that i have found helpful for me are:

• Get someone from the team to talk to the person informally before the actual interview over a cup of coffee. This conversation will provide a lot more insight into the person than a formal conversation.
• Make the person wait for a few hours with no one to talk to or meet. And then put them in pressure by cancelling the interview by giving some flimsy reason. The reaction to this situation tells a lot about the person than any formal interview could. (Though, post that prank, you do let your hair down and continue the interview with him or her, for sure).

What do you do to screen your hires? Do share what has worked for you in the past by commenting below or tweeting to me at @rmukeshgupta.

PS: Video of Warren Buffet talking about the importance of Integrity:

I thought about maybe cobbling together some quick thoughts that spoke about a detailed long term development plan, clear goals and objectives. I also thought about brushing it off and just telling her it was luck, chance, and being in the right place at the right time. However, I quickly realized not only were neither of these scenarios true, they were also not helpful at all. So I told the truth; I admitted to not having worked with a clear long term and well defined development plan and spoke about five things that made a real difference in my career.

1. Have a “development plan” in place and review it regularly - While I may not have had a step-by-step development plan clearly detailed out, I have always taken time each year to think about my development goals, identify activities to engage in that support my development and discuss this with my manager. This has created self-accountability and an awareness of the areas that I want to work on. I look back at the end of the year to measure my progress and this helps me set up my development planning in the coming year.
2. Know your strengths and your weaknesses - Some call them “areas for development,” but I call them “weaknesses” and I share mine to anyone who will listen. I subscribe to the adage that “admitting it is the first step.” By communicating my weaknesses, I create a new level of awareness in myself that enables me address them, evolve how I want to, and do what is necessary for growth as a leader. Admitting them has also created opportunities for direct feedback from the individuals I have shared them with. My team has been more than happy to inform me that, yes, in fact I do that, or even in some cases what I think is a weakness they don’t see as problematic. This feedback has been very important for my development.
3. Look for opportunities each and every day to develop - A few years ago someone said to me that they saw my name on every project we had under way in HR and asked why. I was quick to share that I truly believe the best way to develop is to take on projects and/or roles that introduce you to new topics and skills. Don’t be afraid to sign on for something that you know very little about; in fact, it is my goal to continue to work in areas where I have little experience. The last two roles I’ve had put me in a situation where I was asked to lead when I knew less about the topics than anyone else on the team. Scary? Yes, but what an opportunity to learn!  By knowing your strengths you can leverage those to contribute, while you simultaneously learn a whole lot. Participating in projects not only supports personal development, but it also expands your network and visibility. This can be a big advantage when new opportunities come up, as more individuals will know you and your work.
4. Learn from others - Mentors are a fantastic learning resource, but how can you incorporate learning from others into your everyday work? Early on in my career, one of my best leadership role models was actually the worst leader I ever worked for. What did I learn? Everything that I did not want to do myself as a leader. From other leaders, I have also learned about the type of leader and contributor I want to be. In every situation I enter into, I actively look for the opportunity to try a skill I have been working on, or to learn something new from someone in the room. This may seem daunting, but try taking just two minutes to reflect at the end of a meeting and capture what you learned. Additionally, it is even better if you can go into the situation knowing what you are hoping to gain out of it.
5. Do not be afraid to take a risk - A couple of years ago, I was talking myself out of an opportunity, saying I wasn’t ready for it and I didn’t think it would be good for my family. Fortunately, my mentor directly challenged me to not say, “No” before I had a chance to learn more about the role and see if it was something that could work. Really what he did was call out my unfounded fears and encourage me to learn what I needed to learn and to take a risk. “What is the worst that could happen?” is what he asked and he was right. Every risk I have taken, while initially hard, has resulted in long term success and career growth. If I had not been willing to take risks along the way, my career would have taken a very different route, even if it had been detailed and well planned.

So as I spoke with my mentee, who was thinking about her career development and planning for this year, my advice was not to get hung up on having the perfect plan with a clear answer of where she wanted to be in five years.  I encouraged her to understand her career development needs, her strengths and her weaknesses. I told her to think about what she wants to grow toward- it doesn’t have to be a specific role, as it could be to an area of the business, or a set of responsibilities- and then plan a few actions to help her get there.

You must seize opportunities when they come your way and don’t be afraid to take a risk. If you practice these things throughout the year, you will be well on your way to the career you want!

As a professional resume writer, I often get questions from friends and family members about the finer points of crafting the perfect document. While many people want to know whether you really need to list off your skills in a “core competencies section” (you do) others have more specific questions. Lately, I’ve gotten a lot of inquiries about how to begin the resume writing process when you’re looking to switch careers.

For a person who has spent years in a particular field, it may feel nearly impossible to take that experience and translate it into an entirely different line of work. Fortunately, the right resume can show a potential employer how you can take your skills and knowledge and make a smooth transition into a new field. Here are some points to consider as you go about writing a resume with a career change in mind:

1. Opt for a functional resume

While the traditional chronological resume is effective, it may not be the best way for you to demonstrate how your past experience will make you qualified for an entirely new position. Chronological resumes are meant to focus on your work history, but if you haven’t had a job in the career you’re pursuing, this style of resume can make you look underqualified. Instead, choose a functional resume that starts off by listing your skills and knowledge. It shifts the emphasis from your past work experience to the traits you possess that you could use in another work environment.

