CharlotteRecruiting

Creating Your Own Brand Image

It's hard to go through an entire day without hearing or seeing a brand name or image of a company. However, in the past few years a new type of brand has been emerging: the personal brand. In this ever flattening world it has become more and more important to be able to differentiate yourself from the other people interviewing for the jobs you want.  Robin Good investigates 10 important steps to creating your own brand image.

In the traditional sense, a brand is a word, usually a proper noun. Brand building is the process of creating a perception in the mind that there is no product or service on the market quite like yours.

I found #4 to be one of more thought provoking and important ones on the list. The idea of building a network instead of simply networking is interesting. I'm still trying to find a way to clearly define it in my head, but I see the bigger picture in my head.

I am continually working on my brand image. If I ever became a commercially available product, I already have my own logo. Now if only I could come  up with a clever slogan...

How To Have A Successful Phone Interview

The phone interview. Some people may say that they prefer it over a face-to-face interview because it is more relaxed. Some people may argue that phone interviews are tougher because it is harder to correctly convey your thoughts and emotions. Whatever the case is, you need to be prepared and keep certain things in mind in order to nail the interview. Marcia Robinson has some advice for you on how to do just that. One thing you do not want to do is get too "comfortable" during the interview.

"Watch slang use during telephone interviews. Every word used is important to the recruiter who is listening intently. Hiring managers are not just interested in a high energy tone; they also take notes on good or weak verbal communication skills."

You never know when you will have to do a phone interview. I have heard of times when a recruiter calls and starts an interview right there on the spot. It can happen. Being prepared and knowing how to handle the interview will ensure a greater probability of getting the on location interview or job.

Job Interviews Are About Solutions, Not Questions

One of the things I tell my candidates during interview prep is to pretend the interview is their first day on the job, and they're talking about what they're going to be doing on the second day.  It's a way to put the right "attitude" in the candidates mind.

By focusing on what the job actually is, and talking about it, you create a mental picture in the mind of the hiring manager of you working along her.  If she can picture it, she's more likely to hire you to make it real.

Advice columns and even blogs get bogged down in the excruciating minutiae of interview questions, but the basic principle is always the same.  The hiring manager has problems, and they want to hire someone who can solve that problem. 

There are interview techniques using behavioral interviewing, benchmarks, and assessments that are effective, but they require trained interviewers with and valid data. If you're lucky enough to have a company that pays for that, then you're better off following that path.  For the majority of us who lack those resources, focusing the interview on the job at hand will yield better results than following a list of "interview questions."

Learn How To Use Facebook To Recruit

The event is set.  May 21st.  The time s 4:00 EST.  I'll be hosting a live webinar on Facebook recruiting through hireability. The session is called,

Facebook Recruiting:  A Live Demonstration of Hiring Inside Facebook by Jim Durbin, the Social Media Headhunter.

The explosion of Facebook as a social networking tool is challenge and a mystery to recruiters.  Unlike LinkedIn Plaxo, Facebook users aren't looking to be contacted in a search for jobs.  They certainly don't want to be headhunted, until they're ready.  Jim Durbin, a social media expert takes a look at Facebook from the eyes of an experienced staffing professional, and provides live, actionable training on how to use Facebook to increase placements.

In a session that combines sourcing, contacting, and referral generation, Mr. Durbin shows recruiters how to navigate the tricky waters of social networking.

The event is a paid webinar - the cost is $89, and it will be 4:00 p.m. EST/1:00 p.m. PST, and will cover sourcing, filtering, connecting, reference checking, and referrals in Facebook.  Most training sessions are full of theory - this webinar will be a walkthrough of screens and search terms on an actual job search.

There'll be Cross-promotion at socialmediaheadhunter and my other recruiting blogs StlRecruiting, Seattle, and KC Recruiting, as well as the social networks  and social media circles.  If you announce the event on your blog, be sure to send me an e-mail, and I'll link to you from this PR5 blog.

How To Make Money Using Facebook To Recruit

Well I've gone and done it.  May 21st, I'll be hosting a paid webinar on how to use Facebook to recruit.  None of this namby-pamby theoretical making friends nonsense.

We're digging deep and we're going to wring some value out of the time you've put into your funwall.

This is what is known as a teaser post. 

Recruiting Viral Video

A video commercial for Talent Drive. Find out more at http://Blog.TalentDrive.com

Talent Drive: Remote Sourcing

I'd heading up to Chicago to meet with the TalentDrive Advisory Council.  It's a cool idea - sourcing taken up one level.

The basic product is you work with the TalentDrive team to give you a list of sourced names from people who have agreed to be contacted.   It's not full life cycle recruiting, but it doesn't cost the same as full-fee recruiter.

If you're in sales, marketing, or one of the other verticals they serve, it's a service you want to check out.

With more than 35 million resumes dispersed over 40,000 web-based locations, recruiters are spending more than 65% of their time searching the Web for quality resumes. TalentDrive provides a candidate sourcing solution that enables companies to leverage the Internet as a recruiting tool more efficiently and effectively.

