For those not familiar with me and are wondering if a session(s) would be a good use of your time I am an IT Recruiter with 12 years of experience and have been speaking to groups of all ages and skill sets in groups of 20-200 and now online for 7 years.

Here is some background on presentations and interviews I have been a part of and recognition as a Minnesota Social Media Innovator:

• Presentations
• Interviews
• Minnesota Social Media Innovator

While Be Your Own Headhunter is under going a facelift this is how to stay in touch with upcoming seminars:

• MN Headhunter RSS Feed
• MN Headhunter RSS Via EMail
• MN Headhunter Newsletter

All presentations are 60-90 minutes with a Q&A that follows.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are unable to attend the sessions during these times (or are seeing this post after sessions have been held) either click MN Headhunter Blog or Be Your Own Headhunter where you will find a calendar of upcoming events or register anyway so you can get the slides via email.

Job Search Toolkit - Be Your Own Headhunter

Economic and labor statistics and projections show that while the economy may be coming back the employment market will lag more than previous recessions and worse, many are predicting a jobless recovery.

This is session is for those in a job search or those thinking either by choice or force they will be doing one soon.

If you are wondering how to create/use your network, how to find the hidden job market, be more aggressive with your job search approach or are relying on job boards to find jobs to apply to then this session is for you.

Topics to be covered include:

• Plan your job search
• How to market yourself
• Ways to ask for referrals and advice
• Where to find the hidden job market
• Where to research companies
• How to find contact names and email addresses
• Tips on using email and phone for contacting and follow up

To register click a date/time:

• Nov 20 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM CST
• Nov 23 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM CDT

LinkedIn A to Z - Use LinkedIn Like A Headhunter

There is a big difference between “being on LinkedIn” and “using LinkedIn.”

Whether you are using LinkedIn as a job seeker, recruiter, sales person or for general networking purposes this presentation will show you how to:

• Create and optimize your profile
• Create your personal URL
• Connect with and expand your network
• Find and participate in groups
• Research companies
• Use Google to see all of LinkedIn, not just your 3 degrees
• Write and ask for recommendations
• Participate in Questions and Answers
• Search for names using keywords, title, company, skill set and location
• Search strings will be included
• Avoid pitfalls

To register click a date/time:

• Nov 20 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM CCT
• Nov 24 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM CST

Using Social Media For Networking, Lead Generation And Job Search

For those of us who have profiles on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Ning groups and/or write a blog we often use these site to communicate with friends, peers, coworkers and family but until recently very few thought of them as opportunities to network, for lead generation, or to find jobs and consulting opportunities.

In this 60 minute presentation (with 30 minutes of Q&A to follow) you will learn to create your hub or online presence with the use of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Ning groups and blogs showing ways one can:

• Optimize profiles with keywords, locations, etc
• Use the site to search others
• Join and create groups
• Overtly and covertly say you are networking, looking for customers, jobs or consulting gigs
• Show what you are working on and prove expertise
• Engage in a regional, local and industry conversation
• Connect and network prior to and after industry events

To register click a date/time:

• Nov 24 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM CST

If you are seeing this blog post after the sessions have taken place click Be Your Own Headhunter for latest announcements or MN Headhunter to return to the front page for the current schedule

• IT Specialist - Help Desk Level 1 - Full Time Job - Second Harvest Heartland
• Web/IT Coordinator - Full Time Job - Better Business Bureau of Minnesota & North Dakota
• Information and Database Analyst - Full Time Job - University of St. Thomas
• Technical Support Specialist – Full Time Job - Lee Carlson Center for Mental Health and Well Being (formerly - Central Center for Family Resources)
  

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From: David McGillivray

Human Resource Management is about achieving the best from your workforce. Achieving high levels of motivation, engagement and productivity is impossible when employees are unsatisfied or actively looking for alternative employment. Do you know which team members are seeking alternative employment and are these team members critical to your business? It is vitally important to business performance and success to understand the answer to this question.

HR Management can help you to understand employee satisfaction, retain key team members and improve productivity. In every organisation, employees will fit into one of the following categories:

1.    Employees most satisfied with the organisation
2.    Employees satisfied with the organisation
3.    Employees content to stay with the organisation
4.    Employees dissatisfied with the organisation
5.    Employees looking to leave the organisation

The following is a method to retain your employees and improve business performance.

For employees that are most satisfied with the organisation you need to continue to identify ways to ensure job satisfaction, are challenged, productive and motivated in their role.

For employees that are content in their role you need to ensure they are continuing to contribute in a productive manner and identify ways to promote higher levels of motivation.

For employees that are dissatisfied with the organisation or are actively looking to leave, you need to assess whether these team members have the competencies that are of value to your business. Generally, dissatisfaction occurs over time, with both the employee and employer becoming increasingly more frustrated with one another.
What to do with employees who are not satisfied?

Firstly you need to endeavour to take the emotion out of the decisions you make so that you make the best decision for the business. Generally the most senior person has the most ‘power’ and therefore is in a stronger position to initiate methods to improve the relationship. Below are the steps in remedying this situation.

1.    Assess if the competencies of the team member are valuable to the business. If they are and the employee is looking to leave, the organisation needs to communicate with the employee in an effective manner. As a reminder it needs to be remembered that this situation has occurred over time and that it will take time to repair. If the team member does not believe the manager is able to work a way around the problem the employee will continue to be dissatisfied and most likely leave.

2.    Reflecting as to why this situation has occurred, and invariably there can be a myriad of reasons. This is not a situation of blaming anyone but looking holistically and identifying why. Facilitate a meeting with the employee to determine why they are not satisfied with the organisation.

3.    It needs to be determined if the reasons for the level of dissatisfaction are valid if anything can be done, remembering that if we continue to do what we have done in the past we cannot really expect any different result. Therefore to change behaviour and performance we need to change the way we communicate and or the environment.

4.    If it is decided that the situation is not going to be addressed the problems existing between the employee and employer will continue to fester. Eventually the employee will leave the organisation. The consequences of having an unsatisfied employee eventually leaving needs to be assessed. For minimum impact to the business this process needs to be properly managed. This will include succession planning.

5.    The major concern for most businesses is that employee’s leave at inconvenient times and this is extremely disruptive and costly to the business. Therefore, to have minimal impact this process needs to be planned. Managers can provide improved workforce planning by understanding which employees fit into each of the five categories.

Managers who understand their team member’s satisfaction levels have increased capability to improve morale, productivity and business profitability. Managers who chose to ignore employee satisfaction do so at their peril, and can expect reduced employee morale, productivity and profitability. While you may not lose a valuable employee right now, you will at a time when you least expect it, and at a time when it has a substantial impact on your business.

In summary managers have a choice of three strategies. Managers can:

1.    Make it happen by improving employee satisfaction.

2.    Watch it happen experiencing poor performing team members and positive performers leaving. 

3.    Say ‘What the hell happened?’ and experience poor business performance.

 

From: Jessica Holbrook

Ultimately your goal is to create a resume that will garner the right attention and eventually the right job. Problem is – your resume is getting you absolutely no hits, zero feedback, and not so much as one call from a prospective employer. Sound familiar? Keep reading to figure out why.

– Your career summary is boring. It sounds like every other job seeker out there and is a large blanket paragraph that could describe half of the known workforce. Solution: Customize your career summary so that no one else could possibly use it for themselves.

- You have no keywords. The ones you do have aren’t in the right place so while your resume may catch a software system, when an actual recruiter looks at it they pass it over because they can’t find the information they need. Solution: Utilize a core competencies/value added section in the top third of the resume.

- Your resume format is boring, unattractive, juvenile, and mediocre at best. Ouch that one hurt a little didn’t it? After reading thousands of resumes in the past 30 days, every single resume looks exactly the same. No wonder hiring managers only give each resume a five second scan and no wonder you’re getting nowhere. Solution: CHANGE IT UP! Don’t go crazy with your format but do modernize it.

- You’ve neglected to ’stay with the times’ and chosen not to utilize a professional branding statement and value proposition within the top third of your resume. So instead of standing out you’re blending in. How is that working for you? Probably not very well if you’re reading this. Solution: Find your brand, make it work for you. Advertise your value and start garnering attention. I mean the right attention, not the lame scammers who contact everyone who posts their resume on monster.

- The reader couldn’t find your accomplishments if they tried. You have them so buried down deep in the resume – or you didn’t even bother to include them. Now no one knows what the heck you do or how good you are at it. Solution: Bring attention to the BIG. Sell the reader don’t just tell them.

