Thursday, November 28, 2019

5 Reasons It Pays to Get Help Applying for Jobs

5 Reasons It Pays to Get Help Applying for Jobs5 Reasons It Pays to Get Help Applying for JobsEvery job seeker would improve their chances of landing that dream job by using services like Find My Profession.There are 5 reasons why it pays to use this service.1. It saves time when you have another set of eyes watching job boardsI Googled, I need a job, for this blog post and yielded a staggering 929,000,000 results However, many zugnglich job boards are content aggregate websites. They exist only to take content from another website and place it on their own. You need another set of eyes watching job boards to know the difference between legit job boards and content aggregate sites The one perfect job application you sent in today on an aggregate website could have gone to waste.Find My Profession applies to jobs online for you which saves you time. The time you save can be used for job applications asking you to construct a cover letter.Others will ask you to create an account on the ir business website to fill out a new job application form.2. Targeting yuronline resume for job boards and LinkedInThe old saying goes, A person who represents himself has a fool for a client. Hiring trends change more frequently throughout our careers than most people spend job seeking. On average a worker may change jobs 10 times before age 40. Todays workforce will see an average of 15 job changes before age 40. Hiring trends, however, change every year. Therefore, the resume that helped you nail down a great job 3 years ago may be out of date. It may not be friendly with thetechnology used by recruiters. The usage of format and keypositivs in resumes changes as well. Recruiters at Find My Profession are aware of changing trends in hiring.Job seekers discover what works on resumes when applying for jobs through job boards. They discover the importance of presentation of a resume on platforms such as LinkedIn.3. You have someone to discuss the sketchy side of online job applicati onsLess than desirable hiring companies often use specific keywords out of context to garner more job applicants. Job applicants often discover after applying that the job description was misleading. Words like brand management can be used in job descriptions for street promotions. However, these jobs are completely different and require two different skill sets.For example, I saw a recent series of job postings on a popular job board under the job title, Customer Service Manager. After investigating, the jobs turned out to be for an independent telemarketing work from home and handing out food samples at a supermarket chain. The word manager is being used to describe people managing their own workloads, which is something we all do. We are not all managers, however. Words taken out of context can lead to hours of misleading job interviews for entry-level positions.Find My Profession applies to jobs having your best interest in mind. Prior to doing so, job seekers have discussions w ith Find My Profession about what should go on a resume to avoid such situations. This requires discussions about what is happening on job boards. Websites like Glassdoor are useful for business reviews, but you contend with false reviews contributed by company employees.4. The opportunity to do A/B testing of resumesIn order to do A/B testing I have the followingMy resume from Find My Profession which I trust is getting out there. It is the representation of what I want out of my next job.My presentation of a resume which I use on my own.Resumes are subjected to personal recruiters opinion. I apply for jobs on my own and change up the presentation. By doing this, I discovered different parts of the world seemed more attracted to certain styles of resume presentations than others.Note Giving appropriate credit, the resume I worked on with Find My Profession has led to the most job interviews. In the process, I learned a move to a new city may be required for my career transition. Th e west coast of the United States may be my next land of opportunity5. The simplest reason why avoiding spam.Many online job postings ask you to share your personal information and email when applying. Sounds like a great job opportunity, but within minutes you are hounded with spam. You are offered services and online education programs. You just gave your information to a sales representative by mistake. It then becomes next to impossible to stop the spam and the Unsubscribe button is useless.This does not happen with Find My Profession. The more I talk with Find My Profession the more I learn about the differences between real job opportunities and spam job listings. Find My Profession is a human company.It is unfortunate that many websites pose as job boards and then spam you, but it does happen. It simply pays to know what you are looking at before you forfeit your personal information.In closingSearching for work online is a full-time job. The process involves rejection and ca n feel long and drawn out.It is important to keep human assistance in your life during a job hund to combat the feelings that come with a full-time job of being rejected until you find your dream job. You receive reassurance that you are not in the job seeking game alone.After all, your success matters as much to you as it does to Find My Profession.

