Boston Technical Recruiter

Article Title: Two Networking Conversation Starters
Author Byline: Kevin Donlin
Author Website: CollegeRecruiter

Hey, job seekers: Raise your hand if you love networking.

I thought so.

And why don’t you get a thrill out of talking to friends and family about your job search?

For many folks, it’s a problem of how to start. There’s really no way to ask, “Know anyone who’s hiring?” without feeling awkward.

To fix that, here are two ways to open your next networking conversation that are proven to produce job leads — and won’t make you feel self-conscious …

Use Me as an Excuse to Call

Over the past year, I’ve quietly been perfecting a short networking script at my Guerrilla Job Search seminars.

In every case, at least one person in the room gets a job lead — in less than 5 minutes.

Here’s the four-part script that people are using to start networking conversations by phone, with explanatory notes in parentheses:

1. “Hi, this is YOUR NAME! I’m at a training session and they told me to call the most-connected person I know. That’s you!”

(This gets you over the hump right away, by giving you an excuse to call. Here, that excuse is me — just say that somebody else told you to call.)

2. “I’m looking for a position as a JOB TITLE at a company like COMPANY #1, COMPANY #2, or COMPANY #3.”

(You have to think first, about what JOB you want and 3 COMPANIES you most want to work for.)

3. “Who would you call if you were in my shoes?”

(You’re asking someone to take ownership of your problem, by putting their ego aside and thinking as if they were you. Simple psychology that’s very powerful.)

4. “Could I have their name and number?”

(Write it down. Hang up. Call that new person and drop the name of the person you called first.)

For best results, use this script to call the most-connected person you know — the one person who seems to know almost everybody.

Here are three examples of how this has worked in my seminars:

1. Ellen in Minneapolis, MN, got a networking lead at the chamber of commerce after calling a friend.

2. Greg in Fargo, ND, got a lead on a pharmaceutical sales job by calling a friend.

3. Pete in Chanhassen, MN, got the name of an HR rep by calling a colleague he had fallen out of touch with.

2) Use an Object as a Conversation Starter

Chris Russell, founder of JobRadio.fm, warns that a false sense of pride can hurt your job search, recalling a friend who struggled mightily to get hired. “He would never tell people that he was out of work, even his former co-workers. I guess he was embarrassed.”

Russell points out that, when it comes to your job search, you should look for any excuse to start a conversation.

One such excuse may be the “Laid Off, Need a Job” wristband.

Described as an “attention getting conversation starter” by its makers, the wristband retails for $3 and comes in bright yellow, with the message, “I Need A Job.”

The idea is, you put wear the wristband each day, people see it, ask about your job search, and — shazam! Instant networking conversation. More information is at www.LaidOffNeedAJob.com.

Two other tactics I’ve seen are renting a billboard (pricey) and wearing a T-shirt with your resume on it (no verifiable successes).

Now. How else could you get attention and start networking conversations?

Here’s an idea: Stick a magnetic sign on the side of your car.

For less than $95, Kinko’s can create one for you. Your sign’s message could be on two lines, like this:

Need Accounting Help?
HireShellyNow.com

Nobody wants to hire, but almost every business needs help, so don’t use “Hire me!” or “U-M Grad Will Work Cheap” as your headline.

The format I would follow is: “Need YOUR SKILL Help? CONTACT INFO.”

Test several ideas on cardboard mockup signs and drive them past people, to see if they can read your contact info at 25 or 40 miles an hour.

(Note: I practice what I preach — look for my black SUV around the Twin Cities with a magnetic sign on the side that says, “Got Work? My New Job Hunt .com”)

Do these conversation-starting ideas make you feel uncomfortable? Good!

Because, if you’ve been comfortable thus far in your job search, and you’re still unemployed, it may be time to leave your comfort zone and try something new.

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.

Techruiter Career Advice, Career Development

Article Title: What is Your Post College Job Search Plan?
Author Byline: CareerAlley
Author Website: CareerAlley

If you’ve not done so already, you need to come up with your Job Search plan. If you are a College Senior, you should have this in place already (and be active in your search). If you have not yet made a plan, why not start now? Previous posts on this site cover the major points of a plan (two of which are):

• College Seniors, are you Organized for you Job Search?
• Winter Break - Do You Have a Job Search Plan Yet?

Today’s College related links follow below.