- The language of the resume is so boring people read it to fall asleep. If you are using responsible for, duties included, or speaking in first or third person THIS MEANS YOU. Solution: Spice it up. Ever heard of a thesaurus? Use one. If you are using the same strong action verb in your resume more than twice, that equals BORING. Look up alternatives and use them.

Albeit this has been a comical view of what stinks about your resume take it seriously. I can guarantee you 90% of the people reading this article have at least three of the six points listed above on their resume. When you’re tired of playing with your resume and ready for an expert to help you craft a high-impact, best-in-class resume and cover letter that won’t bore the reader but instead entices them to call – and call immediately then contact us.

Jessica Holbrook is an expert resume writer, career and personal branding strategist, author, speaker and President/CEO of Great Resumes Fast. She creates high-impact, best-in-class, resumes and cover letters that win interviews. For a free resume analysis visit http://www.greatresumesfast.com or for a free phone consultation call 1.877.875.7706

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

But Twitter rolled out Twitter Lists and it has become my new best friend of the moment. Rather than go through the many, many followers of someone I like, respect, follow, or find interesting to see who they follow I can take a bit of a shortcut and see who of their followers they are listing. Sure they have missed some cool folks to add to a list but I will rely on them to point out their favorites.

Here are some examples of Twitter Lists (click photo to enlarge):

Jeremy Mooney (@jeremyjm) has created a Twitter List, MinneBar Attendees, for the upcoming MinneBar event (November 21^st at Best Buy Headquarters). This being an educational and networking event for the Minneapolis technology folks (add in some marketing, PR, venture capital, entrepreneurs) this is a list that is a no brainer for me to look through.

Tim Tyrell-Smith (@SpinStrategy) has a Twitter List, Tim’s Fave Career Experts, which is self explanatory.

Jason DeRusha (@DeRushaJ) has a Twitter List, MSP Reporters, which again explains itself. Here you can see that since I went to the list there are 3 more Tweets so I can hit refresh and see what the latest is.

John Sumser (@JohnSumser) has a Twitter List, Movers and Shakers, which is a list of Recruiter, HR and industry related people.

Lists are being created for all sort of networking groups, skill sets, events, companies, sports teams, non profits and more. So far I have been included on Twitter Lists:

By profession:

• Recruiter
• HR
• Career
• Social Media
• Business

By geography

• Minneapolis
• St Paul
• Twin Cities and MSP
• Minnesota and MN

By interest

• Social Media
• Gopher football
• Blogger

By being “cool”

• Cool
• Smarties
• Must Reads

So if you are networking, a job seeker, recruiting, trying to find new people to follow, trying to figure what this is all about, etc click MNHeadhunter Lists, see the different Twitter List names I have been added to and if a “category” sounds interesting to you start clicking on their profiles or just follow their list.

REMINDER: Following does very little to help with networking. Engage, comment, ask questions, Re Tweet, etc. You are either dancing or a wall flower.

The next few days I am going to start creating lists of my own. (I am always a late, early adopter of things)

Happy Listing....

From: Jessica Holbrook

How many of you can honestly say you know exactly what you want to be when you grow up? Maybe you already have it figured out, and maybe you are already living and working it. If you are, does your resume know that?

I work with clients every day and speak to hundreds of job seekers every week that have no idea what they want to do. I ask, “Well, what do you want to do?” Then I receive the blanket, “I just need to feed my family.” Or, “I just need a job—I don’t care what it is.” I understand the current market and economy. But folks, having no direction or focus for your career and job search are going to get you nowhere fast. When I look at your resume, I need to know in the first three seconds: who you are, what you do, and why you’re good at it.

-I cannot determine those three things from reading an objective.

-I cannot discern that information from a generic and vague career summary.

-I will not spend my time searching through an entire resume or reading all the way down to the work experience section so that I can finally identify what you did at your last job. Might I also add: what you did in your last job does not necessarily tell me what you want to do in your next job.

Here are some practical tips to ensure your resume has a focus:

1. Ask yourself what you want to do. When you can answer that question, examine the first one-third of your resume and ask yourself, “Can I identify what I want to do?” If you can’t, you must make some changes.

2. Spell it out for the hiring manager. Make it BIG, BOLD, and EASY TO READ. A title and one-liner work great. You are nailing the answers to three important questions (using just two concise sentences) to the very top of the page: who you are, what you do, and what you are good at.

3. Brand it! Make your personal brand (you know, that thing you are really good at!) permeate throughout your resume. SHOW the employer exactly how you’ve done that great thing for which you’re so well known at each and every previous employer.

4. Make everything in your resume revolve around the position you apply to. Generic will get you nowhere fast; a customized and focused resume shows the employer that you really want the job, that you’re qualified, and that you are focused.

THERE IS NO LAW THAT SAYS YOU CAN HAVE ONLY ONE RESUME. If you have really great expertise in more than one area, create more than one resume. And have each one focused in a different area of expertise. Communicate the value you bring to each area—and what you are known for and how you excel.

You can either spend a little more time customizing each resume before you send it off to a potential employer, or you can waste even more time in your job search because you’re blasting out generic resumes. Personally, I’d rather show the employer that I’m interested and that I go the extra mile. Hiring managers will weed out the generic resumes and go straight for the focused resumes that have been built around their open position.

There is too much competition right now, people, to be skating by on a generic resume.

Are you having trouble developing a focused resume? Maybe you need a second opinion or are ready to have an expert take the reins. View resume samples from expert resume writers or submit your resume for a free resume analysis to find out if your resume lacks focus.

Jessica Holbrook is an expert resume writer, career and personal branding strategist, author, speaker and President/CEO of Great Resumes Fast. She creates high-impact, best-in-class, resumes and cover letters that win interviews. For a free resume analysis visit http://www.greatresumesfast.com or for a free phone consultation call 1.877.875.7706

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

From: Jessica Holbrook

Do you know who you are ... on paper?

Thanks to an amazing membership with Career Directors International, I had the distinct pleasure of hosting a booth at the most recent National Careers Job Fair.  Three hours of job seekers pouring in through the doors and my assistant and myself providing free resume analyses.  I spoke to 100+ job seekers and found one common thread among them all—they had no idea who they were … on paper.

I must have repeated the phrase, “What do you want to do?” a hundred times.  I know I asked all but two job seekers that question.  I remember the two I didn’t ask because their resumes stood out from the rest.  They had professionally branded themselves, and it was obvious to me exactly who they were and what they wanted.

Do you know who you are on paper?  When I look at a resume, the first third is what is most important to me.  Why?  Because it contains all of the information I need to know: What do you want to do, where do I put you?  How good are you at your job?  Do you know who you are?  I can gather all that from the first third of your resume.  Scary, isn’t it?  I’ll bet it makes you wonder what your resume is saying … doesn’t it?

Listen, if you look at your resume right now, and you have an objective on there, and it reads: To obtain a position with an organization that utilizes my experience and education, then you have no idea who you are or what you want.  At least that is what your resume is telling me.

Do you have a one-line introductory/positioning/branding statement on your resume?  Is it immediately qualified by keywords in the text that follows?  No? … well, that’s probably why you’re not getting any interviews.  People like me (HR managers, recruiters, hiring managers, decision makers) have no idea where to put you, what you’re applying for, what you want to do, or what you are qualified to do.

Enter: Professional branding statement.  Get one!

As an expert resume writer, my job is twofold.  Firstly, to help you figure out what your unique professional brand and value proposition are and how they align with your talent, passion, and vision.  Secondly, to gather all of the above stated information and strategically position you as a leader and make you stand out in the crowd of thousands of other job seekers vying for the same position.

If your resume lacks a professional brand, or you don’t know what professional branding is, or you just know your resume needs a pick-me-up, send it to info@greatresumesfast.com for a free resume analysis.  Or, if you are ready to take the plunge, amp up your job search, and start getting interviews, then visit Great Resumes Fast today to order our professional resume writing service.

Jessica Holbrook is an expert resume writer, career and personal branding strategist, author, speaker, and president/CEO of Great Resumes Fast.  She creates high-impact, best-in-class resumes and cover letters that win interviews.  For a free resume analysis, visit http://www.greatresumesfast.com.  Or, for a free telephone consultation, call 1.877.875.7706

From: Nicole Bodem Chief SEO Geek for Arbita

One of the biggest challenges with blogs is coming up with new and fresh content on a regular basis and you are not alone, note the date on my last blog post. It’s especially challenging in this economy where resources are completely tapped.

One solution is to use a resource called The Recruiting blogswap. The Recruiting Blogswap is a FREE service of job board, CollegeRecruiter.com, but is used by an international collection of job boards, recruiting blogs, and other career sites.

