This is a line we either hear every day or we ask each other jokingly here at The Wellington Group. See we get this question from various clients we are calling or those who reach out to us for help with their talent search needs. We also seem to be asking this a lot of both other recruiters and VARIOUS vendors that want us to lock into some over-priced contract to attain more “resume traffic flow.”

So, Human Resources and company Hiring Managers or Executives ask all the time now, “Do you really have candidates?” This is for good reason, in two parts. The first, they have exhausted their own candidate pool and resume flow or the flip side is happening and they are just too overwhelmed to go through all the applicants! The second part to this question involves all the countless one-time callers from various recruitment firms, staffing companies, mom and pops firms, or recruiting professionals who see their needs and are looking for new clients. Well why then would they (HR and Hiring Managers) continually ask this question if they need the help? Easy, too many recruiters who call and say, “We have the people for this job,” and a few days later…nothing, nada, zilpo, zilch. Not in their niche, did not truly have the candidates or was the sales person for the recruiting company and they are now trying to sell the recruitment team on this new client…crazy!

“Mr. Wellington, this is Jack from ABC Recruitmentpros, Inc and we have people to meet your needs…” Calls I get, or my staff does, daily from another firm or from those in our recruiting networks who seem to have people…not really. Again, what we get is either NOTHING or they send us people who have a few keywords and no true sound interview details as the recruiter/firms has not honestly read the job description off our website. “Jack, we don’t need a 30 year career Scientist for a Jr level Chemist job.” Extreme example, perhaps but nonetheless it’s true. Just looking to move some paper and not truly looking for that ideal career match for their candidate.

Finally it’s the vendors we get massive calls from, or in my consulting I hear about all the time from clients. Yes the product or service sounds great, but is it? What can they guarantee? What, no guarantees in the job board, job posting, job anything space…nope! You get a contract and service, can’t find what you need here (like I said you would in my sales pitch) then on to my next potential client while you burn up valuable time using our tool in hopes to find some, any relevant talent.

So what can you learn from this…it depends? What side of the desk or phone are you sitting on? If you are on the HR or hiring side, ask for references from current clients, search their site to see if they really have other similar candidates or current talent searches (no matter what vendor), heck even look at their LinkedIn profile for details about their recruitment expertise. But, what you should be doing is negotiating a way out, if in a short amount of time the service or tool is not performing. If in fact you are making that call into a client, good. Just ensure the database, network or tool you are trying to push is what the client needs and wants. Are you in their niche? How many similar clients has your firm / tool serviced? What is the count of those types of people in your database, tool or network? Will your recruiters truly engage and help your new client find this person?

It floors me that clients will ask many of these questions of our firm or expect us to layout why a person is an exact fit with painstaking detail but turn around and take anyone on who “may” have a solution but “has” no clue to these answers. Maybe I can just start saying, “I don’t know.” Not a chance. Do your homework and make sure your call into HR, a Hiring Manager or a fellow recruiter is advantageous and not a time waster. After all, time has become even more precious in the changing World of Work as we are all doing a lot more with a lot less.

Do you really have candidates? Great, well let’s get them to work and get this economy moving!

Chris

To hire The Recruiting Guy as a speaker or trainer visit The Recruiting Guy or contact The Wellington Group @ info@thewellington-group.com. 

“optimistic (people) are more likely to create their own luck”

This was a great quote I read in a #BNET article yesterday, and yes it had me up all night thinking, “What if all job seekers behaved this way?” Now before you take major offense, stop and think about your attitude and approach to finding a new job. You don’t have to be a displaced worker. No, all job seekers from Executive level to college grads fall into my post. Most people I connect with, literally dozens on a daily basis, for the most part don’t allow for much work, optimism and even fun in their job search. Many people tend to put in little effort and have an unrealistic expectation that “HR” or a “Headhunter” will just pick their resume out of a sea of paper/emails/HRIS profiles and, wah-lah I am hired.

