Why a Recruiter is Necessary in Your Job Search

Why a Recruiter is Necessary in Your Job Search This was the 4th most popular blog post of 2013.  See the rest of the top 15 here. In 2013, hiring is becoming more of an art form rather than a run-of-the-mill activity performed by an HR Rep. There are metrics that determine what makes a viable candidate, a team of personalities who will be a part of the decision making process and more tests than you ever took in High School Geometry just to determine if you are the right employee for them. For every one job being advertised, there are close to hundreds of candidates who are fighting for that same spot and while you may think you are the perfect fit for that position, those other applicants have the same opinion. Although your resume may be ideal, it’s hard to tell the difference when it’s sitting in the middle of a pile a mile long. You need something to set yourself aside; something that puts you in front of that hiring manager and says “Here I am, when  do I  start?” Having a recruiter who has direct access to that hiring manager is the key. Below I highlight 6 reasons why working with a recruiter wil l put you at the head of the class: 1) Direct contact with hiring manager: Recruiters spend days, if not weeks, working to build relationships with the person who will ultimately decide the fate of your future employment. Recruiters devote that time to learning what not only makes someone a good fit technically but also culturally and by the time your first phone call with a recruiter is over, you already know if you are one step closer to being that company’s next employee. 2) They know the ins and outs of the job description: When you are reviewing a job description what are you doing first?  Identifying if you match with the bullet points being advertised.  You read the first seven bullet points and you think  â€œwell I match 5 of the 7 so I should be perfect!”  What if what you didn’t know was that the two you don’t match are the two that are the most important to the hiring manager, and without it they won’t consider you? The Recruiter knows that. A good recruiter will know what areas of the job description are most important and which ones are secondary. By knowing this ahead of time you automatically can get yourself to the front of the line. 3) Provide career advice: The recruiters job is to interact with thousands of job seekers a year. Recruiting is much like a batting average in baseball. Unfortunately success is determined by failing more than winning. They know what a bad interview looks like, and how it can be prevented. If you are an average job seeker chances are you are only interviewing a few times a year. Which means you only get a few shots at getting things right. Working with the recruiter allows you a chance to learn from others mistakes. If you can spend even 10 minutes with a recruiter finding out what makes a job applicant attractive to hiring managers, it can save you hours of wasted interviewing time. 4) Up-front honesty: Unfortunately the true fact is that companies do not want to tell you why you are not a fit for them. They would like to have you believe “there was a better applicant”. And while that may be true, that still begs the question: what made them better? More experience? Better aptitude to do the job? Would they accept a lower salary? Hiring managers aren’t afraid to tell recruiters these answers because they know they do not have to tell the applicant themselves. So, as such, there is no fear of backlash by sharing this information with a recruiter. On the flipside the recruiter is not afraid to tell the applicant this information because ultimately they are not the ones who feel this way, it comes from someone else. When you are working with a recruiter you can get the black and white truth, no matter how harmful it may be. 5) Interview preparation: To go back to point 3, the average job seeker is no expert at interviewing at least you probably should not be (if you have job security). The recruiter, on the other hand, is. They know if the hiring manager prefers someone who dresses down, shows up 15 minutes early or has a firm handshake. These things are important in this day and age. Personally, I have had a candidate be declined a VP of Human Resources job because they did not send a proper thank you note. If you are interviewing on your own, how are you supposed to know that? Working with the recruiter allows you to know what will set you apart from the rest of the applicants. Maybe this hiring manager will only hire a team player, and while the candidate before you was unaware of that you walked in prepared to talk all about how you were part of a 10 person team that had to work together, and you brought examples to prove it. 6) Resume assistance: Whilst you may be an excellent writer, unfortunately you cannot have 15 different versions of your resume on hand to fit every job you apply for. And if you are like most professionals you have acquired a multitude of different skill sets throughout your career. Although it would be nice to label all of it, there just isn’t enough room. The recruiter knows what is most important to that hiring manager and what they look for first on a resume and they will ensure  that the first thing the hiring manager reads is the same things that he/she is looking for. Conclusions: Ultimately working with a recruiter will get you closer to that dream job you’ve been trying to land more than you could think, by separating yourself from the herd. Knowing what a hiring manager wants to see on a resume and what will set you apart once you land that interview will put you that much closer to acing the test. But don’t just work with the first recruiter who calls. Understand their market, clients and industry. If you are an IT Director looking for that executive level position it makes no sense working with the Financial Recruiter who specializes in tax accountants. The recruiter/ candidate relationship should be one of understanding what the two of you can do for one another. After all, this is your life were talking about. RELATED:  How Much Does a ‘No Recruiters’ Policy Cost You?