How it Works:

Once you register as a publisher, you'll receive articles from authors who specialize in recruiting, career counseling and more, which you may choose to accept or decline based on the needs of your career site.  The great thing is that you’re never obligated to publish an article so you don't have to worry about publishing content that isn't appropriate for your site. I just signed up for this service and you can to, registration takes less than a minute!

Other Content Re-purposing Strategies

Turn Press Releases Into Conversational Pieces – Let’s face it sometimes press release can be pretty boring to the everyday person. Try taking key messages within the press release and write them in a more conversational way, cite examples, offer helpful tips even link out to an additional resource.

Old is the New….New – If you have years of content on your blog or website peek through them to see where update opportunities may present themselves. The recruiting industry changes pretty quickly creating the need for content to be update frequently. Especially “Tip” type articles. The first article title might have been “5 strategies for finding the best talent on the web” Your new title could be  “5 NEW tips for finding the best talent” etc.

Leverage Your PowerPoint decks – Try turning your PowerPoint decks into articles and blog posts. If you’ve spoken at recruitment industry conferences you could always build out supporting visibility on that topic. Do you routinely do public webinars? That’s another re-purposing opportunity.

Do you have content re-purposing ideas you’d like to share, feel free to leave a comment.

From: CareerAlley

Interviews. Sounds fairly easy, all you have to do is talk about what you’ve done and how that relates to the job opportunity. In fact, the interview is the hardest part of the job search process and the single largest reason why people don’t get the job. Yes, you must have a great resume with relevant experience, but can you interview? But interviewing is not just talking about yourself, it’s asking the right questions, giving the right answers and expressing yourself in the right way.

Today’s installment in CareerAlley’s Job Search Marketing Toolkit will focus on the interview process, providing some links to advice and resources to help you nail that interview. What is clear from the links below is that the overall theme is consistent (without being repetitious).

• Acing the Interview – Another article from our friends at About.com, this article provides an overview of what you need to do to “Ace the interview”. In addition to the basic steps, the article includes links to interview questions, company research (via About.com) and detailed responses. Following the article is an amazing list of additional resources including how to dress and additional related articles.
• How To Master Telephone Interviews – Telephone interviews have become more popular over the last few years and have almost become a standard “first” before the “in person” interview. The skills required for a telephone interview certainly overlap with the “in person” interview, but there are a number of things you may need to do differently. This article, provided by Worktree.com, provides important points on the What, When and How of telephone interviews. There are advantages to a telephone interview, you can have materials available that would not be possible in an “in person” interview. This article covers what to have and what to do.
• Preparing for a Job Interview (like your future depends on it) – Another great article, Top-sales-jobs.com does and excellent job of listing the important aspects of a job interview – questions, mock interviews, interview answers, attire and more. The best part of the post (in addition to the content) is that each sub-topic title has an additional link to more in depth information on that particular topic (just click the subtitle).
• How to Prepare For A Successful Interview – This article, from the Spinstrategy.com blog, provides what you need to know about preparing for an interview. This is an excellent article and supports the overall process laid out in some of the other links listed above, the difference is that this article provides some additional insight and steps not included in other interview preparation articles. Best of all, download their Sip Strategy straight from the blog.
• Job Interviewing Do’s and Don’ts – Last, but not least, you do need to know what not to do (and reinforce “what to do”). This article, provided by Quintcareers.com, provides some points not covered in the other articles. Of course, it is a bit worrying if you have to be told “don’t chew gum”. The list is somewhat long, but the overall article is short. Don’t forget to check out some of the links embedded within the article as they provide additional support to the overall process.

From: Peter Weddle

You may have seen the news story.  A teen was recently found in New York City with no memory of her name or personal history.  Her amnesia was profound.  Happily, however, the story ends well, as a CNN viewer recognized the girl’s photo and identified her as a missing person from Oregon.  She’s now on her way to being reunited with her family.

But think about what it would be like to be in her situation.  Not knowing who you are.  Unable to remember anything that’s important about you or to you.  It would be a horrible even desperate condition.  Without our self-identify, we are … well, that’s the point—without our self-identity, we aren’t.

Which is why I am astonished at how many people willingly subject themselves to “career amnesia.”  They invest thirty, forty, fifty years of their life in a career without knowing what their true talent is or what they have the potential to do with their work.  According to a recent poll, an astonishing 88% of Americans daydream at work about quitting their jobs to do something else, something more meaningful and rewarding to them.  They don’t forget who they are; they never figure it out.

How do we fall into such a trap?  Many of us graduate from college and head off into the workforce without having spent a credit hour on the tough subject of ourselves.  So, what happens?  We fall into a career field, work at it diligently and eventually acquire a degree of expertise in accomplishing the work involved.  But here’s the rub: competence isn’t talent.  We can do a job well, but if it doesn’t thrill or challenge us, we will never express and experience the best in us.

On the other hand, many of us believe we should work at our passion.  We read all the books and listen to the gurus who tell us we should do what we love to do.  And then reality sets in.  We may want to write the great American novel, but Hemingway has nothing to worry about.  So, what happens?  We convince ourselves that work is a four letter word.  It is a demeaning and depressing passage, and the best we can hope for is enough of a salary to support the enjoyable parts of our lives.

These kinds of experience are common in America today, and they are symptoms of career amnesia.  Many of us are standing on a corner in New York City with absolutely no sense of who we are or were meant to be.  And that’s a tragedy.  Because we all have a gift, an identity—an inherent talent.  It is not, however, either competence or passion.  Our talent is the intersection of two things we know—or can know—about ourselves: it is both what we love to do and do best.

There’s only one way to avoid the tragedy of career amnesia.  We must give ourselves permission to take the time and make the effort to discover our talent.  We can’t rely on someone else to find out who we are.  No photo on the evening news will reveal our true identify.  We have to do it, and we must.  We spend one-third of our day at work, and that time should be every bit as good as the rest of our lives.

Thanks for reading,
Peter
Visit me at WEDDLEs.com

Peter Weddle is a former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and CNN.com and the author or editor of over two dozen books, including Recognizing Richard Rabbit, a fable of self-discovery for working adults, and Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System.

From: Lorraine Russo

As job seekers look for ways to stand out from the crowd—and as recruiters continue to whine and complain about the increasing volume of resumes of unqualified candidates filling their inboxes—job seekers today need to be more innovative with body-slamming their competition.

I use this term figuratively, of course.

Yes, job searching these days is a contact sport. With unemployment now at a 26-year high, your search requires solid action plans, follow-through, and the ability to assertively market and sell yourself — or an idea — to a potential employer. And while at all times you must remain professional and dignified, there ARE ways to get a hiring manager’s attention without having to walk the streets with a sandwich board saying “HIRE ME” hanging from your shoulders.

We all know the core problem is that you are competing with hundreds of people for one job. If the numbers are to be believed, upwards of 200-500 people apply for any given job—each and every day.

Consider this scenario: Company X posts an opening on a job board for, say, an accountant. Now, there are zillions of accountants out there who are reading this particular ad and saying, “Wow, this is a perfect match for me…let me submit my resume NOW. In fact, everything on my resume is EXACTLY what this company is looking for. I have no doubt that the minute I hit the APPLY NOW button my phone is gonna ring.”

Um…not exactly. Because all those other accountants—your competition—plus hundreds of unqualified job seekers, will apply for the same job. Your competition has the same job search agent set up. If they are all sitting at their PCs when the job is posted, you can consider your chances of getting a response to YOUR application to be just about nil.

“…it’s just like when you toss a piece of meat at a pack of hungry cats…”

The reality is that they all clicked the APPLY NOW button at roughly the same time as you; their resumes, along with yours, were sucked into the black hole. Chances are, your resume will never be seen--at least not by a human. And the recruiter, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of responses, does the "eeny-meeny-miney-mo" thing and picks the first 10 applicants to review. If your application is number 11 or 200, I can just about guarantee it will never be seen.

So, given this grim scenario, follow me to the whiteboard for a quick discussion on how you can get to the hiring manager and leave your competition in the dust.

I went to Indeed and ran a simple search for an accountant. Without refining the search, it shows more than 27,000 postings with the term ‘accountant’ in it. The first job in the search results is for Aon in Burlington, VT.

A little creative Googling for AON employees tells me the naming convention for their email is @agl.aon.com. So I run a Google search using this string (including the quotes): “@agl.aon.com” -- which gives me a whole bunch of AON folks. Refine the search to include the terms “accountant” and “Vermont” -- this is what you get.

Now, use the job description to work on your elevator pitch. But first write an email in the form of an elevator pitch to the person(s) who may be responsible for hiring for this opening.