2. Focus on skills

If you know that you have specific expertise that will benefit you in a new field, make sure to emphasize this on your resume. Though you may have obtained your knowledge of Photoshop or business development at another job, these skills are transferable and should get highlighted.

3. Talk about any other relevant experience

Many people limit themselves when they only include their past work experience on their resume. Even if you haven’t actually worked in your newly chosen field, consider any and all types of experience that you’ve had that can help you make the switch. For example, you may not have worked for a PR firm yet, but if you did marketing for your favorite charitable organization, you have some PR experience. Don’t forget to list this involvement.

4. Don’t include it all

Most resumes only include entries for jobs that were held 10 years ago or less. When you’re making a career change, you can get even pickier about what you list on the document. If you had a job that was completely unrelated to what you want to do in the future, consider omitting it in favor of placing a heavier emphasis on the traits and knowledge you have that would help you in a new field.

5. Write with care

As you’re building a resume, consider how your document will look to a potential employer. If you’re going to omit past work experience, make sure that it doesn’t appear as if you were unemployed for a long chunk of time. Also, understand that some employers may have hesitations about a functional resume. While the document is legitimate, some hiring managers have been taught that they are created to cover up large gaps in employment. Though functional resumes are useful for those who are planning a career change, be prepared to answer some questions about your choice of layout.

While it may seem as though making a career switch is an impossible feat, especially when it comes to writing a high-quality resume, following these tips can help you show a potential employer how your past experience and skill set will benefit their company.

The team at Grammar Chic specializes in a variety of professional writing and editing services. For more information about how we can help you, visit www.grammarchic.net or call 803-831-7444.

Wrong. Sometimes less is not more. And, interviews offer an opportunity to strategically slide in a value-add here and there, depending upon the course the conversation takes.

Following are five ideas of value-add items to bring to the interview to help enhance your personal marketing message, compelling your interview forward:

1. Tweaked Resume: Even if you recently updated your resume, assess if a tweaked headline or modified achievement would more perfectly align your message with this specific interview.

Then, print off five to 10 copies of your resume from a quality printer using good, 24 lb. paper. Use a neutral, earthy tone: off-white, tan, light brown, gray or something similar. Show attention to detail, ensuring the watermark prints in an upright position. With a stack of freshly printed resumes in hand, you are equipped to distribute them to additional hiring decision makers who may unexpectedly arrive, empty-handed, at your meeting.

2. Toot-Your-Own-Horn Book: If you are in sales, this is an especially valuable tool. However, brag books needn’t be limited to sales-oriented interviews. Consider what visual representations of your value you could provide. Buy about a dozen 3-hole-punched sheet protectors in which to display your horn-tooting items. Examples include a thank-you note, a printout of a sales graph, an email from a happy client and a project milestone chart showcasing results of a mammoth project. What this book may consist of is only limited by your imagination and creativity. Think colorful and glimpse-able.

3. Testimonials Page. While you may not be ready to hand off contact information of your valuable references during the initial interview, you could create a ‘testimonials’ page with a list of three to five key people (names only, without phone numbers and email addresses), who are wowed by the value you provide.

Diversify the references to include a client, a vendor, a senior executive, a colleague, a direct report and so forth. Then, organize the page to include three columns: 1. Name of person and their company affiliation; 2. Your relationship to that person; e.g., you and s/he collaborated on a specific project; you provided sales consultation to that person; or, you trained them in their new role, for example; and, 3. What they have said in the past about you or would say if approached today about your contribution to individual or team goals in relationship to saving time, trimming costs or adding to profits.

4. ROI Action Plan. Whether it’s your first interview or your third with the company, come prepared to articulate how you will hit the ground running to make an impact when hired – how you will return the company’s investment. You do this by communicating your action plan for solving their problems.

Naysayers will quip, “I have NO idea what the real problems my target company is facing until I am hired.”

The optimist will take initiative.

Vigorously search the Web using Boolean searches to unearth universal industry and sector issues. Determinedly search the Web for target company tidbits. Research using Glassdoor, LinkedIn or Facebook company pages, and scour online business journals, websites and other resources that drill down to potential challenges. Then, when building your strategy, speak to specific action plan steps you are prepared to take to resolve those issues during the first 30, 60, 90 days.

5. Marketing (Business) Card: Offered up as a mini-resume of sorts, your business card should include critical contact information such as your name, email, voicemail and your LinkedIn profile. It also should include your tagline, further underscoring your value, as well as a metric-based achievement result to add concreteness. Remember, there are two sides to a business card – use both.

While it is true that in some interviews you may simply be whisked in and out of a rigidly orchestrated meeting with no opportunity for additional information sharing, that is just one scenario.

In others, the conversation is more flexible and fluid. You must be proactive presenting your value through a variety of visually appealing and content-rich items. By preparing the above five weapons for your career interview arsenal, you will walk into the interview office more confident and empowered.

