JobSync

Candidates and Their Stories: Will They Work Happily Ever After?

October 6, 2011

As a recruiter or hiring manager, you are always looking for someone with great skills, experience, personality, and commitment. However, you are also looking for that “certain extra something” that makes this individual a compelling candidate. Something that sets him apart from the rest of the applicants for a job at your company. So, what is it?

Whether you realize it or not, that special quality is their story.

Recently, Businessinsider.com highlighted the need for job seekers to be able to present their work background as a story. Not just any story, but one that shows a career trajectory of fulfilled promise and achievement. You have probably met many candidates who make the mistake of presenting themselves as a loose collection of disconnected jobs and skills. This lack of coherency no doubt made you question their drive, focus, and commitment.

Today, just as job hunters need to project their story in an attractive matter, it is also equally incumbent upon recruiters and hiring managers to recognize a candidate’s success story. As you interview a candidate and review this individual later, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does the candidate’s work experience reflect an upward, linear trajectory of different – but related – positions?

2. Is the candidate’s background filled with a record of consistent successes and accomplishments?

3. Is the candidate enthusiastic about sharing this story, or is the presentation more matter-of-fact?
   

Ultimately, you want to fill your company with professional storytellers. Not only are they more likely to continue their stories of achievement, but in doing so, they will help you write a new chapter in the history of your company as well.

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Is a Virtual Job Just Around the Virtual Corner?

October 5, 2011

Recently, U.S. News & World Reports featured a blog discussing the growing popularity of virtual jobs for employees. With companies under greater pressure to cut costs, telecommuting employees offer businesses savings on rent, power, absenteeism, and turnover. And there are plenty of benefits for employees, too, namely:

1. A short commute. The average American worker spends 25 minutes traveling to work one way. For the day, this comes out to almost an hour. Would you rather spend that time with family and friends or with strangers on a road?

2. A relaxed work environment. Assuming your home is not filled with screaming babies, working out of the house offers comforts and conveniences such as no dress code, a well-stocked pantry with all your favorites, and a place to lie down when you need a break.

3. Increased productivity. It is estimated that working from home can increase national productivity by 5.5 million man-years each year ($235 billion worth of work).

4. Environmental benefits. With fewer cars, buses and trains on the road, this can annually save more than 280 million barrels of oil (roughly $23 billion). Telecommuting can also decrease greenhouse gases by 53 million tons each year.

Telecommuting isn’t for everyone, however. It requires discipline to avoid the distractions of home. Being a virtual employee can also be very isolating, especially for someone who is a people person. Just like any other job environment, one has to be a good fit for a home office. And if someone isn’t, both the employee and employer will lose out.

So is telecommuting for you? Regardless of whether it is or not, job seekers must remain open to the possibility that working from home may be an employer’s only option – perhaps not today, but in the future. Which is why job hunters must remain open to any virtuality.

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Haven't Applied to Work at Your Company? You Should...

October 4, 2011

As a hiring manager, you trust the coworkers tasked with finding ideal candidates to be proficient at their jobs. This is especially important as the person you hire will help your department and company hit their numbers. However, what if you harbor serious doubts that highly qualified candidates are getting through to your desk, even in a difficult job market? To understand what such individuals are encountering when they apply to your company, it behooves you to walk in their footsteps and apply for these open positions at your company. And you may be surprised at what you find.

For starters, consider your company’s website. Is it informative? Can it get a potential pool of applicants excited by the prospect of working for your company? Does it effectively convey the spirit and corporate culture of your company?

Next, give your company’s online application a test drive. If it is tedious and cumbersome, ask yourself “Why?” After all, you know what skills and experience an open position requires, so why are others making it so difficult for job seekers to convey these attributes to hiring managers like you? Go ahead and apply, either as yourself or as a hypothetical candidate who would be perfect for the position. If you don’t make it through to an initial screen or never even receive acknowledgment of your application, there are clearly systematic screening problems at your workplace.

Lastly, while you wait, do you receive updated information on the status of your application? This and other hiccups along the way may tell candidates how organized and efficient your company is (or, in this case, isn’t). If such issues are significant, they could be discouraging the best and the brightest from completing applications to your company.

Mom was right: When trying to find the best candidates, apply yourself. Just be ready for the consequences. And rejections.

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Why You Shouldn't Job Hunt at Work

October 3, 2011

Many job seekers are miserable at their current job, and perhaps a little spiteful. With all the pressure to find a new job – including the fear that failure to apply to a position as soon as it’s posted will cost them – it’s easy to understand why they might take advantage of their office computer and phone for their job search. However, there are many reasons why one should never look for a new job at work, including:

1. Your email and Internet activity are being monitored. Are they being actively monitored? It depends on the company. But if you are a disgruntled or underperforming employee who is acting oddly at work, it might compel your superiors to begin watching what you’re emailing and where you’re web surfing. Your phone could also be monitored as well if you are placing outgoing calls to potential employers or if other companies are leaving you voicemails.

2. Your coworkers may be watching you, too. And if your job hunting activities are undermining their position at the company, you could be setting yourself up for a huge fall should they decide to report your conduct. Work friends you “trust implicitly” may not be so trustworthy after all. And even if they are, remember that their email activity is being monitored as well, so if they are discussing your job hunt, it could invite trouble.

3. Job hunting at work will undercut your relationship with your current employer and potential employer if they become aware of it. Okay, maybe you weren’t relying on your current boss for a reference. However, looking for a new job on the company dime may burn a bridge and any opportunity for negotiating a better deal at your current workplace if a competitive situation to retain your services arises between your present and potential employers. Excessive job hunting at work may also make a potential employer wonder if you will do the same should you become tired of working for them in the future. Which brings us to…

4. Looking for a new position will undermine your professionalism and commitment. Aside from getting you fired, it is simply unprofessional to job hunt at your current workplace. Doing so will also reduce your productivity. And worse, it will increase the likelihood that with so many accessible jobs available online, you may feel more likely to bolt from an employer at the slightest dissatisfaction in the future.

When deciding when you should look for a new job, just adopt the “Cell Phone Plan” approach: Nights and weekends are free, so do most of your business then.

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Is Your Ego Hurting Your Job Search?

September 29, 2011

You’ve been out of a job for three months. Six months. Or nine months...

Or perhaps you’ve been looking to leave your current position for a new job for three months. Six months. Or nine months...

Of course the job market is tough, so you need a tough skin to get through it, right? But is your ego undermining your efforts to find a great-fitting position? Is it keeping you from reaching out to your network of family, friends, and colleagues to let them know you are looking and that you need a little help? Is your ego discouraging you from considering other fields where your transferable skills could find a new home? Is it preventing you from picking up some new skills or doing some career-enhancing volunteer work on the side? Or is your ego discouraging you from getting some career counseling, even though you’ve felt professionally adrift for years?

Your ability to rein in your ego may be costing you time and money and only adding frustration to your professional growth and development in addition to your everyday life. A little vulnerability can go a long way to opening yourself up to different possibilities and options. The problem, however, is that with a little vulnerability comes the risk of failure, and this is where ego often gets the best of embattled job seekers.

As difficult as it may sound, failure is frequently the first step to putting the broken pieces of a job search back together (And by failure, we don’t mean the scores of companies that have never replied to your online job applications). A flubbed interview is the first step to polishing your personal presentation skills. An inferior work sample that’s rejected is a catalyst for refining a submission for your next job application. Failure is your ego’s friend – it’s tough love, but love nonetheless.

So lose the ego, and gain the job.

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