POSITION SUMMARY: We have an excellent career opportunity available for an Accountant in our Burlington, Vermont office.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: Handle the day to day financial reporting operations and regulatory compliance requirements of Aon Insurance Managers' US based captive insurance clients including the preparation of monthly financial statements. The individual would be part of a team servicing several clients and will have the assistance of an Account Executive and Insurance Manager. This person needs to be familiar with generally accepted accounting principles.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE: Recent college graduate or 1 year experience in the accounting field. Insurance accounting is a plus.

EDUCATION: Bachelors with accounting concentration.

Your email (and elevator pitch) should read something like this:

Dear _______: I am seeking an Accountant position in Burlington VT. For the past xx years, I have been handling the day-to-day financial reporting operations and regulatory compliance requirements for ABC Company. My duties also include preparing monthly financial statements. I am highly familiar with GAAP.

I will call you tomorrow to discuss.

Get the picture? Now, for those of you who might hesitate to cold-call, with the email sent and the promise to follow up with a call, the actual call will not be a cold one. It’s what sales people call “warm leads” –- those in which the recipient, at some level, expects a call and will not react like a deer in the headlights.

For folks who are not accountants but wish to look into other AON opportunities, take a look at their career site -- AON is a global insurance brokerage and consulting firm with openings across the country. Use the Google search string from above (“@agl.aon.com”) and find the AON hiring managers for an opening that interests you.

Above all, always remain professional and positive in your communications, as any hint of anger or desperation will quickly turn a hiring manager off.

If you have any difficulty getting started with a company's email naming convention or other searches, drop a comment here. Good luck in your search.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

From: CareerAlley

“In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, product and profits. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two.” - Lee Iacocca People.

If you look at every successful company that has lasted over the long term (not just a flash in the pan) you will see that one common theme is people. As in a strong culture, good benefits, collaborative work environment, competitive pay, etc. Just read some of the books by Jim Collins and you will see what I mean.

Of course product and profits help as well. There have been many good companies that have not survived if they did not have good products and profits (regardless of the people). Today's post continues the review of Fortune 500 companies, their career pages and, to the extent available, how many jobs are available. There are thousands of job opportunities available across the companies reviewed below, with industries ranging from Banking to Technology and Business Services.

• Citigroup - I considered skipping Citigroup given its impressive problems and the fact that all American tax payers are now part owners. Ranked at 12 on this year's list, we all know that Citigroup is not going to fail (regardless of profits in the short term). This may be the perfect opportunity to join a company that must go through dramatic changes if it is to survive as a separate company. Their careers page has two main segments - Professional Job Search and Graduate Recruitment. Focusing on the Professional Job Search, there is a choice of four regions (and your language choice). Click on the region of your choice and select Go. Once there, you will see a brief overview in the center of the page with several choices on the left hand side of the screen (Job Search, Build Your Profile and Graduates & Undergraduates). The right hand side of the screen has links to the different businesses within Citigroup. There were 1,194 job opportunities globally when I checked the site (with 858 of these in North America).

• Berkshire Hathaway - Ranked at number 13 this year, Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company for over 70 companies (and I'm sure you've heard of Warren Buffet). As a result there are not jobs specifically at Berkshire, the best place to start is on the page that lists these companies (click here for a list of these). No time to cover 70 companies here, but click on any of these 70 companies and follow the links to their career page.

• International Business Machines - on this year’s list, IBM (ranked 14) is one of the best known companies. More than half of revenue now comes from Business Services (consulting). Their career page leads with the tag “We don't just invent, we innovate”. There is a video to start, or you can click the links on the right hand side of the page for location or Search for Opportunities. Clicking on Search for Opportunities where you can start with a video. In addition to a link to their Career Fairs Calendar, you can click on the "search for jobs" link. A basic search returned almost 2,748 job opportunities.

• McKesson - Ranked at 15, McKesson is in the health care services business. Their career site has some links to the left which are repeated in the middle of the page, they are: Find a Job, How to Apply, Campus Recruiting and Who we are. Find a Job leads to the job search page, where you can also sign in, register, update your resume and start or manage your job agents.

• J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. - a prominent member of the very troubled financial services sector, Chase was relatively unharmed when compared to the other financial institutions. Their main careers page has links for Experienced Hires, University Programs, Jobs in Demand and Search Jobs. Clicking on Search Jobs leads to a jobs search engine. While I couldn’t check all jobs due to the way the search engine is structured, I did check Accounting/Finance jobs and found 2,778 jobs just in that field.

The following post is courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap:

From: Matthew Warzel, MJW Careers

When job seekers are out on their own and sometimes do not think long enough before they jump into an opportunity, that might come few and far between, it can sometimes backfire and in turn hurt them emotionally and financially.  These are some tips to read about some of the jobs out there that aren't worth pursuing:

1. Unpaid internships with small companies who have no brand.  Unless they are partnered and can offer credit for your university, I would avoid the unpaid internships.  Remember when Kramer in Seinfeld had an intern at his company Kramerica?  My point exactly.

2. Buzz marketing outfits:  These companies constantly need agents (who end up being gullible consumers) to receive samples & coupons to give their friends and employees.  You can have people sign up through the website...they don’t get money or anything; just free stuff to give people!

3. Promotional marketing companies: the employers give out sample coupons door-to-door and earn a profit off of consumers purchasing these coupons to events, like baseball games.  The catch is that the coupons aren’t affiliated with the event sponsor and thus, do not work.  Avoid being a scam artist without knowing you’re a scam artist!

4. Work-at-home scams: You’ve probably seen an ad on CareerBuilder that says "$10,000 a month working part-time from your home", "Help wanted to work from home and make $1000/week" or "Internet advertising company needs people who want to earn $5000 or more a month, part-time!"  Stay away from anything that’s too good to be true, because it probably is too good to be true.

5. Companies that make you pay application fees.  No companies charge you to work at them, so why would you think that was a normal practice? 

6. Mystery shopping scams: Some mystery shopping places are legit (see list on the Mystery Shopping Providers Association), but some will ask you to handle money on your own by using fake checks from the company in place of your own cash, only AFTER you’ve spent your own cash! 

7. Companies asking for your credit card information, personal pin numbers and any extra personal information via email.  You know better to not buy into this trick, so know better to not get caught up working at one of them. 

8. Jobs that ask you to pay them for training at companies that aren’t certified.  It’s one thing to enroll at a community college for some trade certification or rapid learning course, but it’s another to only communicate with an educational class via email and then to send them money for the paid-training and learning materials.  I would research schools to see if they are a qualified online training institute such as the University of Phoenix Online among others.  While U of P is good online training, beware of the others that have made a business taking advantage of internet learning.  You don’t want to lose out on some hard-earned money that you desperately need.

Tip: Check out businesses at the Better Business Bureau’s website (BBB.org) or run a Google search of the company name and see if any search results yield the word “scam” or “fraud” in the context, if you are unsure about the company’s practices.  Bottom line: if it’s easy, it most likely isn’t going to pay off.  You need to work hard to garner success.

Being on the U of M campus is like being home for me and to be talking Recruiter, HR and Social Media topics is really cool. The bonus is the description of the event:

“Social Networking in Business: How to Navigate the Playing Field without Fumbling the Ball"

6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
Hanson Hall Room 1-109

Football is back on the University of Minnesota campus this fall and excitement is in the air!  This professional development event on the implications of social networking in professional work environments will kick off with comments from subject matter experts in the fields of recruiting and employment law.  We will also huddle as large and small groups to discuss using Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, etc. in the business world from the perspectives of students, alumni and other human resource professionals.

The subject matter experts for this event include:

• Sarah Beaty, University Relations Leader for U.S. Recruiting at General Mills
• Teresa Thompson, Attorney with expertise in legal issues surrounding technology in the workplace, from Fredrikson & Byron, P.A
• Adam Sprecher, Business Development Manager, Oberon.
• Paul DeBettignies, Author of the Minnesota Headhunter Blog

So I get to be a part of a Recruiter/HR chat about Social Media on the University of Minnesota campus with a football theme. Heaven for this guy.

Go Gophers!!!

And a Minnesota Rouser too:

• Blog
• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter

Let me also add in:

• YouTube (creating videos)
• Podcasts
• RSS Feeds (email subscription too)
• Newsletter

NOTE: LinkedIn is not on the list. I am guessing everyone is using LinkedIn and if not, well that is a blog post for another day.

So the question is who do you know is using these tools to source and recruit?