Author:

Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter is a Glassdoor career and workplace expert, chief career writer and partner with CareerTrend, and is one of only 28 Master Resume Writers (MRW) globally. An intuitive researcher, she helps professionals unearth compelling career story details to help best present their unique experience, skillset and interests in resumes and other career positioning documents as well as through social media profiles. In addition to being interviewed for television and radio stories, Jacqui has written for the Career Management Alliance Connection monthly newsletter and blog, ExecuNet’s Career Smart Advisor, The Kansas City Star, The Business Journal and The Wall Street Journal. In addition, she and her husband, “Sailor Rob,” host a lively careers-focused blog over at http://careertrend.net/blog. Jacqui also is a power Twitter user listed on several “Best People to Follow” lists for job seekers.

Rather, I’ve come to recognize that many of these individuals make highly intelligent career decisions that lead them to get where they are. Here are 4 of those:

1. Birds of feather become successful together – Highly successful people surround themselves with others just like them. They know that we are a product of our environment and wealthy individuals go out of their way to only do business with others who are hard working and effective at what they do.

They have a keen ability to “read” people (a.k.a size them up) and determine whether that person is worth working for and/or doing business with or whether they are not the real deal. This knack for accurately judging others leads them to become employed at top companies that provides career growth and intellectual stimulation.

2. Highly successful people have learned how to effectively deal with others – When I first started my business, I was highly ambitious, but very poor in forming positive interpersonal business relationships and that put a strain on my ability to get to the next level in business.

It may have taken some time, but I’ve come to the realization that success can not exist in a vacuum; we need the work and motivation of others to achieve goals that are above and beyond the capabilities of a single person.

Let’s take two great examples: Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Both are known for their technical savvy and innovative minds, though rarely do people mention their ability to manage and lead others in business. Surely, it took more than one person to design, develop, manufacture, market, package and wholesale the iPhone.

3. Highly successful people don’t feel the need to convince others that they are good at what they do nor do they over promise results that they can’t deliver – I have this competing company in the staffing industry that spends 300 pages of their website attempting to convince potential clients how great they are and they end up looking just the opposite.

Successful people know that other likeminded individuals can smell b.s. and rather than drawn in, they are turned off by overly arrogant candor. Instead, they carry themselves with a demeanor that is self-confident on the inside and humble on the outside.

4. Highly successful people strive to be great, but come to terms with the fact that they are not perfect – It may have taken me 31 years to learn, but I’ve come to grips with the reality that I can’t control every situation nor will I ever be perfect.

Highly paid individuals know that they are bound to win some and bound to lose some. When they win, they celebrate and anticipate more positive results and, when they lose they are able to bounce back with an uncanny resiliency and energy a.k.a. successful people don’t beat themselves up mentally for mistakes that may be out of their control.

In the End

Next time you’re around others who have high paying jobs and who are successful both in business and in interpersonal relationships, look closely at some of the traits they have and the decisions they make and you should see some striking similarities.

Author:

Ken Sundheim is the CEO of KAS Placement, a sales and marketing recruiting firm based out of New York City. He is also a writer for Forbes and guest lecturer at universities around the U.S.

I am not a fan of online job applications, having met many a job seeker who spent months applying for dozens (or even hundreds) of jobs without success. If you are seeking help to improve your online applications, there are lots of articles posted on the web that will provide you ideas. This article is different from them in that it is focused on helping you get better results with your resume by improving its readability for human beings.

Before we discuss resume improvements, it is important that you choose the basic format of your resume. Three common formats are the reverse chronological, functional, and combined. Because the last two options are not generally popular and represent less than 20% of all resumes, it will be most useful to focus on the first one.

The reverse chronological format is the most popular style, not only with job seekers but also with recruiters and resume reviewers. Recruiters and resume reviewers prefer this format because it is familiar to them and it quickly provides them the information they want. The typical sequence of sections is:

• Name and Contact Information
• Summary or Profile
• Reverse Chronological Work Experience
• Education

Once you have created a basic resume of this type, you can make it more appealing to those who read it by applying any of the following five tips taken from my career book Fast Track Your Job Search (and Career!):

“1. If you have a particularly noteworthy education, consider moving it ahead of your Professional Experience. This could be accomplished by either noting your most relevant education in a bulleted area preceding your Professional Experience or by moving the entire Education section there.

2. If you know precisely what you want, include a clear and concise Objective such as “Chief Financial Officer” or “VP – Marketing.” While many will argue against this as being too restrictive (I’ve heard this objection over and over again), leaving your desired role to the imagination of the résumé reader is usually riskier.

3. If you want your résumé to be easier to skim or believe most people will not fully read it (which is the norm), consider deleting the Summary/Profile section. This section can be omitted when the reader understands what you want (Objective) and your Professional Experience and Education sections are well matched to present a coherent view of your relevancy. It is particularly unnecessary if you choose to follow item #4 that follows.

4. If you have notable accomplishments in your area of expertise, try replacing the Summary/Profile section with a Summary of Qualifications section. This is a personal favorite that I have found to be highly effective for many.

5. If you are capable in more than one functional area, such as marketing and sales, decide if your goal is a position that includes all your functional capabilities. If you want a VP of Sales and Marketing position, then you need both areas highlighted in your résumé. If you are seeking a position in either sales or marketing, then your presentation will be more effective if you have one résumé with a marketing objective and one with a sales objective.”

With the proper application of these suggestions, your resume can be positively differentiated from your competition and the written presentation of your personal brand will be more appealing to your audience. Give them a try and let me know if you agree.