The problem with this false expectation is that people don’t realize just how many OTHER people are looking for a new job or looking to change jobs, so any great employment brand or true recruiting professional is inundated with 100’s (if not thousands) of applicants each day. To that end, those who are bitter or show less than pleasant attitudes, lazy in their application or follow-up, or allow their inner emotions to control their outer attitude to the people coordinating the effort on their behalf, well you get to see the delete key.

Yes I said it; selection is at an all time high!

So how do you navigate this challenge? First start by preparing mentally, that finding a job is real work. You have to develop and execute a strategy; the right tools, a plan for using those tools, network, network, network and follow-up to show you are different from the 300 others who sent a mass LinkedIn message or email (see my previous post on “Don’t Send Your Resume to 50 Recruiters at a Time!”).

As you work through this challenge, be overly optimistic, positive and even contagious with those whom you interact. The receptionist where you dropped off your resume or met as you went in to interview, the recruiter who you have talked with three times about the job (if they are any good), peers that you network with and all the new people you meet while you are on this journey. Put in your mind each morning that you will show a smile and have a great attitude and follow-up, even if not selected for the job. Heck, many times the first person who is selected does not take the offer…are you number two in line?

Also prepare yourself each day on the amount of time and energy you will invest on your job search. I highly caution you not to make it sporadic or from the hip. Calendar out the times each day you will look at your job search agents, alerts, job boards, the people you are following on LinkedIn or the Ladders. See what is new and relevant to your background, move on from those opportunities that are not! Have a well developed and written resume, one which you can tweak to the job you are applying for and speaks to you being a fit for this need.

OK, enough of my rant for the day. After all, I may just get you on the line 3 times as we work through your next career opportunity! But as we do, expect for me to put some work back on your plate to ensure we are making the right match. For as my grandmother would say if I took too long of a break from chopping wood in Alaska, “It’s not going to get done by itself honeyboy, you have to get off your toosh and put some effort into it.”

Good luck in your job search, but take the time to do it right!

Chris

For questions or help on this and many other ideas on how to make your career search more effective contact the staff at The Wellington Group @ info@twgrecruiters.com  or visit The Career Store.

When did granny start “text speak?” I mean come-on, my mother using a cell phone to do more than tell my father she is on the way home and what’s for dinner or a true emergency situation was a big stretch, but not anymore. Now if she can’t read my blog post, see me respond to “Facepage” as she calls it or is not Skype-ing one of my three kidos to check on them, we are in trouble. Serious, granny is not LOLing when she needs to get a hold of one of the four of us, she needs to do it now!

OK mom, grandma(s), sis, cousins, family all over the world and friends…and of course the job seekers and fellow recruiters or HR professionals. The world has changed, and with that, the World of Work has dramatically changed, and continues its evolution at a daily rate! My I-Phone asks to update apps every day, just when I am getting to the mastery level of most of them.

One quick indicator of this is the recent Pew Research Center’s study on, “Americans and their gadgets.” Yes, 85% of Americans now own a cell phone…85%. How many actually own or have home telephone service anymore? I think a more amazing fact is that more people have a cell phone than a computer, 85% to 76%. Why not? With all the new smart phones out there you can get to the web and “Facepage” without having extra baggage!

So what does this mean for recruiters and HR professionals? Great question and if you are asking it now then you are falling behind the times. For instance, many of my clients text me quick notes now, interview updates or if they have a new staff need. They can get my twitter feed right from The Wellington Group main page, and for my international clients, they can just click on the blue phone number and Skype me from any device or computer in the world. Some will even do “face-time” live just to hear my Southern-Alaskan accent. Candidates can get SMS tweeted job alerts, various tips on resume writing, job hunting secrets, etc all by way of text or through numerous smart phone apps and social media we feed into now.

Many of the latest tools, and even some of the tried and true technology, have adapted. I have people on yahoo IM which is now embedded into my ATS and Outlook so I can text or SMS to their profile just as if I am on yahoo all the time. And if we need to send out an urgent job alert to specific people in a niche or say at the CEO level (yes, they ALL have these apps on their smart phones)…one, two, three and see who calls me back! And don’t get me started on our VoIP office system…its “sick.” In fact we have yet to unlock all the capabilities this technology has to help us to get the right people, for the right job in a very efficient and short amount of time. That is recruiting!

