Recruiter Today | Recruiting Trends and Tips for Recruiters - Page 109

One Page or More: How Long Should Your Resume Be?

To go over a page, or no to go over a page? That is the question. Well, the truth is, it depends. My general rule of thumb is that if you find yourself with 1/3 of a page or less on the second page of your resume, try to make it all fit on one page by searching for and eliminating "fluff" words, extra spacing, etc. If you have more than 1/3 of a page and all of it is important content about...

The 3 Keys to Finding a Satisfying Job

If you're in search of a better work environment, there are a few factors you need to keep in mind during your hunt. First, begin with your personal values. For example, if you are someone who values the ability to work creatively and independently, you'll want to ask your interviewer about how the company promotes (or doesn't promote) those values. But personal values are only the start....

Hiring Slowly? Try Hiring Well

There's a common mantra in the business world: "Hire slow; fire fast." The phrase is so catchy because it's basically common sense: take your time to make the right decision, and if you realize you're wrong, you should cut your losses -- quickly! Well, I agree with the latter part of the mantra. If you have someone who isn't the right fit and you haven't been able to help them assimilate to...

Why We Need to Take the 'Review' Out of 'Performance Reviews'

As you've likely heard by now, performance reviews are broken. In large part, that's because performance reviews aren't really designed with employees in mind. They're really only good for one thing: deciding to fire someone who hasn't met expectations. A lot of thought leaders have held forth on how we can fix performance reviews. Often, the suggested solution is to "have them more often."...

The Top 25 Cities for Medical Sales Professionals [Infographic]

Whether you've already established yourself in the medical sales field or you're looking for a new career opportunity altogether, the latest infographic from MedReps.com can help. Considering factors like job-to-candidate ratios, the number of open positions, average pay levels, and cost of living, MedReps.com surveyed the country and found the top 25 cities for medical sales...

6 Ways to Decrease Your Hiring Costs

The hiring process can be expensive. There's the actual recruiting, the interviewing, the offer, onboarding, training, and more -- and all of it costs money. Moreover, if you have a key position that stays open for months as you search for the right candidate, you may incur additional expenses in the form of lost productivity. The hiring process is expensive, but it's not like employers can...

Everyone Is Replaceable — But a Great Team Isn't

Out of context, Rodolfo Saccoman's assertion that "everyone is replaceable" sounds like the coldest expression of cutthroat corporate politics. But Saccoman, a winning Shark Tank contestant and the founder of AdMobilize, is no arrogant tyrant. In fact, he includes himself on his list of "replaceable people"; he really does mean everyone. "I tell my team, 'Look, I am replaceable,'" Saccoman...

The Top 4 Soft Skills That Candidates Need Right Now

When we speak about skills shortages, we're often focused on the hard, industry-specific sorts of technical skills. However, soft skills are also crucial for employee success in today's day and age. This newfound appreciation for the value of soft skills is reflected in many studies, including one from Adecco, which found that 44 percent of senior executive respondents believe that Americans...

The Real Reason You Should Hire Millennial Talent

According to the Pew Research Center, there are more than 75 million millennials in the U.S. today -- and employers are apparently disgusted with every single one of them. Born between 1980 and 1999, millennials are often pigeonholed by employers as unreliable, entitled, and untested. Their multiple tattoos and selfie-cluttered social media accounts seem to reveal a narcissism and self-obsession...

Today Is the Day to Update Your Resume

A recent survey from LinkedIn found that 45 percent of people quit their jobs because they didn't have room to grow. Other reasons people cited for leaving their jobs included: - poor leadership (41 percent); - looking for a better work culture and more challenging work (36 percent); - and the desire for better pay at work (34 percent). The most intriguing aspect of this survey is...

Not a Techie? You Can Still Find the Right Tech Talent for Your Company [Infographic]

Finding the right talent for any job is hard enough for recruiters, but you have to find a highly skilled tech employee when you yourself don't have a tech background, the recruiting process can get even harder. The latest infographic from IT recruitment agency Modis looks at exactly this scenario: how does a non-techie recruiter go about finding the right tech talent when they don't have as...

Get the Most Out of Your Time in School: 8 Tips for College Students

Welcome to Recruiter Q&A, where we pose employment-related questions to the experts and share their answers! Have a question you'd like to ask? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in the next installment of Recruiter Q&A! This Week's Question: There has been a lot of controversy in recent times regarding whether or not college is truly preparing students for the...