Author:

Richard Kirby is an executive career consultant, speaker on career strategies, and author of Fast Track Your Job Search (and Career!). Richard Kirby’s earlier experience includes managing engineering, human resources, marketing and sales teams for employers that ranged from a Fortune 100 to a VC-funded entrepreneurial startup. For the past 11 years at Executive Impact, Richard has helped hundreds of executives and professionals successfully navigate today’s transformed 21st century job market and achieve better employment for themselves. Richard’s expertise includes career assessments and goal setting, personal marketing/branding, resume enhancement, strategic networking and job interviewing, and “contrarian” job search methodologies. He is a Board Certified Coach (in career coaching) and a Certified Management Consultant (recognized by the ISO).

Fair or unfair, people make instant judgments about you. In Blink, New York Times bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell brilliantly describes the phenomenon of people making decisions after only a two-second glance.

Now ask yourself, what does a hiring manager think about me after looking at my resume for only a blink of an eye?

Too much hyperbole? Maybe.

But maybe not when you consider a recent survey done by TheLadders.com that used eye-tracking technology to decipher where recruiters focus when reading a resume and how much time they spend on an individual resume review. The results reveal that recruiters only spend six seconds per resume when searching for candidates.

Let that sink in. The totality of your professional and academic experience is judged in six seconds.

But this is great news and here’s why: the bar for resume quality is L-O-W. There is far more mediocrity than there is outstanding quality out there, but realize, you will need to have the outstanding resume—not just a pretty good one—to get noticed.

For the last 11 years, I’ve held face-to-face interviews with more than 1,000 salespeople and have advised hundreds more on their resumes. I’ve noticed a major theme with today’s resume.

Contrary to what you might have heard, most resumes really aren’t the latest installment of great American fiction, full of puffed-up half-truths and tall tales. Instead, the problem that I see is that the information on the resume is incongruent with the talent of the sales professional. In other words, the resume is providing a disservice to the candidate because the salesperson is much better at selling than at resume writing. Ironically, the best salespeople are buried in excellence and usually choose to focus on closing deals rather than writing resumes, so they hurriedly cobble together some of the weakest versions.

Here’s a before and after example of a superstar sales professional who used to work at memoryBlue. Today this person is a top performing rep at the second largest software company in the world.

Before (suggests amateur sales rep): BeforeResume.doc

After (matches candidate’s selling ability): AfterResume.pdf

Refer back to the Before and After resume and see how each version portrays these two critically important features: Content and Formatting.

Substantive Content: Include quantified accomplishments. This professional has a war chest. Omitting these achievements on the Before version is a miscarriage of justice. Hiring managers don’t read resumes, they scan for concrete numbers. The specificity of “Successfully closed a $200K deal with BB&T (replaced #1 competitor)” jumps out on a resume. Hiring managers think, “I want more sales reps on my team who can unseat our top competitor at a Fortune 500 company and sell six-figure solutions.”

Here are the most important things to keep in mind regarding the content of your resume:

Clarity of dates and locations: Don’t leave the reader guessing about where and when you were employed.

Position title with a job description: Not all job titles have the same meaning. Along with your company and title, include a concise explanation (one or two sentences max) of your duties and responsibilities.

Job accomplishments versus job details: This is where you can shine as a salesperson. Focus on what you’ve achieved. Accomplishments are details such as revenue closed ($646K in 2008), deal size ($25K average deal size), quota attainment (103% of quota), rankings within your company (#1 of 3), names of new clients signed (BB&T), and awards received (2008 President Club Winner – only TeleSales Rep to qualify).

Relevance and tenure in proportion: Include the most information and detail for recent jobs and those that are most relevant to your target position.

Readability: Use short sentences and bulleted lists. Remember, the reader is scanning your resume so don’t bury your accomplishments. White space is your friend.

Professional Formatting: Juxtapose the Before and After versions and you can see that formatting is where many people fall short. A visually appealing layout with professional spacing, fonts, indentations, bullets, appropriate length, etc., can make all the difference in readability and organization. It’s here that you have the biggest opportunity to differentiate yourself in an ocean of resume mediocrity.

Do it yourself or hire a professional?

This salesperson took my advice to work with a professional resume writer. Given the critical nature of this document, I suggest this route for most. The highest and best use of your time is selling. Tackle the whole thing on your own only if you’ve got the time AND you think writing and design are your strong suits.

If you’re not sure of your abilities in these disciplines, use this question as a barometer: How familiar are you with kerning? If you’re like me and had to look up the term, find a professional.

Packaging Matters

Think of both your online and hardcopy resumes as interviewing attire. Great candidates don’t show up for interviews dressed in weekend wear suitable for the golf course, nightclub, or gym. Rather, these professionals understand the importance of dress in the interview process; how it transmits the idea that you’re detail-oriented and go the extra mile.

Hold your resume to these same standards.

For the electronic version, consider using a PDF over a Word document because there is something about a PDF that looks more buttoned up. Whatever you do, don’t label your electronic copy “Sales Resume” or something similar. This is an obvious tell. It means you’re unclear on what direction you want to go and are actively applying for various types of jobs. Hiring managers have enough questions to answer when searching for the best candidate. Deciding if you’re committed to the profession shouldn’t be one of them.

For the hard copies you bring to interviews, don’t go with a flimsy version on standard copy paper. Instead, swing by your local office store and have it printed on 20 or 24 lb. resume paper with a watermark. Make sure you print the resume so that the watermark is right side up.