Has Your Job Been SMACed If not Yet, It Will! - Career Pivot

Has Your Job Been SMACed If not Yet, It Will! - Career Pivot SMAC â€" Social Mobile Analytics Cloud SMAC is here…and is disrupting our careers. If you think you are immune from SMAC, I want to take the rest of this post to convince you differently. S is for Social or Social Media If you are a PR or Marketing professional, you know your world has changed. All you need to do is look at the demise of the local newspaper and local broadcast news. Most of the population 30 years of age get their news from Facebook and other social channels. We are entering the 2nd phase of Social Media marketing. It is called Pay to Play. Effective marketing of your product or service on Social Media is no longer free. The organizations that are most adversely affected are non-profits, which have little or no budget for Social Media marketing. You already know that Social Media has become a prevalent way for employers to find talent. The days of finding a job posting on Monster, CareerBuilder, or in the newspaper are largely over. Companies are out looking for talent, and do not care whether you are looking for a job! It is your responsibility to make yourself attractive as a passive candidate. Will Thomson of Bullseye Recruiting wrote a great guest post, 5 Key Traits Recruiters look for in a Passive Candidate, which explains this change. The S in SMAC is changing everything. M is for Mobile Mobile is changing everything! Even Google is scared of what mobile can do to their business. Google recently changed their search algorithms to favor those websites that are mobile friendly. If you own or work for a small business and your website is not mobile friendly, well…good luck! When I look at my phone, I will find my calendar, contacts, email, social apps, maps, and other apps that you would expect. I also have Audible so that I can listen to books in the car or at the gym. ESPN and ESPNwatch so I can watch sports. I have two of my local radio station’s apps, so I can listen to them at the gym. Car2Go so that I can find and rent a car. Kindle so that I can read a book anytime anywhere. CNN and Al Jazeera America so I can read the national news. Podcasts so I can listen to podcasts at the gym. WOW! If I walk out of my condo and do not have my iPhone, I feel naked. Mobile is changing how we: Shop. Find things. Pay for things! Are found. That is the scary part. If your career has not been affected by mobile yet, it will! Listen to the most recent episode The M in SMAC is changing everything. A is for Analytics More data has been collected in the last few years than was collected in the previous century. A lot of it is coming voluntarily from our activities via Social Media and Mobile. How we shop, where we shop, what we pay with, where we go online, and even how long it takes to get somewhere are some of the things that inform this data. Earlier this month, it was reported that Texas Department of Transportation is using Bluetooth devices in the cars to determine how long it takes to get from point A to point B. Do you remember the movie Minority Report where Tom Cruise walks through a mall and hyper-customized ads displayed everywhere? Analytics is here to stayâ€"and we allow it. Analytics will affect how you are hired. There will be so much data on you, that the employer will be able to run all of it through an algorithm to determine whether you are a good fit. The A in SMAC is changing everything. C is for Cloud Cloud is changing everything in the technology world. Most of the major technology hardware vendors are seeing portions of their business collapse. A classic example is IBM, who missed the shift and is seeing massive changes in their business. Their hardware business is collapsing. Cloud computing is sometimes referred to SaaS (Software as a Service). Cloud (SaaS) is causing massive shifts in the background for many businesses. Small businesses can now have access to resources that they only dreamed about in the past. Whether it is email marketing, disk storage, photo editing, or e-mail, you have no need to install software. This change has also allowed for data to be shared with anyone and at any time. For example, every receipt I get is now electronic. Places like Office Depot e-mail me receipts. I save the receipts in a folder in Dropbox. My bookkeeper can access the receipts from Dropbox and enter them into a spreadsheet or even Quickbooks in the cloud. She can be anywhere in the world, and we rarely have to talk. This has made it so much easier for freelancers to service clients, but also for companies to offer their services to customers worldwide. The C in SMAC is changing everything. SMAC and Your Career SMAC is eliminating jobs and is creating new jobs. It has made it easier for you to offer your services to anyone in the world but it has also made it easier for others to compete with you. How has SMAC affected your job? Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