• I do not mean blogging about using Twitter. I mean actually using Twitter.
• I am not talking about someone who has created a Fan Page on Facebook. I am talking about someone who actively uses it, has new folks coming to it and relationships, referrals and hires are coming from it.
• Not a blog writer blabbing away about industry stuff but who in part uses it as a recruiting, sourcing, PR, relationship building tool to find candidates.

Who do you know may be a:

• Fortune 500 company
• Start up
• Corporate/search/consulting firm recruiter or HR professional.

I am looking for their:

• Name
• Contact information
• URL’s

What I want to do with this is highlight in blog posts here who these people are. I am hoping they will want to talk about it a bit, why they do it, how much time is spent, share some of their experiences (successes and failures) and give a tip or two. I am not going to ask them to give away their “secret sauce” but some highlights we can talk about and share.

If you are going to say you are one of these people please do not make this awkward for you or I. You know if you are doing this or not. You know if you are playing around, experimenting with it or using it every day.

I get the economy and hiring is slow right now so maybe you are not making a huge number of placements but you could be developing talent pools/friends via Twitter. That’s the stuff I am looking for.

Feel free to add people (yourself) in the comments section below or send me an email paul@mnheadhunter.com

Thanks.

From: HRM Business Practices and Notes

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. ~Theodore Roosevelt”

How many of us who can identify with what Roosevelt said? It pays to remember that he was the sitting President during the great depression, so that you can put that on the right perspective.

Unfavorable circumstances can easily derail us from our goals; we never try for fear of failure. It is easier for us somehow to blame the global financial pandemonium or other life’s tragedy, or make an excuse out of them to justify our inactivity.

I have seen many stifled by these kinds of fears and excuses. “No one will hire me, I am too old.” “I don’t have the right skills, the right education, the right experience or the right connections…” I can fill this entire post with a 10,000-word enumeration of these excuses for what? Nothing! Or perhaps just sow cynicism to those who read. I do not want that.

Excuses and fear of failures work like gangrene that eat out your motivation slowly until you realize later that you have none left.

Reality Check

Finding job during a recession may be difficult because of the scarcity of jobs, and the increasing number of unemployed. In fact, the stats released by the Labor Bureau two weeks ago have caused the stock market to dip. While I agree with most economists that the economy is showing signs of bottoming-out, nevertheless the growing number of unemployed will continue to rise, as companies are not likely to hire in the coming months.

I know.

When the Asian economic flu hits us towards the end of the 90’s, many organizations, including mine, started streamlining. Employees who were retained were asked to multi-task. In fact, there was a time that I had to oversee 3 departments. When the economy rebounded, most companies who survived (or even did well during the downturn) were satisfied with their lean and mean workforce, thus they never bothered to hire additional people or rehire former (displaced) employees.

Alright, I have laid down some facts or scenarios from an HR perspective. And yeah, you can include them in your list of excuses. Nevertheless, the fact remains, you are still jobless. Unless you get out of your comfort zone and free yourself from the grips of unending excuses, you will never get a job.

Focus and Determination are Essential to Job Search Success

The key is focus, and a dash of determination on your job search. Do not take a rejection from a potential employer as something personal. It simply means that there is another organization waiting out there who is more than willing to take you in. Take heart. For more often, finding job is a numbers game. “The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese.” Spencer Johnson, wittingly puts it in his bestselling book, “Who moved my cheese?”

Balanced Networking

October 11, 2009

By Brett Pyrtle, Minneapolis StarTribune

Facebook, LinkedIn and other electronic tools are great ways to build a network. But smart job seekers don't limit their connections to cyberspace.

Fueled by an economic downturn, social and career networking sites are full of people using their computers to stay connected with one another. But in a job search, an online approach to networking will only go so far.

"Everyone is looking for a silver bullet in their job search, and that doesn't exist," says Paul DeBettignies, founder of the MN Headhunter recruiting blog. "For example, if you use LinkedIn to identify a potential job or networking contact, sooner or later you'll need to connect by phone and, eventually, in person. You can't find a job without actually talking with somebody."

Clearly, online networking offers benefits. For example, a recent national study by Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law reports that nearly 70 percent of employers believe social networks are valuable recruiting tools. However, according to a 2009 survey of human resource managers by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, personal networking is still considered the most effective way for job seekers to secure a new position.

So, what is the best approach to balancing online networking tools with old-fashioned face time? DeBettignies suggests the following tips:

Move select online relationships to personal ones. These days, it's easy to start a relationship through blogging, discussion boards, networking sites or basic e-mail correspondence. If some of those contacts turn out to be more valuable than others, DeBettignies says it's time to move away from the computer. "Most people are social creatures. There's still nothing better for relationship-building than a handshake or a hug, a cup of coffee or a lunch. You can't just write a blog. You need to talk with people."

Know where people connect. This concept can vary widely by location and industry. For instance, DeBettignies says IT professionals in the Twin Cities tend to make great use of Twitter and LinkedIn for electronic networking, while face-to-face gatherings might be built around skill-specific user groups or professional association events. Taking time to locate the right places to be greatly enhances the prospects for successful networking.

Rethink networking ideas. In addition to well-defined electronic and personal networking opportunities, it's also a good idea to consider how social outings-such as worship, recreation or children's activities - can provide new venues to connect. "These are occasions where people frequently ask for ideas about doctors, schools and other things," says DeBettignies. "At some point, it makes sense for people to elevate that conversation to include a job search."

Brett Pyrtle is principal of Turning Point Communications LLC, a communications consulting firm based in St. Paul.

For those not familiar with me and are wondering if a session(s) would be a good use of your time I am an IT Recruiter with 11 years if experience and have been speaking to groups of all ages and skill sets in groups of 20-200 and now online for 7 years.

Here is some background on presentations and interviews I have been a part of and recognition as a Minnesota Social Media Innovator:

• Presentations
• Interviews
• Minnesota Social Media Innovator

While Be Your Own Headhunter is under going a facelift this is how to stay in touch with upcoming seminars:

• MN Headhunter RSS Feed
• MN Headhunter RSS Via EMail
• MN Headhunter Newsletter

All presentations are 60-90 minutes with a Q&A that follows.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are unable to attend the sessions during these times (or are seeing this post after sessions have been held) either click MN Headhunter Blog or Be Your Own Headhunter where you will find a calendar of upcoming events or register anyway so you can get the slides via email.

Job Search Toolkit - Be Your Own Headhunter

Economic and labor statistics and projections show that while the economy may be coming back the employment market will lag more than previous recessions and worse, many are predicting a jobless recovery.

This is session is for those in a job search or those thinking either by choice or force they will be doing one soon.

If you are wondering how to create/use your network, how to find the hidden job market, be more aggressive with your job search approach or are relying on job boards to find jobs to apply to then this session is for you.

Topics to be covered include:

• Plan your job search
• How to market yourself
• Ways to ask for referrals and advice
• Where to find the hidden job market
• Where to research companies
• How to find contact names and email addresses
• Tips on using email and phone for contacting and follow up

To register click a date/time:

• Oct 15 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM CDT
• Oct 20 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM CDT
• Oct 26 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM CDT 
• Oct 27 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM CDT 
• Oct 27 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM CDT
  

LinkedIn A to Z - Use LinkedIn Like A Headhunter

There is a big difference between “being on LinkedIn” and “using LinkedIn.”

Whether you are using LinkedIn as a job seeker, recruiter, sales person or for general networking purposes this presentation will show you how to:

• Create and optimize your profile
• Create your personal URL
• Connect with and expand your network
• Find and participate in groups
• Research companies
• Use Google to see all of LinkedIn, not just your 3 degrees
• Write and ask for recommendations
• Participate in Questions and Answers
• Search for names using keywords, title, company, skill set and location
• Search strings will be included
• Avoid pitfalls

To register click a date/time:

• Oct 22 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM CDT
• Oct 28 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM CDT
• Oct 28 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM CDT

Using Social Media For Networking, Lead Generation And Job Search

For those of us who have profiles on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Ning groups and/or write a blog we often use these site to communicate with friends, peers, coworkers and family but until recently very few thought of them as opportunities to network, for lead generation, or to find jobs and consulting opportunities.

In this 60 minute presentation (with 30 minutes of Q&A to follow) you will learn to create your hub or online presence with the use of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Ning groups and blogs showing ways one can:

• Optimize profiles with keywords, locations, etc
• Use the site to search others
• Join and create groups
• Overtly and covertly say you are networking, looking for customers, jobs or consulting gigs
• Show what you are working on and prove expertise
• Engage in a regional, local and industry conversation
• Connect and network prior to and after industry events

To register click a date/time:

• Oct 29 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CDT
• Oct 29 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM CDT

If you are seeing this blog post after the sessions have taken place click Be Your Own Headhunter for latest announcements or MN Headhunter to return to the front page for the current schedule

From: John Butler, Vice President SearchLogix Group

Whether you believe the recession is over or not, now is the time for companies to get ready to find talent for the increase in business that is coming.  For the past 12 to 18 months, companies have had the luxury to be picky about when and who they will hire.  Most hiring managers have increased the job requirements and the interview process to ensure they got the best talent as they perceived it.