How to Move Beyond Annual Reviews

Annual reviews are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. A crop of the world's largest and most well-known companies, including Accenture, Microsoft, GE, Deloitte, Gap, and Adobe, have recently done away with annual performance reviews and rankings. It is estimated that 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies and 12 percent of Fortune 100 companies are ditching annual reviews and rankings -- up from...

Looking for Work-Life Balance? Here Are the Top Jobs for You [Infographic]

According to a recent publication straight from the White House, nine out of 10 Americans don't feel their jobs allow them the flexibility to cater to their families. These employees also feel that, if their employers were to allow them more flexibility in their jobs, they would perform better at work. Unless you are that lucky one in 10 who does feel they have enough flexibility, you, too,...

The NLRB Just Changed the Standard for Joint Employer Relationships; How Does This Impact Staffing Agencies?

In August, a divided (3-2) National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) handed down a decision that fundamentally changes the employee-employer relationship for staffing agency employees, independent contractors, and their clients. In the case of Browning-Ferris Industries of California, the NLRB dramatically expanded the joint-employer standard. What does this mean for staffing agencies and their...

How a Change in Lighting Can Make You More Productive at Work

You may not realize it, but color temperature plays a huge role in how we work. It's in our DNA to perform better in certain types of lighting, which is why the light in our office environments can have a huge impact on our productivity in the workplace. Color temperature, to put it simply, is a way of describing the characteristics of light. When we talk about "warm" or "cool" lighting,...

Does Your Startup Have the Right Software to Really Kick Butt? [Infographic]

Can a startup succeed in 2015 without the right software tools? Probably not, to be honest. Given that the average employee checks email about 50 times a day, you'll need a solid email client. You'll probably need an instant messaging program, too, because most employees use instant messaging 77 times a day. And what about managing sales leads? You can either ask your employees to juggle...

The Importance of Continually Updating Your Resume

Have you ever stumbled upon a job opportunity too great to pass up, only to find out that you needed to apply for it yesterday? I often have clients scrambling to get their resumes done within extremely short timelines thanks to this exact situation. It isn't too much of a problem if you simply need to add a few skills and a bit of work experience, but when your resume is completely outdated,...

Don't Leave Networking Up to Employees — Your Business Can Network, Too

"It's all about who you know." It may be the most shopworn piece of career and life advice of all time, but there's good reason why this little aphorism gets tossed around so frequently and with such confidence. If you want to succeed in life in any capacity, you need to make the right connections. See, for example, the fact that roughly 80 percent of jobs are landed through...

Networking on the Square: How the Right Accessory Can Help You Be a Better Networker

I'm always looking to add to my bag of networking tricks. I'm not a shy person, but networking does't come easy to me, especially at larger events. I'm an introvert; I've never been comfortable in crowds, and the bigger the crowd, the more uncomfortable I become. I admire people with the guts and grace to work a room without offending or alienating everyone in their wake, but have long since...

5 Ways to Get Your Reluctant Boss on Board With New HR Tech

You're ready to try some new HR tech, but your boss isn't listening. Every time you bring it up, they brush it off, tell you they'll "think about it," or flat out shut you down. Low-quality leadership is an industry-wide problem that's stunting the growth of recruiting and HR departments around the world. A recent survey of 1,000 employees conducted by Approved Index found that the...

12 Ways to Make Sure Your Resume Gets Seen

As a job seeker, your resume is often your best and only chance at getting your foot in the door with your dream employer. Sure, social recruiting is on the rise, and a lot of recruiters are spending more and more time surfing social media platforms for top-tier talent, but we all know that the resume is still king. Unless your resume warrants a second look, an employer is likely to pass right...

Be Your Own Brand Ambassador: How to Use Social Media Wisely on the Job Hunt

Your words are no longer your own -- especially if you tweet them, post them on Facebook, or share them on Tumblr -- and you must be especially aware of this fact if you are actively seeking employment. Today's employers have the means and the motivation to search the Internet for as much information about you as they can. The old excuse of, "It's my personal account," is no longer a valid...

4 Tips for Becoming a Better Team Player

Do you work well with others? Do you prioritize team success over your own? There is a reason these are common interview questions: all employers want employees who are team players. No one can achieve greatness completely on their own, and most companies are looking for employees who know this to be true. The best candidates are those who can highlight their own successes as well as...