If I were to guess, I’d say that less than 2% of the sales people I’ve interviewed go this extra mile. When you’re interviewing, hiring managers expect you are giving them your absolute best. Most hope you sell as well as you interview.

What do you think hiring managers think about candidates who don’t go the extra mile during the interview process?

What do you want hiring managers to think about you? You’ve got six seconds.

See if your resume passes the test. Contact us to find out about the current inside sales opportunities at memoryBlue and our high tech clients.

Here are nine ways to improve your summer internship program:

Establish specific goals.

Ask yourself, “Why do I need interns?” Interns should not be used simply for cheap labor. Interns should have predetermined objectives for their time in your organization. They are there to learn about your company and industry, not to be left on their own to handle your busy work. Figure out what you want your interns to learn, what they will do on a daily basis, and how they will benefit from your program.

Outline a clear structure for the program.

Once you determine goals for your interns, use them in the basic structure of the internship program. Write out a detailed summary of expected tasks, how they will be trained and supervised, the amount of time they will work, how they will be compensated, and whatever other details might be important.

Recruit the most talented interns.

Your internship program cannot reach its fullest potential if you cannot find the most talented interns. Write an enticing job description, detailing the responsibilities and benefits you established in your outline. Use a variety of outlets for recruitment, including campus career centers, social media, and referrals.

Support your interns during throughout the summer.

While it’s great to hire interns who can work well independently, it’s important to check in with them as often as you can. Figure out which members of your team can supervise the interns. This person can be you or someone else on your team. The supervisor needs to be able to delegate tasks and mentor interns throughout the summer.

Give your interns real tasks.

Interns want to learn what it’s like to work for a real company. Grant them this opportunity with real assignments benefiting your organization. Let them develop projects generating real results. Ask for their opinions on the way your organization runs. Having interns around for the summer gives you the opportunity to hear fresh perspectives. Don’t waste it.

Utilize your interns’ tech knowledge.

Today’s interns are incredibly tech-savvy. Millennials have gone through school being constantly introduced to the newest technology like social media, software, and smartphones. Take advantage of their presence in your office and ask them for help. They might understand something better than you or be familiar with technology that will make your life easier.

Give your interns feedback.

It is important to give all of your employees feedback, and interns are no exception. In fact, you should probably give interns feedback most frequently. They are very new to the professional world and need more guidance than workers who have been in the game for a while. Give your interns constructive feedback so they can become better at their jobs. Provide feedback as tasks are completed and at the end of the summer.

Offer full-time jobs to your best interns.

Use your internship program as a way to find full-time employees. Tell your interns their work could lead to something more if they perform well. Spend the summer evaluating your interns’ skills and other qualities to determine if you’d like to keep them at the end. This will motivate your interns and make hiring easier for you down the line.

Constantly tweak your internship program.

Every time you hire new interns, make changes to improve the program. Ask departing interns what worked and didn’t work for them. Revisit your goals and outline to see if they are still applicable. Always look for ways to improve the program.

Internship programs can benefit organizations in so many ways. It’s important to make sure you constantly look for ways to improve the program in your organization.

What else is important for a strong summer internship program?

Hiring temporary workers can enable your business to take on needed staff without also taking on the responsibility for recruiting, hiring, screening, training, and providing benefits to new employees.

According to Business.com, “Companies appear to be slowly drifting away from the permanent workforce and toward having a workforce at any given time that’s 80 to 90% permanent, with the other 10 to 20% accounted for by temporary workers.”

Although temp workers are a great option for you to get the help you need without making a commitment, they aren’t the only option available. Consider hiring interns, bringing on part-time employees, and outsourcing jobs to remote workers in order to cut unnecessary costs without compromising employee quality.

Interns

When you have tasks in your business that require minimal training and responsibility – but still must be completed–student interns can do them easily. In exchange for college credit, a letter of reference, and valuable business experience, interns can perform a variety of tasks within your business. Set them to shredding files, stuffing envelopes, and filing paperwork. Over time, as they gain more experience and confidence, you can set them to more complex tasks.

• By providing students with the opportunity to gain job experience and improve their resume, they in turn can bring enthusiasm and eagerness to the job.
• You have the option to hire your interns as full-time employees later on, with the full knowledge that they are already trained and familiar with your business.

Part-Time Employees

When you hire part-time hourly employees, rather than full-time salaried workers, you have much less administrative overhead to deal with. Your HR and payroll software can easily handle their pay and tax deductions, and you won’t be responsible for providing benefits. You can use part-time workers to fill in schedules, help with the extra workload, and relieve some of your work burden without having to cover full-time pay and benefits.

• With shorter hours and shifts than regular employees, you can flexibly schedule your part-time workers so that you have enough hands on deck during busy times. This also ensures that you don’t have too many people working during slower hours.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing can benefit small businesses in a number of ways. It reduces the workload on yourself and your current employees, streamlines your business processes, and enables you to get work done for less than the cost of bringing on a new employee. Some of the tasks you can outsource include:

• HR and payroll administration.
• Accounting services.
• Inbound calls and lead generation.
• Any task that can be completed over the phone or via the internet – answering emails, generating reports, writing content, producing marketing campaigns, designing and managing websites, and more.