• AfterCollege - “Find the Job you want” is this site’s tag line. The site has a very clean interface on it’s main page and suggests a very simple approach: Find your school, join your network, Access exclusive jobs/events OR quickly search over 200,000 jobs (sounds like a lot to me). From the main page you can set-up an account and profile, find your school, search for jobs (with very flexible search parameters), or do a quick search. The page lists featured career networks, featured employers and “browse popular jobs”. A quick search returned over 100,000 jobs, 93 intern jobs and 136 co-op jobs.
• JobDoggy - An interesting name (not sure how it ties to site’s focus), the site’s tag line is “Part-time jobs for teens, college students, and high school students”. The main page offers job search, job articles, “how it works” and an FAQ. The resources section is split between College Students and High School Students/Teens with job search, part-time jobs and seasonal jobs. Clicking on these links provides a wide range of additional resources.
• SummerJobs - It may sound a bit early for Summer jobs, but it’s not. Absent Intern positions, a summer job looks good on your resume (employers will ask what you did with your summers). The site has featured employers and a quick search function on the main page (there were over 500 jobs when I checked). You can register on the site and have access to additional tools. The jobs range from camp counselors to cartooning instructors. Take a look.
• Crossroads - This is The Association for Computing Machinery, Inc’s student magazine. The main page offers a vast listing of company links to Co-op and Intern programs (too many to list here). There is also a careers page which offers additional resources.

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.

Techruiter Career Development Add new tag, boston career, boston job candidate, boston labor law, boston recruiter, boston resume help, boston staffing

RSO or Resume Search Optimization is a technique that dictates “keyword” placement throughout the resume that increases your chances of being seen by robotic search engines and consequently by recruiters.

Every single large company and many small companies are using application tracking systems (ATS) that use complicated algorithms to search and sort the right resumes. If your resume is not properly optimized there is a chance that your resume will never be found or read. You will never get a callback.

Traditional resume writers who do not know about RSO will tell you to write a one page resume plus a cover letter and cripple your ability to be found by modern recruiters.

I’ve been a technical recruiter and a RSO practitioner for the last 5 years. Let me take a look at your resume and give you some suggestions.

Techruiter Career Advice, Career Development Applicant Tracking System, boston career, boston job candidate, Boston job search, boston recruiter, boston resume help, boston staffing, boston staffing agency, good resume writing, job search strategies, LinkedIn job search, Massachusetts unemployment, New York Business Analyst, resume tips tricks, techncial recruiter

Article Title: Who’s Hiring in Marketing & Advertising?
Author Byline: CareerAlley
Author Website: CareerAlley

Not to leave any one industry or profession out, I thought I would continue on the “Who’s Hiring” theme and cover Marketing and Advertising today. As with most career choices, they tend to be industry specific and not always easily transferable. You sometimes need to cast a wide net and cover all angles to be successful in finding your next opportunity. For that reason, I’ll try to cover a cross section of Marketing opportunities from various sources.

• Onlinemarketingjobs.com - The tag line for the site is “Job Site For Online Marketing Jobs & Careers”. The site covers a broad range of jobs and careers (which is listed on the main page). The upper left-hand side of the main page has links for Job Search, Register, Jobs by email (alerts), Audio Interviews and a list of who’s hiring. Featured jobs are listed on the main page with a quick search function as well. This is a global site, so you will need to set your country. Clicking on “A-Z Who’s Hiring” revels a list of companies that are hiring.
• Fristoe & Carleton - Fristoe & Carleton is a search and recruiting firm that specializes in Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations recruiting. Their main page lists new opportunities and has links to Job Opportunities, FAQ’S, Resources and more. Clicking on “Job Opportunities” leads to a page that allows submitting your resume, job opportunities and career alerts. There were 16 featured jobs on their site when I checked. There is also a helpful link to “Working with Recruiters” and “About Us” provides Bios for some of the firm’s staff.
• Indeed.com - Leveraging Indeed.com’s advanced job search and entering “Marketing” and “Advertising” in the field “with at least one of these words” (click here for this search) yields over 239,000 jobs. Limiting that to employers only (should filter out recruiters but is not perfect), still yields over 200,000 jobs and further limiting that to Dallas yields over 4,900 jobs. The point is, you can leverage the advanced search functions of some of the job boards to focus your search to the the opportunities that suit you.
• Mediajobmarket.com - “The market place for media professionals” is the site’s tag line. The main page hiring trends with media news on the left-hand side of the page. The center of the page has “mediajobvine” which lists current and featured jobs. Top of the page has tabs for Search Jobs, Post Your Resume, Career Resource Center and more.