An Honest Letter to Students with Lessons about Real Life - CareerEnlightenment.com

Don’t take this too hard. Everyone goes through it. You are in the process of defining your professional self. In my case, it took nine years!Ask your elders for advice. Anyone who’s been out of college as long as I have can probably help you through the rough times.Remember to celebrate what you’ve already accomplished. This is one I still struggle to incorporate in my life. Hey, after all, I went to Brown, one of the hardest colleges to get into. That should say something.Find your guardian angels. No one wins alone. No wealthy person ever became a millionaire through just their own efforts (unless they won at poker). Find a mentor who will advocate for you when you need it.The faster you can accept the realities of post-college life, the sooner you will find success in life.If I had read this letter sooner, my life may have taken a very different tack. But even after struggling for 9 years to find my professional self, I still did it, and I consider myself successful. So the good news is that it’s never too late.If there is just one piece of advice I would add to this letter it would be this. Your career isn’t going to fall in your lap just because you graduated school. If you know what you want, do whatever it takes to get there. If you don’t know, do whatever it takes to find clarity, even if that means trying something out for a while.

How To Decide Where To Start

How To Decide Where To Start If you are just beginning to realize that you need expert help to find a job or further your career, it can feel pretty overwhelming. Do you start writing a resume? Maybe you should look at the want ads or get one of those professional packages, but which one? When you look at the A La Carte Services, they seem like a cheaper way to get something, but the packages have more stuff. Right? Or maybe a completely do-it-yourself method would be cheaper. Just do the research and get it done because you have the time, but not the money to pay for it. No, wait! Thats where we started this, at the realization that expert help is what is needed. Where should you start? Start With Expert Advice When you look at any page on the Professional Resume Services website, a little contact popup opens up with an opportunity to set up a time to talk. You can look at the calendar and designate a day and time, call the phone number, or leave details and we will get back to you. That opportunity to talk to a person who is completely familiar with the services we provide doesnt obligate you to buying something, but it gives you all the benefit of a short personal consultation to see what might work. Theres also a lot of information on this blog to give you a bigger perspective on things. The more you are familiar with different aspects of what affects your career, the easier it is to see how every aspect fits together and creates the whole picture.

How Do You Write an International Resume for the US Job Market?

How Do You Write an International Resume for the US Job Market?Writing an international resume can be done with or without a professional job service. They are in a job that is rare in the United States and any professional service will charge high rates for it. So how do you find one that is a good value for your money?The first thing to do is pick an adobe product. If you can find a program that is going to write your resume for you, there is no reason not to choose that one. In fact, I recommend you buy a high quality professional application if you can afford it. But even for free, there are several programs that write resumes that will be of better quality. So which one is the best?If you have the basic program, I would recommend you use it. What you do with the basic program is simple. Take the basic copy of the American company that you are applying for a job with and write down all of the information that is required.From this information, make a list of particular informatio n that is not included on the basic job. This list may be a number of pages, so try to write each item down in the order that it will be required. When you are done, keep the file in a large folder so that it will be easily retrievable when you need it.Now, let's say that you have the more advanced program and you would like to find a resume writer. You may have read some ads for freelance resume writers that work directly for companies who hire at that very moment. I can tell you that is not a very good idea to use a freelance resume writer. They are untrained and may not know how to properly advise a person to pick a career that is right for them.Some people use a freelance resume writer because they are writing for a company's requirements at the moment. They are writing for a company that may have a job opening. A resume writer that is not paid for his or her services will not know what is best for you.If you can use the basic program, this is the way to go. If you want to hire a company that writes resumes by hand, I would strongly suggest you get someone that does this work. Good ones will charge well and your money will pay for themselves many times over. So pick up a good company that specializes in this work and start doing a great job of preparing the international resume for the United States job market.