Making the Most of Your Budget

Decreasing the costs of hiring your employees can help you make the most of your budget. You can also save money in the hiring process itself, since your business incurs significant expense whenever it has to replace a worker. The costs of employee turnover include new hire recruitment, loss of productivity while the position remains open, and training the replacement for the position.

• According to Resource Nation, 46% of new hires fail within the first 18 months. Hire the right person the first time and reduce the frequency of negligent hires by checking references and implementing background checks for all of your potential new hires.
• Improve employee retention by offering the best perks possible – not necessarily the highest salary. Offering flexible work hours and extended vacation time can attract quality job candidates without sacrificing productivity.  Promote good health with gym memberships and wellness classes.

When your business is small or just starting out, it may be difficult to find employees who can fit your budget. Full-time, salaried employees aren’t your only option. Look into hiring less traditional workers that can help your business grow without causing a strain on your finances.

How do we ensure new employees are onboarded effectively, while still remaining efficient? Check out these five tips from experts:

Incorporate Company Culture Into Onboarding

Immersing your recent hires in the company culture during training is an easy way to increase the effectiveness of onboarding. Making onboarding a chance for new employees to get to know everything about the company, not just job-related information. Instead of giving them a guidebook and time to read through, pair them with an employee who can guide them through materials and answer the necessary questions.

– Nathan Parcells, InternMatch

Send All Paperwork Before Day One

Send all paperwork via file attachment or link to site to do so before start date; nothing kills the excitement of starting a new job than sitting down on hour one and filling out paperwork in front of HR staff. Day starts with direct manager meeting and introducing to team followed by a job orientation that addresses the new employee’s role, how it fits in with others, and how the work quality and performance affect co-workers, customers, and the company. Meet with HR in the afternoon after lunch to go over completed paperwork and the I-9 document authentication process.

– Christopher Schrader, President, Schrader and Associates

Explain The Unwritten Rules

While onboarding, explain the policies and employee handbook; a lot of the way business gets done is a result of unwritten rules, so transparency is key. For example, we have a client where the culture expectation is that every single meeting has PowerPoint presentations. If a new person hasn’t been alerted to that, they would appear unprepared.

– Shirley Engelmeier, CEO, InclusionINC

Prepare Your Supervisors

Assist your supervisors with making the necessary preparations for their new hire. Getting your supervisors organized and prepared to bring a new employee onboard is key. A checklist for supervisors that includes tasks such as cleaning out a desk drawer or providing a contact roster to the new employee is very helpful.

– Brandis Davis, Management Analyst, City of San Antonio

Use Video Presentations to Deliver a Compelling & Consistent Message

Companies should utilize video presentations in their onboarding process to better capture the attention of the new employees – many of whom are a part of the “YouTube” generation. Along with bringing employees up to speed sooner, they also ensure that a consistent message is delivered no matter where employees are located.

– Jason Pinto, Director of Marketing, CBG Benefits

What do you think? What other aspects of onboarding are important?

~Author Unknown

My informal study of car trouble, family crises, gridlock traffic, unexpected child-related obligations and flu viruses has led me to conclude that these emergencies are infinitely more likely to occur on the day a candidate is scheduled to interview. As a hiring manager, I’ve heard nearly every excuse in the book, and it no longer surprises me when I receive the eleventh hour postponement request.

It’s also made me somewhat cynical about the validity of the excuse. I suspect that the lion’s share of these candidates are underprepared for the interview and are trying to buy some more time. If after asking a few clarifying questions the situation still sounds fishy, I’ll often tell the candidate to make their best effort to get to the interview, and wish them luck with their other interviews if they can’t.

That said, there are exceptions.

A couple months ago, we were preparing to interview a very promising candidate. Just before the interview, I got the “the call” from him: his car had broken down on the Beltway and he didn’t think he’d be able to make it.

He’d already survived the first several steps of the interview process. After one phone interview, two sales assessments, and two face-to-face interviews, he was about to take on the most challenging part. The final step in our interview is the audition call, where he’d be asked to execute a mock prospecting call to my business partner. It’s not unheard of to have someone try to stall on this difficult—but critical—part of the interview process. I was suspicious of the timing of the Beltway breakdown, and started to tell him that perhaps we weren’t the right fit for him. He shocked me by pushing back and asked if he could call me back in five minutes. Wanting to see where this was going, I agreed.

When he called me back a few minutes later, he told me a tow truck was en route. He apologized that he would be late, but insisted he’d make it. Sure enough, he arrived at our office riding shotgun in the tow truck, his broken-down car hissing on the back of the truck. He walked in, out of breath and sweating through his dress shirt, and politely asked if he could have five minutes to freshen up.

You had me at tow truck.

I tried my best to cover up the fact that given his determination and resourcefulness getting to the interview, this guy would be getting a job offer from us barring him bombing the audition call. As you can probably guess, he nailed the call, accepted our offer, and is now one of our top performers. Rather than making an excuse for missing the interview, he fought for it and proved to me that he’d be willing to go the extra mile for the job. That’s someone I want to hire.

But don’t push it.

As with most situations, there is another side to this coin. I want someone who is willing to go above and beyond, but not someone overly desperate for a job. A few years ago, I read about a company that scheduled their job interviews at 3 or 4 in the morning—they wanted to see who had the determination to agree to such an inconvenient time.