As with all industries and careers, don’t forget trade publications and associations. For today’s topic, a short list of publications: Adweek, Mediaweek, Brandweek, Editor & Publisher and Billboard.

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.

Techruiter Career Development boston career, boston job candidate, boston recruiter, boston resume help

Whether you prefer MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, or a myriad of other social networking media, it is your responsibility to nurture these networks. Every social network is like a directory of who is who. This is particularly true with LinkedIn.

There are several schools of thought on how social networks should be grown:

1.       The first states that you should only connect to people you know.

2.       The second holds that you should connect to people you know and to those who are looking for new connections.

3.       The third theory of social networking holds that you should reach out to as many people as you can. (be careful here since LinkedIn has some evil policies against friendliness)

I follow the third theory of social networking because I am truly interested in connecting to as many people as possible and in growing my social network as large as I can imagine. Some people are not comfortable connecting to those they do not know and by this discomfort lose out on vast opportunities.

Social networks are created for one purpose: to be social. It’s almost obvious but many people try to use them as personal contact organizers. This is not the best way to use many social networks.

Now for the Social Networking Jobs Strategies:

1.       Grow your Network!

2.       Develop your profile

3.       Get endorsed

4.       Grow your Network!

5.       Use your favorite social network to research hiring managers at your target companies

6.       Call those managers directly and connect with them before you send your resume to HR or to the job posting.

7.       Grow your Network!

For strategies on how to grow and utilize your social network to get that elusive job please call me at 1-800-791-7794.

Techruiter Career Advice, Career Development boston recruiter, boston resume help, boston staffing agency, boston technical jobs, LinkedIn job search, social networking jobs

If I were searching for a job for myself, I would not send my resume to HR and wait for a phone call, I would go through my social network contacts and call every manager who I thought might be hiring recruiters. If they did not need a recruiter, I might offer them third party staffing services.

Some people view this as improper networking etiquette, but if I need a job, I couldn’t care less about propriety.  Directly connecting with the manager can put you right at the top of the pile of resumes and since you are not an agency that needs a vendors list approval from HR, all you have to do is sell yourself to the manager, meet him for lunch or something. It is sales 101 and most people have no idea how to go about it. It’s also a numbers game. The more you sell, the more likely someone will buy.

Most “career coaches” will tell you to follow up with HR, but I take it a step farther and tell you to seek out the hiring manager. HR has a reputation for being a quagmire for resumes and to give them credit they get thousands of resumes. In addition to that, not all corporate recruiters understand what the hiring managers are searching for. By calling direct you take the uncertainty right out of the equation.

Finally, most recruiters don’t care if you are about to lose your house in a foreclosure. The only person who will take care of you is interestingly enough, YOU! This is why you have to take matters into your hands and sell, sell, sell!

For strategies on how to approach your job search please call me at 1-800-791-7794.

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Follow up with your recruiter if you use an agency or with the HR of the company you submit your resume to. Recruiters are busy people and cannot always get back to you in a timely manner. Take the guess work out of it and call them yourself.

If you or someone you know needs help feel free to call me toll free at 1-800-791-7794 for a brief consult.

Techruiter Career Advice, Career Development, Unemployment boston recruiter, boston resume help, boston staffing

The more relevant keywords you have the easier it will be for a recruiter both in an agency and in a company to find your resume. This works with search engine index programs.

If you or someone you know needs help feel free to call me toll free at 1-800-791-7794 for a brief consult.

Techruiter Career Advice, Career Development

There is an ongoing debate among recruiters about the virtues and short fallings of various groups of candidates know as passive and active.

For the uninitiated job seeker an active candidate is you. Active candidates are actively trying to find a job, posting their resumes on job boards, apply for positions, talking to recruiters, and doing everything generally associated with a normal job search.

Passive candidates on the other hand are candidates who are not searching for a job, or at least not actively. Some recruiters would define a passive candidate as someone you cannot find without cold calling into a company and spending hours going through the voicemail system picking out names.
The debate frames active candidates as unhappy, unwanted employees and passive candidates as happy and better. Another factor is that passive candidates are often represented by fewer recruiters and are therefore safer in terms of accepting offers.