Saturday, November 23, 2019

3 life lessons from the making of this Hollywood blockbuster

3 life lessons from the making of this Hollywood blockbuster3 life lessons from the making of this Hollywood blockbusterThe 27-year-old director had a major problem in his hands.The star of his movie, Bruce, welcheshigh maintenance - even by Hollywood standards. Bruce was a mechanical shark, lovingly named after the directors lawyer. But the shark couldnt do the one thing he was built to do swim properly. On his first day on the set, he sank to the bottom of the water. Within a week, his electric motor malfunctioned. Even after a good day, Bruce had to be drained, scrubbed, and repainted to get ready for filming - requiring the type of pampering rarely expected by movie stars.The director then did what all directors wish they could do to an over-demanding and under-performing actor He fired the shark. I had no choice but to figure out how to tell the story without the shark, he explained. As he faced this major constraint, he asked himself, What would Hitchcock do in a situation li ke this? The answer gave him a stroke of inspiration that helped him convert a landseemingly insurmountable obstacle into a blockbuster opportunity.Inthe opening sceneof the movie, Chrissy decides to go for a moonlight dip. As shes swimming along, shes suddenly pulled under water and yanked around, while gasping for breath and screaming for help. The focus is on Chrissy, and the villain is nowhere to be seen. The monster is left entirely to the imagination of the audience, which doesnt get a good look at the shark until the third act. This omission ultimately produced a constant state of anxiety in the audience, boosted by the ominous theme music (da-dum . . . da-dum . . . da-dum-da-dum-da-dum).The movie, as you probably guessed, wasJaws, and its director was a young Steven Spielberg.Jawsbecame the first movie ever to top $100 million at the box office.I love this story in part because it marries three different principles that Ive written about in the past.First, constraints like t he one that Spielberg faced are supposed to be detrimental to our work. How are you supposed to film a shark movie without the shark? But, asJawsillustrates,constraints can boost, rather than undermine, creativity. The opposite can also be true If Spielberg had a well-functioning shark to work with, the ingredient that made the movie most memorable would be missing.Second, when Spielberg was deciding what to do, he asked himself, What would Hitchcock do in a situation like this? Notice what he didnotdo. He didnt call Hitchcock to ask if old Alfredwould be willing to mentor him. He didnt say, Al, Ive got a broken shark. What do you think I should do? Spielberg had studied the masters of his field so carefully that he knew exactly what Hitchcock would do without having to pick up the phone. Spielbergs mentors were all around him - in the movies that lined the shelves of his film collection - and he knew how to open his eyes to channel their power.Finally, in hiding the shark from vi ew for much of the movie, Spielberg applied a principle that many of us neglect What we dont see is scarier than what we do see.From a human perspective, not all facts are equal. We tend to incessantly focus on the facts in front of us andneglect other factsthat may be hidden in a blind spot. But contrary to popular wisdom, what you dont see or know can hurt you. In focusing on the facts in front of us, we dont focus enough - or at all - on the missing facts, which can be far more important than whats right in front of us. As the focal facts scream their 100-decibel sirens for attention, we neglect to ask, What am I not seeing? What fact should be present, but is not?Next time, before you jump to a confident conclusion, check your blind spot.Youll see sharks lurking there.Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned law professor and bestselling author.Click hereto download a free copy of his e-book, The Contrarian Handbook 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your fre e e-book, youll get the Weekly Contrarian - a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).Thisarticlefirst appeared onOzanVarol.com.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