5 Methods to Help Interviewers See Through Candidates' 'Smokescreens'

According to CareerBuilder, most companies -- 69 percent -- will experience a bad hire at least once a year. Bad hires are not totally avoidable, partly because no interviewing technique is 100 percent reliable. Furthermore, today's candidates have spent a lot of time fine-tuning their interview skills. They've learned how to conceal their shortcomings through agreeable "smokescreens" that make...

5 Easy Tips for Finding Your Perfect Mentor

While many people decide to wing it and learn the hard way when building their businesses, you should trust me when I say having a mentor in the form of somebody much more experienced and knowledgeable than you can drastically increase your likelihood of success. Having a mentor is good -- but having the right mentor is incredible. When you're putting together a list of successful people...

On the Cutting Edge: The 'Entrepreneurial' Recruiting Style of American Express

Ed. Note: I'm not typically moved to write about the hiring processes of specific companies, but American Express is different. Surprisingly enough, this 165-year-old company has positioned itself on the cutting edge of recruiting. As a result, even the youngest, hippest startups can learn a thing or two by reading about how AmEx does things. Take this story not as an endorsement of or...

Proactive Recruiting: You Can Either Find the Best People Now, or Pay for a Bad Hire Later

When hiring new employees, are you proactive or reactive? That is, are you out there actively seeking well-qualified candidates that fit the culture of your company? Or do you wait until somebody quits, retires, or gets fired and then post an opening on a job board and hope for the best? It seems to me that most of the clients I work with today fall into the "reactive" category. I don't see...

4 Ways to Combat Negative Office Gossip

Research tells us that 9 out of 10 workplace conversations are gossip-related -- and, astoundingly, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Evidence suggests that gossip can play a positive role in the workplace. For example, Crelos found that show that office gossip is the fourth most common way that organizations gather feedback from workers. That being said, not all gossip is good. A...

Professional Development Anywhere, Anytime: 5 Sales Podcasts for Your Morning Commute

Chances are you currently spend your morning commute listening to music on the train or staring off into the distance while trying to avoid uncomfortable eye contact with your fellow commuters. Or maybe you drive to work, in which case you probably spend a lot of time angrily honking at that car in front of you who just merged across two lanes without a blinker. Whatever the case, it's...

3 Key Qualities Successful CEOs Possess

While it may sound fancy, being a CEO is not easy. As the leader of your company, you're expected to satisfy the needs and expectations of employees, customers, investors, communities, and more. To boot, you're often solely responsible for moving the company forward and propelling growth and success. Talk about pressure! As an entrepreneur myself, I know that it takes a lot of hard work,...

8 Ways to Overcome Friction Between You and Your Boss

Welcome to Recruiter QA, where we pose employment-related questions to the experts and share their answers! Have a question you'd like to ask? Leave it in the comments, and you might just see it in the next installment of Recruiter QA! Today's Question: They say people don't quit their jobs -- they quit their bosses. But is that the only solution when there's friction...

How to Take Calculated Business Risks to Advance Your Career

Some people find it energizing to take risks, but for others, the very thought of uncertainty can provoke serious panic. Our relationships with risk can play important roles in our careers. If, for example, a risk-averse executive ends up working in an industry that requires risk, that can be a recipe for career and personal disaster. That's why it makes sense for us to understand our own...

Are Recruiters and Execs Out of Sync?

When it comes to hiring, recruiters tend to favor passive candidates -- but you already knew that. Recruiters often spend a lot of time developing their networks and enhancing their companies' employer brands to attract the best passive candidates, but new data suggests that this approach may be out of step with what company executives believe about the recruiting process. According to...

Developing an Effective Employer Value Proposition, Part 3: The Challenges of EVPs

Author and global vice president of strategy and advisory at Universum Richard Mosley knows a lot about employer brand management. In fact, he's written two bestselling books on the subject. Over the past few weeks, Mosley has shared parts one and two of his three-part series on employer value propositions (EVPs). Today, we bring you the final installment, which includes the last...

7 Practical Ways Gamification Can Help Your Business

Given that more than two-thirds of U.S. employees are disengaged, engagement initiatives remain high on most corporate agendas. While there is nothing particularly new about this engagement problem -- it's been around and unsolved for quite a while now -- one thing has changed: the tools available to combat disengagement. The arrival of new motivational technologies -- especially...