In a faltering economy, this distinction becomes moot because no one knows when the axe will fall. If you are not somehow plugged into the internet and are not on the lookout for potential opportunities you are in danger of getting blindsided by a pink slip.

You could be the happiest passive candidate, but you will become an active candidate the instant the layoff is announced. Why wait?

Make sure you are social networking on sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace. Sign up for recruiting discussion groups. Post your resume on major job boards such as Monster, CareerBuilder, and Dice confidentially if you wish.

Don’t let the shock of a pink slip give you whip lash.

Techruiter Career Advice, Career Development, IT Staffing, Musings

Article Title: The Duel – Facebook vs. LinkedIN
Author Byline: Phil Rosenberg, President, reCareered
Author Website: reCareered.com

Which is better for your job search, Facebook or LinkedIN?

The case for LinkedIN:

Strengths:
- LinkedIN allows you to build a massive network, and allows you to limited contact with any other user directly through its InMail feature
- You see 3 degrees of separation
- LinkedIN has a widget that allows you to superimpose your network over Monster and CareerBuilder ads – so you can reach line managers and bypass HR.
- LinkedIN has a similar widget to superimpose mini profiles over Outlook emails
- The LinkedIN Answers is a great way to find your audience, and participate in discussions

Weaknesses:
- It’s tough to broadcast messages to groups in LinkedIN, or to make messages viral
- Yahoo groups are stronger and more functional than LinkedIN groups
- LinkedIN is built to acquire a network, more than for communicating with a network
- Communication with LinkedIN contacts are best done through good old email, after initial LinkedIN introduction
- LinkedIN doesn’t coordinate well with blogs, nor have customizable apps…but we are told these are coming soon

The case for FaceBook:

Strengths:
- FaceBook is built for better communication within FaceBook. It’s easy to stay in contact with your network without jumping to outside email apps
- On Facebook, you can directly email anyone, even if you aren’t connected to them
- FaceBook has thousands of customizable apps, allowing recommendations, 2nd degree of separation, CRM like features, business cards
- FaceBook has customizable control to allow (or block) access to your information by group or individual (so you can block all your job search information from people within your company)
- FaceBook has viral messaging features, which is great for spreading the word
- FaceBook is excellent in blog integration, photo sharing and tagging, video sharing, and groups. Facebook integrates well with Flickr & YouTube
- 68 million members and growing…fast. It’s 3x the size of LinkedIN

Weaknesses:
- FaceBook is over-sensitive to spam, to the point of being ridiculous. If you template introductions, your account gets flagged at about 10 intro emails per a day. However, if you send friend requests without a note, it’s not considered spam. Go figure…
- FaceBook recommendations, questions/answers are still weak, due to low adoption rates
- FaceBook still has a social atmosphere, which means you’ll have friends that send cutsey messages to all of their friends…3 times a day. But you can block this feature
- FaceBook really only gives you 1 level of separation, you can get to a second level with heavy lifting through a FaceBook app
- Others can send you pictures, or add pics to your photo album. This means you have to regularly manage your online reputation, especially your public profile and photo album.

Common to Both:
- Both LinkedIN & Facebook have solid job boards
- Both have a status feature that lets you broadcast one-line status texts, like a built in Twittr
- Both have voice integration with Skype and Jaxtr
- Both are great for catching up with old classmates, or co-workers from past lives.
- Both have introduction features
- Neither has an easy integration of multiple social networks, phone or email lists, or contact management. Everything has to be exported and manipulated in Outlook, so it’s very limited, time consuming, & tricky

Summary:
Both are winners, and a winning strategy is to use both, because they each have their strengths in helping you build your network and subject matter expertise. I invite my contacts to both LinkedIN (http://www.linkedin.com/in/philrosenberg) and Facebook (http://profile.to/philrosenberg/) … feel free to invite me to your networks on both.

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.reCareered@gmail.com, and we’ll schedule a time to talk.

Trackback: http://tinyurl.com/TheDuel

Phil Rosenberg
President, reCareered
Email: phil.reCareered @ gmail.com
Blog: http://reCareered.blogspot.com

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.

Techruiter Career Advice, Career Development, General Recruiting Advice, IT Staffing, boston Networking group