TalentDrive is the first company with the capability to search more than 40,000 web-based locations – including niche job boards, local community websites, social networking sites, university websites, and more - as well as the only company to have experienced industry experts to provide objective, eyes-on review to evaluate and uncover quality resumes.

      

Does VMS Software Cause Mediocre Recruiting?

I'd like to take a look at how companies design contract staffing programs that encourage minimum standards for quality.

Third Party firms consider the VMS revolution (Vendor Management System) the bane of their existence.  On the one hand, a Vendor list limits competition, as only a select number of vendors are allowed to place candidates.  On the other hand, the systems by which companies measure their vendors virtually guarantee that finding quality candidates is not a priority.

VMS systems (which are poorly names as to say it, you have to say, Vendor Management System systems) are put in place to turn staffing into an accounting function.  In theory, this is a great practice, because it requires companies to  focus on all of a companies reqs, but also on "hiring quality.''

In reality, the nature of staffing makes it impossible to judge performance accurately.  Here are some of the metrics I've encountered. 

1) Number of Submittals to open positions -

2) Ratio of interviews to Submittals

3) Ratio of Offers to Interview

4) Number of Hires to Offer

5) Number of Early Terminations

These metrics were the most common - though others were used.  The goal of each was to create statistics upon which companies could compare companies based on their performance.  The metrics listed above are easy to track, easy to use as comparison, and devoid of any context.  Placing 10 desktop techs is rated with 10 submittals and 10 interviews would give a company a good rank, while a company that found two of the world's foremost Java programmers with 35 interviews would be ranked poorly.

Third Party recruiters are no dummies - they know what it takes to compete, and so they often find a niche they fit into and focus on that particular niche, sending only token resumes to other positions.  In a blind process, the recruiting companies don't know what other companies are searching for, so they often compete head to head in the easy-to-fill, low value positions.  Business Analysts, Desktop Techs, entry-level Programmers, and QA analysts are hot positions to fill. Senior programmers, ERP specialists, and Database developers are tough to find.

Third Party Recruiters therefore focus on the easy jobs, leaving the difficult positions alone because they know the margin is lower (VMS systems deflate top rates), the search more difficult, and the payoff in the vendor metrics minor.  Finding a top SAP ABAP developer once every four years simply won't keep a public company in business.

In this way, companies that utilize traditional vendor metrics are unintentionally (at least we hope) driving down the quality of their top contractors. 

Vendor contracts often have clauses that discuss the intentions of the vendor to only put "quality" candidates in front of a client.  This always struck me as a funny thing to put into a legal contract, because "quality" is such a funny word - it's entirely subjective, and has no solid legal description. In fact, I would argue that vendor lists, by their very metrics, dissuade Third Party Recruiters from attempting to place the best candidates in front of a client.

Top Transferable Skills Web Sites

The following is a guest post from the Recruiting BlogSwap. Dr Mary Askew specializes in career tests, websites, and books.

To be successful in the workplace, employees have to possess transferable skills. Knowing about these skills will help teens and adults prepare to be successful in the workplace. Transferable skills are a product of our talents, traits and knowledge. These skills determine how you respond to new activities, work situations or jobs.

Transferable skills are non-job specific skills that you have acquired during any activity or life experiences. Student activities and experiences include campus and community activities, class projects, and assignments, hobbies, athletic activities, internships and summer part-time jobs.

Transferable skills skills fall into three (3) groups: Working with people, working with things, and working with data/information. These terms are defined below:

    * Working with people skills happen when people sell, train, advise, and negotiate.
    * Working with things skills occur when people repair, operate machinery, sketch, survey, or troubleshoot.
    * Working with data/information skills involve budgeting, researching, and analyzing.

Visit DiversityJobs.com for articles, news, and advice on Diversity recruiting.

Questions You Cannot Ask In An Interview

Recruiters are paid to dig deep into the qualifications and character of a candidate.  Hiring managers ask us to go beyond the skill listed on the resume, and determine the "right fit" for the company.  For many recruiters, the ability to be efficient in finding the right person is often held up by legal restrictions on what we can and can't ask.  In an effort to protect candidates, the government writes laws that sound good in theory, but often prevent us from weeding out the so-called bad apples. 

Ultimately, it's a matter of perspective.  The government and the law are there to protect the candidate, with the assumption that a company that is "fair" is a better company, while most recruiters are trained to be efficient, finding the best candidate no matter what the methods use. 

Still , laws are laws, and they must be followed.  So what are some things you can and can't ask?  Just this once, I'm going to keep my snark in line, and just present the questions.

Questions related to height, weight and age.
Birthplace or birthplace of the parents.
Volunteer activities.
Politely, or impolitely asking if they are, Mr, Ms, or Mrs. 
Asking about felonies, arrest, or misdemeanors that did not result in conviction.
Maiden name, marital status, or number of dependents.
The spouse's name.

The list is bigger, but the intent is the same.  In the eyes of the law, the type of person you are has no impact on the type of worker you might be.  In the eyes of the law.  So that young buck with a pregnant wife?  You can't suggest he'll be motivated to sell harder because he's starting a family.  That's discriminatory.  Just a note to some bosses of mine from the early 90's.

Source:  Electronic Recruiting 101, written by Shally Steckerl.