The strategy backfired.

Instead of getting the cream of the crop, the people who agreed to come in were unqualified, underemployed, desperate candidates who didn’t have any other opportunities worth mentioning. The best talent will always have options, and if you give them the runaround in order to test their mettle, they’ll likely end up parking at your competitor’s office.

Two takeaways.

For the employers: Make sure your candidates will go the extra mile, but don’t put them through the ringer just to prove it. If you do, you’ll filter out some of your best candidates, and be left with the most desperate.

For the candidates: Make sure you’re fully prepared for the interview, and if you have a legitimate excuse for postponing, make it believable because the hiring manager has most likely “heard this one before.”

The same is true of mail merges in Word. Once a year I spend a frustrating morning printing the same address 40 times on a sheet of labels or managing to get different addresses that don’t line up properly, or the damn template goes missing. Usually the whole thing just doesn’t work and I address them by hand.

Malcolm Gladwell says you need to put in 10,000 hours to be an expert at something. So I’m thinking that half of that makes you pretty good, a quarter of it means you can fake it and a tenth is probably the lower limit for doing whatever it is without adult supervision. That explains a lot about why I can’t do pivot tables, mail merges, embroidery or origami.

Let’s see how I rate for interviewing job applicants. Assuming I interview a dozen people a year for an hour each and I do that for 20 years, let’s see…that makes me …uh oh.

I am willing to bet that just as most managers have no idea how to write a job description, the majority of us have received exactly no training in how to recruit, interview or evaluate candidates. I blame HR.

For some reason, it is far easier to yell at managers about screwing up onboarding, training, managing and retaining new hires than it is to help them make the right decision in the first place. These are all important things, to be sure, but they are really only matter if the right bottom is in the right seat to begin with. They are mere formalities if the wrong bottom got through the gate while HR was being strategic.

That would be the last of our four gates. The one we guard, the one where somebody knew somebody who had coffee with somebody and ended up calling you at precisely the moment you were so bored in your Ethics at Work course that you were considering eating a paperclip just so they’d call an ambulance to get you out, but instead you agreed to have a meeting with this random person you would never meet anyway because by the time the appointment came around you would surely be dead of boredom.

But that didn’t happen. You met the person. The one ART rejected on account of keywords and your lousy job description, and who Bethany rejected because when she connected the dots between your lousy job description and their resume it didn’t make the pleasing igloo picture she was hoping for. And you liked that person. And it was time to bring them in for a real interview.

Or maybe Bethany finally found someone who could get past her dim understanding of the role and out of the sand bunkers of her behavioural questions so she sent them around to your gate. It’s also possible that ART managed to flag a decent resume and send them your way.

It matters not. The problem is, they’re in front of you and all you have for a map through this is your lousy job description and their resume. No training. No corporate guidelines and a vague sense that it’s wrong to ask about anything involving lady parts, but you can’t recall what.

What to do?

Do what thousands of untrained hiring managers have done before you:*

• Show up late. Not a cotton-candy-assed ten minutes; make them sit in the lobby for at least 20 and then in the airless meeting room for another ten.
• Forget to offer coffee or water
• Read their resume for the first time in the elevator on the way down
• Read the job description during the interview, for the first time since you wrote it
• Ask ridiculous questions like “where do you see yourself in ten years?” “What can you bring to ABC Company?” ”Why should we hire you?“
• Bring in the HR director who can pull out a computer and type through the entire conversation, periodically interrupting to update you on an unrelated project
• Give them an “assignment” like this one: based on the lousy job description, and your limited knowledge of the company, come in and present a comprehensive marketing plan for our new product.
• Don’t take a single note
• Don’t provide additional info like an organizational chart, to help the candidate sort out the role despite your lousy job description
• Inform them at the end of the interview that even though the lousy job description says senior manager, they thought it over and it’s really more of an analyst role
• After half an hour of making them read their resume aloud to you, pass them off to your equally unprepared colleague for a second look
• Wonder why they turned down your offer
• Blame HR

* Every single one of these things happened to me during my last job search.

So broken.

With 92 percent of U.S. companies using social media for recruiting permanent employees, it’s shocking to hear some companies aren’t using social when it comes to recruiting better intern hires. Sure, you may have a company page on LinkedIn where you post your openings, but what are you really doing to attract and engage your audience of potential intern candidates?

You might be a little wary of Google+, but their video chat feature may be just what you need to turn around the recruiting and hiring process for your internship program. Launched in 2011, Google Hangouts are the perfect medium for employers to engage in virtual face-to-face interaction and information sharing with potential intern candidates.

Here are four ways to use Google Hangouts to land better interns:

1. Hold monthly question-and-answer Hangouts. There’s no better way to engage intern candidates than allowing them to ask you their burning questions about the position and company. Your can either ask students to submit questions ahead of time (possibly via social media) and host a Hangout on Air which can serve an unlimited number of viewers or you can host a regular hangout which accommodates just 10 students but provides a more intimate atmosphere for top candidates.

If you’d like to give your Q&A Hangout a little more direction, choose a new topic each month. This will allow you to stay on track and cover and provide as much information as possible within your allotted time frame. You can even partner with other companies to attract a broader array of targeted students, as Google, Facebook, and Twitter did in their technology hangout last year.