So what are you doing to ensure your job search is also leveraging technology to get you to the right recruiter fast? Recruiters, what are you using now to help you uncover that hidden gem of talent by alerting niche groups of your latest staff opening or even temp recruitment need (wow major possibilities coming in a later blog on the impact to the temp world).

OK, so mom is texting as is John to confirm his interview so I need to hit the I-Phone, plus Ray has figured out how us single parents can order a great meal with a few touches to the screen…way cool! Stay tuned for more tips on leveraging technology in the ever changing World of Work.

Make it an excellent day!

Chris

**Note, we will not catch my father even answering his cell phone, when grandpa starts OMGing, then we are all in REAL trouble!

To retain The Wellington Group on your current talent needs, contact us at info@twgrecruiters.com or +1 910-338-2795. You can visit us on the web at www.twgrecruiters.com.

“Chris, this is the 15^th email this week along with 22 from last week, multiple LinkedIn messages, 12 voicemails, mailed in my resume…and by the way I applied to all the open jobs on your website…”

Ok that might be extreme but I hope you get the jest, either you are showing signs of being desperate for a job or have no other resources to help in your job search. Either way, don’t become one of “those people” as many individuals don’t have the same patience in Human Resources or Recruiting and Hiring Manager rarely follow EEOC or OFCCP guidelines or employment law so they just throw you away per-se.

Now I am not advocating for just sending your resume and not following up nor the “spray and pray” method of sending out resume to every job on a prayer that it gets looked at. Direct contact to a recruiter or HR is great, providing they 1. Are accessible  2. Want to truly hear from job seekers. That’s right, many “don’t have time” unless you are the ideal match which is one of my pet-peeves to lazy HR or Recruiters in my PROFESSION! But you still can gently nudge them for some feedback.

The best way to approach applying for a job is as follows:

1. Only send your customized resume to jobs you are qualified for or have a strong interested in DON’T apply to all jobs a company has open
2. Select a read receipt option if sending via email so you know if it is opened and reviewed
3. If sending to a “black hole” HR tool or even ATS, put in the job code in your subject line. Review my previous blog “Job Seekers – Put That Job Code in Your Subject Line”
4. Look for other resources. For instance at The Wellington Group I am a Senior Partner to a much larger group of recruiters giving you access to thousands of open jobs and other recruiters. You can check it out here, and let me know if you see something of interest so we can work it the right way!
5. Leave one or two voicemails and one follow-up email per week. We recruiters and HR get busy sure, so follow-up is great but excess not so much!

While the competition is tougher these days or companies are hiring slower, don’t become one of “those people” but rather have a strategy in your job search. If needed, seek out other resources to find that right job or additional opportunities. You want to make a strong impression, not an annoying one.

Good luck with your job search!

Chris

For questions or help on this and many other ideas on how to make your career search more effective contact the staff at The Wellington Group @ info@twgrecruiters.com  or visit The Career Store.

Do you want to increase the chances of your resume and cover note making it to desk of that elusive recruiter or hiring manager? Every wonder why job postings have a funky job code either in the title or somewhere on the job posting / listing? And what does it really take to navigate the so called “black hole” of databases so many Corporations, HR Departments and Recruiters are using?

These are all great questions but unless you have worked within an HR Department or a Recruitment Firm in the past you probably know very little about the true inner-workings and why job codes are utilized so extensively in the current job market. For this blog post, I am going to cover job codes and systems from the job seeker’s perspective and how to best navigate this technology while searching for your next career opportunity.

Let me start with a quick summary of “why the job code any way.” Job codes are used when a company of any sort is working with either an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or a Human Resources Information System (HRIS). Sometimes these can be one in the same, but most likely they are not. In major corporations, the HRIS system can also be a small functioning part of the overall ERP system, such as SAP, SAGE, IQMS and hundreds of others you may be familiar with. These tools have been developed not to deter would-be employees or job applicants, but rather to better assist the recruiter, HR personnel and hiring manager on the receiving end in becoming more effective and efficient in their hiring practices.