How to Make Friends at Work

How to Make Friends at Work It’s the anxiety-ridden question on the minds of postgrads everywhere: How do you make friends after college? Your first job is a pretty good place to start. Studies show some people believe making friends with co-workers contributes to job satisfaction and can also be good for a career boost. For example, one third of millennials said socializing with colleagues helped them move up the career ladder, according to a 2014 Relationships @Work study by LinkedIn and Censuswide. Friendships with colleagues also made 18% of professionals more competitive in their careers, the study found. Survey respondents ages 18 to 24 years old also said workplace friendships made them happy (57%), motivated (50%) and productive (39%). In your first job out of college, consider some of these do’s and don’ts for making and keeping friends in the workplace. Don’t put your whole self out there too quickly Experts say you should be mindful of crossing personal and professional lines too quickly before you establish trust. Casual interactions with co-workers are inherent with a first job â€" and that’s when you risk being a little too open about yourself, says Tiffani Murray, a human resources and talent management professional as well as author of “Stuck on Stupid: A Guide for Today’s Professional Stuck in a Rut.” “If you meet someone in line at the grocery store you might say something friendly and strike up a conversation. You might tell them you’re having a bad day or accidentally say something too personal, but with the low likelihood you’ll see that person again the risk is very minimal,” Murray says. “When you’re new in a workplace you may feel that same sense of openness, but you’ll want to err on the side of caution.” Christol Johnson, coordinator of career services at El Centro College in Dallas, says to tread on more neutral ground when you’re still in the first-impressions stage of your new relationships. “It’s best to observe what’s happening in the workplace rather than jump in. You’re being evaluated,” she adds. “That doesn’t mean you have to be standoffish. Start by being very cordial â€" using please, thank you and may I â€" and never assume that what you feel is everyone else’s views.” Johnson suggests starting with safe topics and finding a common thread that could be your window into pursuing a friendship. As you get more comfortable with people, you can begin to divulge more about your personal life. Do make friends for the right reasons The friends you make at work should be people you would enjoy spending time with beyond the confines of an office. Friends are people you develop a rapport with, you have something in common with and who appreciate your friendship. Don’t make connections “to get ahead.” “If people go into a relationship with ulterior motives of ‘I’m going to be friends with this person because I know they can help me, so I’ll kiss up to them,’ then I don’t think that’s friendship,” says Larry Sternberg, president of international management consultant firm Talent Plus Inc. When you begin interacting with a new co-worker, ask yourself, “Why would I want to make friends with this person?” “I make friends with people I admire. I admire their character, certain talents and gifts that they have,” Sternberg says. “I make friends with people who value me. If they find something in me that it’s clear they value and they want to spend time with me, then that’s a sign I should explore this relationship. That’s no different at work.” Don’t let cliques get in the way of real connections When you do end up making a friend or two you don’t want to alienate your other co-workers socially or within group interactions. “Management in some cases can frown upon that and see that as someone who isn’t a team player or collaborative with everyone in the organization,” says Johnson, who adds she’s been on both sides of this situation. “I would say cliques are a bad thing in the sense that if you were trying to advance your career you have to network. You can’t cut off those other avenues by just staying with a certain group of folks. You have to go outside the group.” An easy way to branch out beyond your immediate circle of workplace friends is to switch up whom you eat lunch with or hang out with at happy hour. It doesn’t mean you’re any less tight with the people you’re close with; it just means you won’t close yourself off to other opportunities. Do create boundaries Depending on your workplace or co-workers, use your judgment on the boundaries between your work and personal lives. When Roshawnna Novellus started one of her first jobs conducting engineering research for a federal contractor, she made friends with a group of other young professionals. They started out getting lunch together and hanging out after work until Novellus decided to invite everyone to her home for a game night. She owned a townhouse and spent a long time decorating to make it look “like a catalog.” Some of her colleagues reacted negatively after seeing her home, incorrectly assuming her salary was higher than theirs. They went back to their superiors to demand additional salaries as a result. She soon lost those so-called friends. “Based on that scenario I became very cautious. I ended up meeting them in places that were neutral because I didn’t want to have the same situation happen again,” says Novellus, now president of Novellus Financial in Atlanta. “I didn’t ban workplace friendships indefinitely, but it took me longer to allow them into my personal space or show them parts of me that weren’t in the professional realm.” Don’t let conflict simmer Disagreements are inevitable in friendship. When you’re friends with your co-workers, be careful not to let arguments bleed into your professional life. Instead of trying to separate your friendship from your work, it’s best to resolve your arguments, Sternberg says. “If I come to work with my relationship in a place where we’re upset with each other and we’re friends, I don’t want this to linger on. I sit down with them and say ‘let’s work through this and let’s put it behind us,’ ” he says. “You can’t separate it out. You’re a human being and if you’re upset, you’re upset, so work it out.” Do maintain consistency with social media connections LinkedIn is one thing, but what do you do when you get a connection request from someone you work with on your personal social channels? “If the next thing you think is, ‘How do I need to temper myself on this channel?’ then maybe you shouldn’t add them,” Murray says. “Only friend and follow people you establish a trust with so if they see you post something non-work related, they won’t go back to your manager with it or hold that in their back pocket for the future.” If you adhere to proper social media etiquette then you should be consistent across platforms â€" accept one friend request from a co-worker, then accept them all. You can always tweak your privacy settings and control who sees what. However, that might take more effort than making a decision to restrict your social pages to family and friends or opening it up to the whole office. Murray suggests taking an even simpler approach: “Be yourself at work, be yourself on social media and you won’t have to deal with any of those issues.” If all else fails… If friendships aren’t naturally unfolding in your first job, take your cues from your company culture and how your co-workers interact. If you’re still nervous about what’s appropriate when it comes to workplace friends remember this: Behaving respectfully and being authentic will be valued by your colleagues more than faking it till you make it. More From NerdWallet: What to Expect When Starting Your First Job Ask Brianna: How Do I Get an Entry-Level Job If They All Require Experience? How You Know It’s Time to Leave Your First Job