How to use text for better recruiting

How to use text for better recruitingHow to use text for better recruitingHow to use text for better recruitingHow much faster could you fill job requisitions if all stakeholders responded to your communications in minutes? It would be a game-changer, right? Thats why textingespecially with candidatesis a revolutionizing the recruiting industry.Globally, there are upwards of 16 million text messages sent per minute, and research shows that 90 percent of people read a text message within the first three minutes of receiving it. And more and more, text is being used as a go-to tool for recruiters.But, its not a panaceayou must control how to use it, with which candidates and when.Weve distilled some great advice from a range of professionals who have done deep dives into the dos and donts of texting with candidates.Text is ideal for candidates who arent at their computer 24/7Whether theyre individual contributors, managers or executives, most professionals appreciate the ease and speed of texting for brief communications. But texting can be an even more vital lifeline to candidates for lower-wage jobs, who may not be tethered to their computers 24/7.The most immediate impact is for hourly blue collar workers, says Sarah Brennan, principal at HR consulting firm Accelir.There are typically millions of open jobs in this labor sector year-round, and many workers in hospitality, retail and similar service industries dont have an online profile, sometimes not even an schmelzglas address.For high-volume hiring, time-to-fill is cut by up to 50 percent, says Brennan.For example, when a candidate is in a store and they can text an inquiry in response to a help-wanted sign, text bots can come back and automate basic screening questions like hours of availability, says Brennan. Automated texting may also offer each candidate a few interview days and times to choose from.Age matters when it comes to textingYes, pretty much everybody texts in their personal lives, but some are more likely than others to appreciate hearing from recruiters by text. And you guessed it, that group is the largest young generation of workersmillennials.Millennials are not comfortable talking on the phone, so letting them show interest for a role via text will increase the talent pool, says Jayne Mattson, senior vice president of Keystone Associates.Texting also makes sense for a first touch with a candidate if theres been no response to email or a phone message, says Kristen Fowler, practice director at Clarke Caniff Strategic Search.In many cases, its the younger candidates who arent responding to traditional outreach, but just might see your textand start engaging.Text helps fill the black holeA speedy response to a candidates textwhether from a bot or personally from a recruiterasayas the candidate that their information isnt just going into a black hole, Brennan says.But before sending any kind of text, recruiters should ask a candidates permission, says Fowler. This is es pecially important for in-demand tech professionals who can be very selective about communications technologies and who dont want their phone to blow up with recruiter requests.Candidates tell us time and time again that theirnumber one frustration with the job search process is the lack of communication that happens once they submittheir resume. They feel ignored, disrespected, and even if they arent the right fit for your current job, being able to communicate, even briefly, can help protect your companys employer brand.Thats why we offer Text Recruit to help recruiters engage with candidates and stay connected, all the way through the hiring process.Use text for these rapid-response scenariosTexting wont work for every aspect of recruitment communications, but its ideal for short, need-to-know, informative exchanges. Being able to dash off this kind of information in a text can create efficiencies that will lead to quicker hires.With texting, you can have conversations at times w hen other people are around but you dont want them to hear, says Fowler. You can use texting to get quick answers to questions from the hiring manager.Its also OK to text on somewhat sensitive matterssuch as asking the candidate if theyve given notice to their current employeras long as the answer is likely to be definitive.One more caveat from Fowler You dont want to set a precedent that texting is the only way you communicate. Tech candidates might be an exception they may demand to text about everything all the time, and it could be hard to turn them down.Know when texting isnt the right choiceAs a recruiter, one of the things you do best is build relationships, and there are still a lot of scenarios where texting just cant help you with that crucial human-to-human connection.When it comes to candidates articulating why they want the job or how their experience matches with the qualifications, communication should be face to face, according to Mattson. Additionally, there are sen sitive matters that just need to be discussed on the phone or via email.Save the tough conversations like salary and relocation benefits for the phone call, says Fowler. The last thing you want is to have a message interpreted incorrectly, especially during an intense compensation negotiation.Recruiters should also be careful that each use of texting is appropriate, and that candidates cell numbers are not inappropriately shared. For all workers, it comes down to their comfort level with the technology, says Brennan. We need to make sure that were being responsible with candidates phone numbers, with their trust in us. She adds that the most important thing is to ensure that candidates have choices among communication channels.