In a nutshell, job codes allow for your resume to go straight into the exact job “bucket” within the ATS or HRIS system and to the attention of all parties involved. If your resume is just sent into the system with no job code or job identifier, well it is lost forever in the black hole we so often hear about. Let me repeat that, no job code on your application or response, no one will see your resume and you just sit idle in a sea of thousands of other applicants through the years. It’s a sad fact, but most corporations and recruiters do a very poor (if any) job of sourcing back through their own database throughout the lifecycle of a job opening. Your precious resume, that invaluable tool you invested so much time and money into if done right, is just lost data.

So what’s the trick when you see a job code and you are applying to the position? Here is the million dollar (or perhaps at least getting an interview answer)…PUT THE JOB CODE IN YOUR SUBJECT LINE WHEN APPLYING. Now systems are not fail-proof after all they are just linked tools using computer code to best capture and “parse” your information. So the more you can aid this process and help eliminate the bugs, the more you help yourself in achieving that next job. Below is an example of a how our firm, The Wellington Group, leverages the use of technology to both comply with OFCCP regulations and to ensure your resume is seen by everyone on the team working a new search.

A Craig’s List job posting has a link to our website or an email address you can apply to, CMC Manager – Regulatory Affairs. At the end of the job title you see BHJOB3594_271. This is our unique Bullhorn job code and allows you, the job seeker, to apply right to the job and be seen by Heather, Lisa and myself as a candidate interested in this opportunity. But, if you fail to use this job code when applying, we have to search back through Bullhorn each day to see key words or review every miscellaneous resume and then forward them to the appropriate job.

When you apply for a job within a system say like Taleo (you will know, look at the internet navigation bar and I am willing to bet in that line of html tag there is the word Taleo, Kenexa, Bullhorn or others) the system automatically pushes your resume to that particular job. But don’t stop there! If it allows for you to put in a subject header or free-text then make sure that job code number is listed in your response. Again, errors are frequent within these tools so the more you leverage the technology’s hierarchy of code the more you increase the chances of being seen. Below is an example of this situation.

A new Becton Dickenson (BD) job posting through indeed.com takes me to, WW Vice President, BDDS Infectious Disease Regulatory Affairs. Immediately upon clicking on this link you can see that it now has a job code at the end, REG0002D. You will also notice that although it looks like you are still on the BD site, you really are on the customize Taleo site, look closely and you will see “Powered by Taleo” on the page! Since you can apply through this system to that job AND put in additional text you can follow these tips to ensure your resume gets into this job “bucket.”

In addition to aiding the recruiter or hiring corporation, job codes can be a great clue for the job seeker. Having a job code is a true gauge about the professionalism, resources and overall investment a company has made into its recruiting and hiring practices. You see the smaller organization or the less professional or ill-equipped recruitment firm / independent recruiter generally will not have a system in place at all. Perhaps they are managing through their outlook folders or a gmail/aol account, but most certainly they are not completely complying with current OFCCP and EEOC recruitment regulations, makes you wonder? How are they tacking and managing your information and the job opening, by sheer memory?

One immediate question I will get from this post is, “will applying to only one job with a single job code eliminate me from other openings at the same company?” The answer, in true fashion, is it depends. Since most companies do a poor job of leveraging their own database and spend more time seeking people outside of it than mining the prized data they already have, I say go ahead and apply to that next job using these same techniques. This action will at least give you piece of mind that your resume is in the job “bucket” for the additional position(s). Most systems have become so intuitive that as long as your contact information and the name on your resume are the same, it will not duplicate your data in the system but rather add another note indicating your interest in multiple opportunities.