The One Thing That Will Make Resume-Writing 88 Percent Easier

Raise your hand if you've put off updating your resume for months. Nod your head if you use the word "hate" to describe the resume-writing process. Turns out, you're not alone. Resume-writing is difficult for a number of reasons, but one common complaint is that it's tough to write about yourself. Most of us are uncomfortable bragging, and most of us aren't sure how to view ourselves...

Hiring the Right Employees for Every Phase of Your Startup

Hiring the right employees is crucial to your startup's success. My company, UpCounsel, would not be where it is today if not for the unconventional, passionate, and extremely hard-working team that comes into the office each morning ready to further grow and expand this company. I'm very lucky to have such a persevering and intelligent group beside me, but "luck" was nowhere near the driving...

Do You Offer an Award-Winning Candidate Experience? These 10 Companies Do

Looking for a surefire way to fend off top talent? Want to make sure great candidates totally stop applying to your company? All you have to do is deliver an awful interview experience. According to a 2013 survey from CareerBuilder, 42 percent of job seekers would "never seek employment at company again" if the company's candidate experience is dissatisfactory. A further 22 percent would...

4 Creative Ways to Find and Engage With Job Candidates

As a recruiter, your job will challenge you to think creatively when it comes to finding candidates, especially discreet job seekers who don't spend their days lurking on the Internet. The job boards may well be helpful for finding active candidates, but there is just so much information to sift through (on both the recruiters' and candidates' sides) that whittling the options down to only the...

5 Traits to Look for When Hiring Remote Workers

Over the course of a recruiter's career, they'll hire countless office workers. When it comes time to hire a remote worker, many recruiters might assume it's okay to use the same guiding principles and practices -- but that's not the case. When considering candidates for remote positions, recruiters have to look out for certain soft skills that traditional office workers may not necessarily...

Reverse Cultural Fit? How to Find a Company With Values That Match Your Own

Tom Borgerding, CEO of college-marketing agency Campus Media Group and creator and founder of college-recruiting database Mytasca, was recently speaking with a college student who was baffled by her experiences working with a well-known company. The student told Borgerding she was confused. This was supposed to be a great company to work for. Its reputation and employer brand are both...

7 Great Ways to Invest Your HR Budget in 2016, Part 2

In the first part of this article, we noted that HR departments can spend their budgets for 2016 in any number of ways. While the variety of options is largely a blessing, it's also a curse: the overwhelming number of choices can be downright crippling, leading to analysis-paralysis, inaction, and bad decision-making. Yesterday, I brought you four winning HR strategies to bet your HR...

Is Your Talent Brand Losing You Candidates?

Are you having difficulty recruiting in the job market for open positions? Does your pool of talent know you exist -- or worse, do the very candidates you want look down on your company? The culprit could be a poor talent brand. A "talent brand" is the messaging that current and former employees share about your business, as compared to an "employer brand," which is driven by the company...

Thinking About Launching a New Business? Read These 7 Books First

You have what you believe to be a brilliant, unique idea for a product that has the potential to revolutionize the marketplace. While you are confident in your innovative concept, you are also debating whether or not to take the next step and launch your business. What if you quit your job and spend all your hard-earned money on a startup just to watch the business fail? Given that 50...

7 Great Ways to Invest Your HR Budget in 2016, Part 1

As we enter the last quarter of the year, many of us are beginning to think about strategy, planning, and budgeting for 2016. At this moment, recruiters and talent management professionals should be reflecting on the successes and failures of the past year, thinking about new, improved approaches for the next year that could yield better results. There are plenty of tactics and strategies...

The Single Most Underrated Career Skill Ever Is ...

... PowerPoint. I'm not kidding! (It is a strange one, isn't it?) You probably thought it was going to something like "initiative" or "creative thinking" or "interpersonal skills," didn't you? Let me explain. I'm using "PowerPoint" as a kind of shorthand. I am not really talking about how to bullet a list or bold a word. I'm talking about something a little more. What Are...

Are Your Recruiters Making These 3 Major Mistakes?

The best practices for the hiring processes in general have changed dramatically over the past few years. The failure to acknowledge the evolving job market and adapt to the demands of today's job seekers can lead to missed opportunities -- and lost revenue. Here are three recruiting mistakes that may stand between your business and the best and the brightest job applicants. 1. Lack of...