Companies now have to start preparing themselves for the hiring process to speed up.  We will not see the ridiculous hiring frenzy from the dot.com era, but hiring managers can no longer take months to hire a person and expect them to wait patiently to get hired. Highly qualified candidates are getting more recruiting calls and are beginning to have multiple job offers.  They are quickly entering the job market and just as quickly they are accepting good offers and are no longer available. 

A case in point, we had a large technology client take over 3 months to determine a short list of finalists for a VP job.  They lost their number one candidate who was recruited by another technology firm, interviewed, offered and accepted a VP role in three weeks.  We are now seeing multiple clients lose candidates due to the length of the hiring process.  In addition, candidates no longer have just one opportunity to pick from, they are getting multiple offers.

Five Tips to Help You Win the War for Talent:

1. Make sure you know the profile of the type of person you want.  Make sure all stakeholders agree to this profile.

2. Partner with your recruiter to develop a qualified slate of candidates.

3. Speed up the interview process.  This does not mean eliminate decision makers from the process, but it does mean consolidate interviews and do phone interviews whenever possible to shorten the interview cycle.

4. Be prepared to hire someone from a slate of 2-3 qualified candidates.

5. Be prepared to sell the candidate on why the company and the position is the place they want to work.  I can guarantee you your competition is selling the pros of their company.

From: CareerAlley

"If you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra

Maybe the most admired companies don't take the fork in the road as Yogi suggests, but they certainly do know how to navigate their business sector better than most. These are companies that you will want to consider in your job search.

Continuing to review Fortune's Most Admired Companies, today's list takes us from aerospace to retail sales. As you review each of these companies, keep in mind what has made them stand out in the crowd - financial soundness, social responsibility, people management, long-term investment, quality of products and services.

Which attributes appeal to you?

• Boeing - Ranked at 40 on this year's list, Boeing covers a broad range of products within aerospace and their career opportunities are fairly broad. Their careers page leads with a good company overview and why you would want to work there, followed by a quick link to their job search section. The left hand side of the page has additional employment links (including Job Search, Featured Job Opportunities, Recruiting Events and more). Moving right to Job Search, there were 259 job opportunities when I checked the site, covering a broad range of job functions and locations. Their featured jobs link provides some additional focus and, like most companies these days, you can register and upload your resume.
• Deere - This manufacturer of industrial and farm equipment is ranked 41 on the list and has operations around the world. Their career site reflects their global footprint, with a representative globe and a "select your country" drop-down box (as well as a list of countries down the left hand side of the screen). Pick your country to get started and the next page you will see has a list of links down the left hand side of the page, including: Career Growth, Job Search, College Students, Career Events and more. Click on Job Search to get started and the basic search returns all job openings (2o when I checked).
• Nokia - Ranked 42 on the list, Nokia is probably best known for cellphones but their product range is much broader than that. Another global company, their career site has a number of tabs at the top of the page - Jobs, Diversity, Graduates, Students and more. Click Jobs to search for opportunities and then click job search. When I checked, their basic search returned 299 global job opportunities across many locations and job functions.
• Northwestern Mutual - An insurance company, Northwestern is ranked 43 on this year's list. Their careers section has three different links (accessed from the careers tab at the top right of the page) for career choices as a Financial Representative, Intern or Corporate. The link at the start of this paragraph is the Corporate opportunities page. Their Corporate Careers page offers Register, Log In and Search from the right hand side of the page with additional links to Join Our Team, Life at Northwestern, Career Insights (and more) located center page. Clicking on Job Search returned 10 jobs when I checked, you should also review the other links for opportunities at this company.
• Best Buy - Ranked 44 on the list, Best Buy is best known as an electronics retailer. Their main careers page is well done, with two main selections from the middle of the page - Retail, Services and Distribution OR Corporate Careers. You can also do a keyword search directly below this section, click on Why Work at Best Buy, Students and Entry Positions and more. Click on Search Jobs to see all of the jobs (there were over 2,400 jobs when I checked the site). Plenty of jobs here!

But I am competitive.

And I am a homer.

So when The Daily Beast announced the results of their survey and Minneapolis - St Paul is #4 I am going to blog about it.

They ranked cities with 1,000,000+ in population (including suburbs) from 1 to 55 and came up with the following order (click America's Smartest Cities—From First to Worst to get their criteria, slide show and brief commentary on each city):

1) Raleigh - Durham

2) San Francisco - Oakland - San Jose

3) Boston

4) Minneapolis - St Paul

5) Denver

6) Hartford - New Haven

7) (tie) Seattle – Tacoma

7) (tie) Washington, D.C.

9) Portland, OR

10) Baltimore

11) Philadelphia

12) Austin

13) New York

14) Salt Lake City

15) Milwaukee

16) Charlotte

17) (tie) Kansas City

17) (tie) Columbus

19) Nashville

20) (tie) San Diego

20) (tie) Indianapolis

22) Providence

23) Atlanta

24) (tie) St Louis

24) (tie) Chicago

26) Rochester, NY

27) (tie) Pittsburgh

27) (tie) Los Angeles

27) (tie) Richmond

30) Grand Rapids - Kalamazoo - Battle Creek

31) (tie) Cleveland

31) (tie) West Palm Beach

33) Tampa - St Petersburg

34) Tucson

35) (tie) Oklahoma City

35) (tie) Sacramento

37) (tie) Greensboro, NC

37) (tie) Jacksonville, FL

39) Miami

40) Detroit

41) Norfolk, VA

42) Birmingham

43) Cincinnati

44) Buffalo

45) New Orleans

46) (tie) Houston

46) (tie) Orlando

48) Dallas - Fort Worth

49) Phoenix

50) Harrisburg, PA

51) Memphis

52) Louisville

53) San Antonion

54) Las Vegas

55) Fresno, CA

• Information Systems Coordinator - Full Time Job - Eureka Recycling

• Systems Integration Analyst - Full Time Job - Community Action

• Information Technology Coordinator - Full Time Job - Youth Encounter
  

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From: Peggy McKee, the Medical Sales Recruiter

What is a ride-along?  Why is it important?

A ride-along is just what it sounds like:  You spend a day with a medical sales rep who’s in the field you’re thinking you’d like to sell into, and see how a typical day goes.   A ride-along can be one of your greatest opportunities to differentiate yourself from another candidate.  It sets you apart as a go-getter.  It gives you critical on-the-job information that helps you in your job search.  Among other things, it helps you answer the question, “How do you see yourself in this job?”

How do you get one?

Step 1:  Ask for contacts.

If you want a pharmaceutical sales job, for instance, call your family doctor and ask for a favor–ask for the contact information of a couple of the sales reps who call on him.

If you want a medical device job, ask the doctor for those types of representatives.

If you want a laboratory sales job, go see a small laboratory and ask for a couple of contacts (folks who sell to them).

Get the idea?

Step 2:  Call the sales rep and ask them for a favor:  Will they let you tag along for a day or half a day to see what their life is like?

That’s all there is to it.  When you do the ride along, ask a lot of questions:  What do they like about the job, what do they hate, what skills are absolutely necessary, how did they get the job, etc. Then once you’ve done this, add the experience to your resume as a preceptorship.

Completing a ride-along communicates that (1) you are willing to go the extra step, (2) you know how to make contacts and (3) you know what you are getting into….It helps the hiring manager see you in the job and that is what gets you a job.

From: CareerAlley

Losing your job is one of the most stressful life events (see the post "I lost my job, now what?"). With unemployment at the highest level in over 25 years, we all know someone (or several someones) who have lost their jobs. Whether it be downsizing, bankruptcy or mergers is unimportant, the result is the same. Some of my friends have been out of work almost a year. For some people who have been lucky enough to keep their jobs, the stress of worrying about losing you job can be devastating as well.

The good news is that you are not alone and there is a vast amount of advice to help overcome the stress as well as find a job. The better news is that there are thousands of jobs out there if you know where to look, are persistent in your search and have a plan of attack. Today's post covers a number of topics related to job loss, the threat of job loss and where to start in your search.

• How to lose your fear of being fired - This excellent article, provided by Positivesharing.com, is a must read for anyone who has either lost their job or is worried about losing their job. It covers both sides of the coin and provides some commentary on how to deal with being fired (the reasons), dealing with the problems of being fired (economic, explaining on a job interview) and moving on. There are a few links at the bottom of the post to additional articles which might be worth a read.