Another approach is to provide in-depth internship help session for students, like a Q&A on how to build your resume within a chosen industry. What’s the norm? What do you expect from interns when it comes to resumes? What you have some examples to share? This type of informational session is certain to help your employer brand reach expert status, while also developing stronger potential intern candidates.

2. Hangout in college classes around the world. Every employee at your company has alumni connections, but it’s not always easy figuring out how to get them to use those connections to engage potential candidates. For companies on a budget sometimes building relationships with schools and students that are outside the 50 mile radius of your headquarters can be difficult.

Hangouts give you the opportunity to get face-to-face interaction with students from the best college programs across the nation, from the comfort of your office.

Start by contacting professors and advisors of professional student-run organizations related to your industry. Ask them if they’d be interested in having you speak to their class — through a Hangout — about landing internships and entry-level employment within the industry or share insight into your own personal career and accomplishments. This will give students a chance to get familiar with you and your company, as well as learn about your company culture.

3. Record and save valuable content. The great thing about Hangouts is that every time you host a webinar or Q&A, it’s recorded. Free reusable content, anyone? Post your Hangouts to your website, blog, social media platforms, or use them on your intern Campus Hub. Consider them as informational marketing materials to draw in potential intern candidates.

4. Brief your intern class prior to their start date. Whether you’re taking on virtual interns or you just have a variety of interns coming to you from different locations, it can be a challenge to get everyone prepared for your internship prior to their start date. Aside from emailing their guidelines, onboarding materials, and intern handbook, why not have everyone meet via a Hangout?

Pick a date and gather your interns virtually to connect with you and their fellow intern classmates as they learn about your internship program. This is a great time to address any comments, concerns, and glaring questions. You might even consider allowing your interns to briefly interact with a variety of other company employees and managers.

Bringing on better intern hires starts with building your employer brand and increasing your facetime with potential candidates.

Would you use Google Hangouts to connect with potential intern candidates?

This is a 2-fold process – first that you meet the job requirements (this can be by having done the job duties) and secondly on how you contributed (accomplishments) while doing the job duties.

By adding both achievements and skills, you make your resume more useful.

When you are writing about your achievements and skills—about the value you brought to former employers—make sure you include information about how you accomplished what you accomplished.

Consider these two statements for a sales resume:

(a) Increased sales 7%.

(b) Increased sales 7% by introducing new synthetic paper product through partnership with a new supplier.

Or consider these two statements for a social worker resume:

(a) Supervise 4 family advocates and 20 foster parents.

(b) Supervise 4 family advocates and 20 foster parents by providing mentoring, leadership and guidance to improve productivity and create a high performance team.

In each case, statement (b) describes how the achievement or skill was brought into play. The “how” also shows off your soft skills, such as the ability to partner or mentor, and turns a common job responsibility into a special value.

You also may want to consider adding keywords to your accomplishments. Consider these statements:

(a) Prepared 20 letters per week.

(b) Prepared 20 letters per week which successfully solicited 10 new clients per week by expertly crafting grammatically-correct documents while using Microsoft Word.

Microsoft Word may be considered a keyword – and by putting it into the resume this way you have shown how you have used a skill to get a great result.

How are you creating obvious value with your resume? And how do write a great accomplishment statement?

Thanks toolstop for the photo via Flickr

1. Find your balance of power. Overconfidence can reveal as arrogance, pushiness, or worse – indifference. Lack of confidence can show up as nervousness, fidgeting or poor eye contact.

2. Be clear on your experience. Get a handle on what you have to offer (from classwork to internships and extra curricular projects) that makes you stand out. Have key points and bullet points to highlight the relevance and value of those activities, so you avoid rambling out of nervousness.

3. Know the job. Be clear about the position you are applying for. While the interviewer wants you to ask questions in the interview, asking, “So, what would this job entail?” shows a lack of research and attention to the basics. Understand what the job requires (do online research, ask people who have that job in other companies or ask others who have had that job before), and be able to clearly relate your experience, even if it is limited, to the duties of the job.

4. Practice good body language. Like your mother always taught you, look people in the eye when you are speaking with them. Nod your head in agreement, and use hand gestures to indicate support to your points. Similarly, be sure to sit up in your chair but not rigidly. There’s a balance between being too casual (think slumping) and being too stoic (think military). Practice good sitting posture in front of a mirror or with a friend. A great body language tip is to always point your belly button to the person you are giving attention to. This ensures you are facing that person as well.

5. Leave technology off. Forget silence and vibrate mode, it’s too easy to be distracted by a sudden vibration in your pocket when you’re nervous. Keep your technology turned off but close to you in case you need to call for directions or check your calendar (for that follow up interview!).

6. Most senior executives will tell you that the thing they look for in young applicants is passion and authenticity. No one wants to hire an assembly line of look alike workers. Be your wonderful self at all times, but make sure you’re appropriate to the formality of the interview. If you like to smile, then do so. If you have a passion for the creative, let that shine. If you like bright colors, find a way to work that into your wardrobe. If the company doesn’t want to hire someone who smiles, is creative or likes bright colors, then they might not hire you. But… would you really want that job?

There is a youthful enthusiasm and spirit in recent grads that you don’t see in someone who has been in the work world for a long time. Use your energy, passion and hope for the future (and your future!) to bring joy to the job. Show that you are someone others want to teach, grow and invest in!