4 Tips On What NOT To Do On Twitter As A Job Seeker - Work It Daily

4 Tips On What NOT To Do On Twitter As A Job Seeker - Work It Daily Yes, opportunities are bountiful on Twitter as a job seeker even with each tweet limited to 140-characters. If used properly, there are plenty of opportunities for job searching, job advice, and job networking. However, if used without caution it can come back to haunt you for years to come. RELATED: 4 Tips To Using Twitter As A Job Seeker Here are some basic tips on what NOT to do on Twitter when you’re a job seeker. Negative communication. Your followers on Twitter aren’t limited to friends and family. Hiring managers and recruiters may also be screening you on the social media site to get an impression of whether you’re a suitable candidate for the job, so keep communication clean and positive. Don’t tweet anything you’d be embarrassed to say or present at the job interview. Controversial topics. You want to create dialogue, but don’t be pigeonholed into one corner. This can often happen when tweeting about a controversial topic like politics or religion. For the sake of your professional audience, it’s best to avoid the topics. Your views on the topics may be a red flag to employers and other professional contacts. One bad tweet or retweet of another person’s post can isolate you from many contacts. While you may have not written the post â€" by sharing it, you are essentially saying you approve the message. Too much personal information. Sharing what you like and your activities may help others understand you as an individual and your personality, but set a limit to how much information you share. Too much personal information can hurt you as a job seeker. For example, you don’t have to share on Twitter that you got drunk over the weekend and did some things you weren’t supposed to do. Don’t get into the details, just indicate you had an eventful weekend. Old rants and other inappropriate tweets. Employers screening job candidates aren’t limiting it to LinkedIn and Facebook. They are now also looking at Twitter. Before applying to any jobs, go through your Twitter account and take down anything that’s inappropriate for employers and recruiters to see. Old rants about your boss, job, etc. should not be there. Any tweet that can give the wrong message or impression should be removed (even tweets with poor spelling and grammar because that leaves an impression as well). If in doubt, change the privacy settings so you limit what others can see. For more tips, read: “How Employers Are Screening You Through Social Media.” All these rules on what not to do on Twitter may have you feeling restricted to communicate with your personal audience, but keep in mind that Twitter is no longer just for personal use. More employers are showing activity on Twitter and when you’re job searching, this audience matters. One solution around this is to keep a separate Twitter account using a pseudonym. That account can be used to communicate to your personal contacts while you leave the one with your real name to communicate to the professional audience. This post was originally published at an earlier date. Related Posts How To Customize Your Resume 3 Tips For Flaunting Your Value On Your Resume How To Make Dates On A Resume Work For You About the author Don Goodman’s firm was rated as the #1 Resume Writing Service in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Don is a triple-certified, nationally recognized Expert Resume Writer, Career Management Coach and Job Search Strategist who has helped thousands of people secure their next job. Check out his Resume Writing Service. Get a Free Resume Evaluation or call him at 800.909.0109 for more information. Disclosure: This post is sponsored by a CAREEREALISM-approved expert. You can learn more about expert posts here. Photo Credit: Shutterstock Related Posts How To Customize Your Resume 3 Tips For Flaunting Your Value On Your Resume How To Make Dates On A Resume Work For You Have you joined our career growth club?Join Us Today!