• Dealing With Job Loss - Howstuffworks.com posted this article, which deals with a number of topics related to job loss. Specifically, using your support networks (friends, family, former co-workers, etc.), keeping an active routine and starting your job search immediately. There are several helpful links throughout the article on how to reduce your stress. Additionally, there are a number of very helpful links at the top of the article which leads to additional posts on unemployment, wrongful termination and more.

• Jump Start Your Job Search - What better place to start your job search research than a site named jumpstartyourjobsearch.com! This site is a "job search information index" which provides an alphabetical listing of job search boards, headhunters and other job search resources. You can also use the Popular Links (to such topics as How to Guides, Resumes and more) as well as the Targeted Resources (Over 50 Job Search, Resources for Students and more). Click Newsletter at the top of the page for links to a number of relevant articles as well as featured articles on the right hand side of the page. The site is well organized and you can actually jump start your search by leveraging this site.

• Help - I Lost My Job! - One more on this topic before I move on. This article from wisebread.com provides four steps with links. Shock, getting a new job, extra income and avoid getting laid off. Each of the steps have useful advice with additional embedded links on the topic. This is a very comprehensive article with quite a few links that will provide most of the information you need to get back in the game and leverage your search. The right hand side of this page has additional links to job search engines and job boards.

• How to Make Money Right Now Even If You Are Unemployed - This article, posted on ezinearticles.com and written by Max Lauplin provides a number of ideas on how to make money until you land a job including making money online. In addition to the information in this article, you may want to consider consulting (see my posts "Targeted Company Search - Consulting Firms" and "Have you thought about consulting").

Good luck in your search.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Tell me what you think. Do you share these? Am I right, wrong or need to be medicated?

I hope this helps me sleep tonight.

Economy And Jobs

“Economic Rebound” and “Job Creation” I am an optimist. My glass is half full usually spilling over. But this recovery and job creation is overblown hype. Yes the stock market is “back” but it has likely hit a ceiling for now. That’s how this recovery thing work. Jobs being created? Sure. How many jobs do we need to create to get all those who are currently looking or will yet be laid off back to work? We need to create 5 million or 10 million jobs? In awesome economic times we create, what, around 150 - 200 thousand in a month? Do the math. This is going to take a while and if this is a jobless recovery like that last recession, oh boy. Enough with the hyperbole.

Resumes Suck

• Most people suck at writing resumes
• Most companies spend little time reading them
• Give a resume to 5 Recruiter/HR folk and you may get 5 different reactions
• 1 page resume or 2? This one really gets me going
• Rules? There are no rules. There may be some best practices
• I do not have a viable alternative to this process and before some software or tech company says they have the answer you don’t. The last thing we need is some gadget to make this highly personal process (well it should be) any more less so

Job Descriptions Suck

• Most Hiring Managers have no clue what they really want or if the do they have unreasonable expectations
• Most read like a tech specification for an iPod. Boring and lame
• Seriously Recruiters/HR/Hiring Managers, write a job description that engages people rather than put them to sleep
• If I see one more that says 7 years needed with a skill set that has only been around for 5 years I am going to punch some one/thing

War For Talent

Remember back in the good old days (2-4 years ago) when companies were all raging about how they could not find talented employees? How they were all concerned about Baby Boomers retiring and the knowledge that would walk out the door? How they needed to figure out how to attract Gen Y? Well, why are the older and younger workers the ones who are most impacted by this recession? Was this hype?

Moving on: So we have enough people but not enough people skilled in the right areas. Who is going to teach/train these folks? Companies, schools or some new government program? We have to figure this one out before the economic distance between the haves/have not’s in this country widens more.

Wisconsin Badgers

My Minnesota Golden Gophers play the Wisconsin Badgers this Saturday at TCF Bank Stadium. I enjoy a good rivalry but this game is amped up way more than usual. I get many Gopher fans are starting to have “issues” after having lost the last 6 to Bucky Badger for Paul Bunyan’s Axe. And I get that Bucky has a pretty huge ego right about now. But the trash talk has gotten a bit personal this week and the Badger faithful are slinging a lot of “stuff”. I want to win this game really, really bad. No really. Really, really bad. Should the Gophers win Saturday I may become an A-Hole for a few days while I pay back our friends to the east.

Go Gophers!!!

From: Phil Rosenberg, President of reCareered

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity. Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

Total Job Openings:
The Telecommunications, Banking, Business Services, Health Care, and Retail verticals are the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Based on surveys of US job advertisements in the top job boards and aggregators, the following companies added the most job openings:

Total Job Openings by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing Companies Not Included):

1. AT&T
2. JPMorgan Chase
3. Deloitte
4. Sears, Roebuck and Co.
5. Gentiva Health Services
6. Blockbuster
7. Kmart
8. Verizon
9. Northrop Grumman
10. General Dynamics
11. Raytheon
12. McDonald's
13. IBM
14. Macy's
15. UnitedHealth Group
16. Marriott
17. RadioShack
18. Murphy USA
19. Advantage Sales and Marketing
20. CIA
21. Toys "R" Us
22. Allied Barton Security Services
23. T-Mobile
24. US Army
25. Avon
26. Sun Microsystems
27. Snap-on Tools
28. Army National Guard
29. Quest Diagnostics
30. Aflac
31. Woodforest Bank
32. Combined Insurance
33. Fifth Third Bank
34. EMC Corp.
35. Fresenius Medical Care
36. Kaiser Permanente
37. Navy

Job Openings Added This Week:
The Telecommunications, Banking, Retail, Health Care, and Engineering verticals are the top industries currently hiring based on a survey of active job advertisements from the nations’ top job boards.

Job Openings Added this week by direct advertisers (Recruiters & Staffing companies not included):

1. AT&T
2. JPMorgan Chase
3. Sears
4. UnitedHealth Group
5. Kaiser Permanente
6. Siemens
7. Deloitte
8. Verizon
9. Raytheon
10. Northrop Grumman
11. Kmart
12. Advantage Sales and Marketing
13. Army National Guard
14. General Dynamics
15. Kindred Healthcare
16. RadioShack
17. UnitedHealth Group
18. Crossmark
19. Marriott
20. Federal Gov
21. Sun Microsystems
22. Macy's
23. IBM
24. Medtronic
25. Macy's
26. Global M.A.R.S
27. Affiliated Computer Services
28. Combined Insurance
29. EMC Corp.
30. Snap-on Tools
31. Quest Diagnostics
32. Avon
33. Fifth Third Bank
34. HSBC
35. NY Army National Guard

Top Hiring Cities based on CareerBuilder ads:

1. NYC
2. Chicago
3. Houston
4. Dallas
5. Phoenix
6. Atlanta
7. LA
8. Philadelphia
9. Indianapolis
10. Washington DC
11. Cincinnati
12. Charlotte
13. Columbus OH
14. Baltimore
15. Kansas City
16. San Antonio
17. Miami
18. Orlando
19. Louisville
20. Nashville
21. Boston
22. Columbia SC
23. Denver
24. Seattle
25. San Diego

Sources: CareerBuilder, Indeed, SimplyHired, HotJobs, Google. Monster does not list ads by company or city. Excluded: Recruiters, Staffing firms, Training, Franchise, and Work-from-home opportunities.

Here is why I ask. I am doing research for an article I am writing and a well known Recruiter/HR guy is poo pooing the use of Twitter and Social Networking sites in general. And he keeps talking about how people are talking about Twitter as the end all of recruiting much like people spoke about Monster.com and the job boards in the late 90’s.

The thing is I cannot find who this person’s sources are.

Sure a lot of folks are talking about this revolutionary new tool (memo, Twitter has been around a while) and how it can help companies, marketers and yes recruiters get their message out and find people to “sell” but I have not seen anyone say it is the end all.

Can you point me to any credible person in or outside of the Recruiter/HR world who says Twitter will change the axis of our planet?

From: CareerAlley

Thank you letters are another important part of your Marketing Toolkit. The main purpose (besides the obvious thanks) is to ensure that the interviewer knows that, not only are you are a good match for the job, but that you heard everything that was discussed during the interview.

There is an expectation that everyone will send a Thank You letter, and those that don't may not get the opportunity to continue in the interview process. This is your chance to list those characteristics that match the job and company profile.

As with all writing related to your job search process, the Thank You letter should be well written and tailored to the interviewer. While you may have similar text in your Thank You letters, under no circumstances should your letters look similar to other letters for any one interview process (i.e. don't send the same letter to different interviewers at the same company).

There are as many examples of Thank You letters as there are examples of resumes and cover letters. The important thing to remember is that your Thank You letter should be personalized. I've added a page dedicated to the entire (small but growing) series at "Job Search Marketing Toolkit" - take a look.

• Guide Lines for Writing Thank You Letters - This article, from About.com, provides overall guidelines as well as specific links to situation specific formats - campus interviews, general thank you, addressing concerns, etc. Key in this article are each of the paragraphs at the beginning which state, more or less, the real purpose of the letters (similar to what I indicated earlier in this post). And, although I didn't mention it, Proofread as many times as possible concept is listed here as well.
• How to Write a Thank You Letter - Also by About.com, this article lists the "Here's How" as well as additional tips. The time tested standards are here - letters to each interviewer, express your interest in the job and the company, mention specific topics discussed during the interview, etc.
• Free Sample Job Interview and Career Thank-You Letters - Quintcareers.com provides this list of sample thank you letters. The list includes General letters, letters that stress fit, letters that focus on damage control (yes, there are letters for almost every occasion), job fair interviews and more. There is also a link to their FAQ on thank you letters which is certainly worth a read.
• 10 Sample Thank You Letters - Susan Ireland (www.susanireland.com) also offers samples / examples of Thank You letters on her website. Her samples are listed by strategy (interview, offer, rejection, informational and thank you to friends). Click on any of the links and a full sample will be displayed. I do feel obligated to say (as silly as this sounds, it happens all of the time) don't forget to remove any information from your thank you letter that are specific to the sample (like the fictious name of the individual).
• Interview follow-up / thank you letters - One more site with examples, this one from Virginia Tech. The site lists the purpose of the thank you letter, talks about snail mail versus email, what to do if you don't hear from an employer and provides examples as well. Finally, at the bottom of the page is a full listing of additional career links.

Good luck in your search.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

For those not familiar with me and are wondering if a session(s) would be a good use of your time I am an IT Recruiter with 11 years if experience and have been speaking to groups of all ages and skill sets in groups of 20-200 and now online for 7 years.

Here is some background on presentations and interviews I have been a part of and recognition as a Minnesota Social Media Innovator:

• Presentations
• Interviews
• Minnesota Social Media Innovator

While Be Your Own Headhunter is under going a facelift this is how to stay in touch with upcoming seminars:

• MN Headhunter RSS Feed
• MN Headhunter RSS Via EMail
• MN Headhunter Newsletter

All presentations are 60-90 minutes with a Q&A that follows.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are unable to attend the sessions during these times (or are seeing this post after sessions have been held) either click MN Headhunter Blog or Be Your Own Headhunter where you will find a calendar of upcoming events or register anyway so you can get the slides via email.

September 29th, 1 PM CDT

Job Search Toolkit - Be Your Own Headhunter

Economic and labor statistics and projections show that while the economy may be coming back the employment market will lag more than previous recessions and worse, many are predicting a jobless recovery.

This is session is for those in a job search or those thinking either by choice or force they will be doing one soon.

If you are wondering how to create/use your network, how to find the hidden job market, be more aggressive with your job search approach or are relying on job boards to find jobs to apply to then this session is for you.

Topics to be covered include:

• Plan your job search
• How to market yourself
• Ways to ask for referrals and advice
• Where to find the hidden job market
• Where to research companies
• How to find contact names and email addresses
• Tips on using email and phone for contacting and follow up

To register click: Job Search Toolkit - Be Your Own Headhunter

September 30th, 1 PM CDT

LinkedIn A to Z - Use LinkedIn Like A Headhunter

There is a big difference between “being on LinkedIn” and “using LinkedIn.”

Whether you are using LinkedIn as a job seeker, recruiter, sales person or for general networking purposes this presentation will show you how to:

• Create and optimize your profile
• Create your personal URL
• Connect with and expand your network
• Find and participate in groups
• Research companies
• Use Google to see all of LinkedIn, not just your 3 degrees
• Write and ask for recommendations
• Participate in Questions and Answers
• Search for names using keywords, title, company, skill set and location
• Search strings will be included
• Avoid pitfalls

To register click LinkedIn A to Z - Use LinkedIn Like A Headhunter

October 1st, 1 PM CDT

Using Social Media For Networking, Lead Generation And Job Search

For those of us who have profiles on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Ning groups and/or write a blog we often use these site to communicate with friends, peers, coworkers and family but until recently very few thought of them as opportunities to network, for lead generation, or to find jobs and consulting opportunities.

In this 60 minute presentation (with 30 minutes of Q&A to follow) you will learn to create your hub or online presence with the use of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Ning groups and blogs showing ways one can:

• Optimize profiles with keywords, locations, etc
• Use the site to search others
• Join and create groups
• Overtly and covertly say you are networking, looking for customers, jobs or consulting gigs
• Show what you are working on and prove expertise
• Engage in a regional, local and industry conversation
• Connect and network prior to and after industry events

To register click Using Social Media For Networking, Lead Generation And Job Search

If you are seeing this blog post after the sessions have taken place click Be Your Own Headhunter for latest announcements or MN Headhunter to return to the front page for the current schedule

From: Kevin Donlin

I just spent the morning reviewing several hundred emails from job seekers across the country, looking for common frustrations among people looking for work.

As you might imagine, many things are bugging many job seekers in this economy.

But I boiled them down to four prominent job-search frustrations.

Here they are, with suggested solutions.

Which ones apply to you?

Frustration #1: "I submit my resume for a posted job and never hear back from employers. Did they even read my resume?"

Solution: Here are three ways to make sure your resume is received and read.

1) Call the employer after applying. Obviously, you can't do this if you're blasting resumes out by the dozens each week, so pick and choose carefully which employers you apply to. The smaller the employer, the more likely you are to connect with a hiring authority by phone.

2) Hand-deliver your resume. This method really works, as I've written about before. People who get interviewed and hired after hand-delivering their resumes do the following:

• they dress professionally
• ask the receptionist if they can personally give their resume to the hiring manager
• if refused, they politely request a meeting at a later date
• leave a copy of their resume with the receptionist
• call or visit again until they get a meeting

When you visit a company to drop off your resume, be ready to interview on the spot, if you meet the hiring manager in the lobby -- it has happened!

3) Mail your resume.

Nowhere is it written that you cannot mail a resume after submitting it online. With a little sleuthing on the employer's web site and/or Google, you can find the name of your potential boss and their mailing address. Still unsure? Call the employer and ask!

Frustration #2: "I'm over-qualified for most positions I apply for."

Solution: First, know that employers may fear your getting bored in a role dealing with budgets in the thousands of dollars, if you've worked with millions of dollars before, for example.

And employers may fret that you'll leave as soon as a better job turns up.

To allay those fears, use your cover letter to highlight your record of long-term employment, if you have one. You can also offer to sign an agreement outlining a minimum stay in a new job.

Also, understand that "over-qualified" can mean "too expensive" for some employers, who fear being able to match your salary demands.

So, explain in your resume and cover letter that someone with your experience can save or earn significant amounts of money. Then, prove it with specific dollars and figures. Ideally, you will show employers that hiring you is like buying money at a discount -- you can earn or save multiples of every dollar you get paid in salary.

Frustration #3: "Recruiters and headhunters don't call me back."

Solution: Lower your expectations. Unless you already have a solid relationship with one, now is not the best time to expect callbacks from recruiters.

There reasons are many in this recession, according to Mark J. Haluska, Founder & Executive Director, Real Time NetWork (www.rtnetwork.net).

"Most recruiters have a glut of candidates and they're besieged with unsolicited resumes to fill a dwindling number of assignments. So, before a recruiter ever thinks of calling you, they comb through their database of candidates, looking for someone they know is a proven winner," says Haluska.

Should you follow up with a recruiter, to make sure they got your resume?

Perhaps.

"You could make a call every couple weeks, if only to leave a voicemail. That should eventually result in contact with the recruiter." But, be on your best behavior and avoid letting any frustration show; otherwise, "your resume will end up in the shredder," says Haluska.

Frustration #4: "I have no time for networking."

Solution: You have time for eating and sleeping. Why? Because they are necessary for survival. Without a job, you will have no food to eat or roof to sleep under. So make time to network. Even if you have to eat or sleep less for a few weeks … or watch less TV or relax less on weekends. You can always catch up on that later.

Kevin Donlin is co-author of Guerrilla Resumes. Since 1996, he has provided job-search help to more than 20,000 people. Author of 3 books, Kevin has been interviewed by The New York Times, USA Today, Fox News, CBS Radio and others.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.