In review, job codes are not a hindrance to the job seekers but rather a great tool for the hiring authority or recruiters to notice your information ahead of the competing job applicants. In many cases, you must comply to the system requirements and apply using the job code to be considered an applicant per new OFCCP and EEOC regulations. To best leverage the technology behind this process, you should always have the job code as the subject line in your email application to the job or when applying through a job board or a corporate system (Taleo as an example) you should re-reference the job you are applying to with free-text and the job code repeated. This is but one small tip that can have a major impact on the “where-abouts” of your resume in a company’s ATS or HRIS system.

Good luck in your job search!

Chris

To hire The Recruiting Guy as a speaker or trainer visit The Recruiting Guy or contact The Wellington Group @ info@thewellington-group.com. 

…ring, ring

Me:  This is Chris

Jeff:  Chris, this is Jeff Smith, man how are you?  I need your help!

Jeff Smith is calling and needs my help?  I immediately get into my normal excited state knowing that something great is coming.  Either he needs to hire a new team member or perhaps has a client that can utilize the support of my team for their hiring needs or recruitment training.

For years Jeff was consistently a top competitor when we worked together at the same company, relentlessly trying to outperform each other in a very positive but “A” player sort of way. Not just making the President’s list but getting the shiniest trophy and most time with the CEO and other Sr Managers.

Me:  Jeff how can I help you? What is going on with the greatest global sales manager I know?

Jeff:  Nothing good, I was just released (from Fortune 225 Company) last week…

Wow, not the call I expected from Jeff. How will they manage the millions in revenues he has brought in over the years?

…Pop, pop, pop CK is sending me instant messages.

Me:  Hey CK, what’s up, how hot is your desk right now?

CK:  Not so great, I need your help.

Me:  Can you give me 5 and I will call you, where are you in the US today?

CK:  At home, not sure I can talk right now.

Ok, if CK is IMing me and needs my help then we must get ready to put a new staff member on her team or she has a project she needs us to help recruit on which they have sold. After all, she is 300% above budget for the year and the last hire we made produced revenues in her second week! CK is the top GM for her niche and is great about not only hiring, training and managing her people but also the strongest operations manager I know.

Me:  Ok, must be swamped how can I help?

CK :  Need a job, and a few minutes tonight to help me walk through where I might have gone  wrong

Me: Job? Did you quit lol

CK:  No Sir, they cut my entire staff 30 minutes ago, including me and replaced us with a support team from home office

If you have not clued in yet, the two examples above are “A” players in their industries and have been released from their respected (well not by them any longer) companies. See, I am writing to bust a myth I keep hearing and reading about from various periodicals, organizations and “people in the know;” Talent Management, SHRM, NAPS, SalesDrivers, News Paper Writers and Editors, Employment Gurus, Trainers, and Business Coaches. The myth which seems to persist is that “A” players don’t or are not being cut nor impacted by the current economic conditions. WRONG!

Ridiculous I say, spend a week on my phone or in my email and I can show you hundreds of “A” Players who have been impacted over the last 20+ months now, and it continues. For definition, an “A” Player is someone at that top 3-10% level in any company, any skill set and in any industry. Some are only known internally in large-mega organizations while others are known internationally or industry wide. It has long been a myth, and more so true with the current economic conditions, these people just don’t get released, laid-off, downsized, or whatever your terminology is for them losing their job while still being at the top.

So why do the top 10% of any job category get impacted?
Too expensive – Top 10% performers generally receive compensation rates commensurate to the level of their performance. One way companies perceive they can impact the bottom line and make true reactionary decisions is to cut the most expensive people and replace them with technology, jr-level home office support or in some cases they do nothing with the expectation that it will not negatively impact the company’s revues or client retention.

Marginalized business – Many companies and some industries operate on such low margins that any blimp on the economic cycle creates major cash-flow and credit issues, so the top just have to go and more jr people or senior management get handed business or jobs the “A” players worked so hard to attain.

Poorly supported region or geography – Lack in upper management leadership or true “out of site out of mind” support for a region that may be profitable but not large enough or unknown to senior management is likely to get the axe.

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) – As we have seen in all industries, the consolidation has created duplicate roles or left individuals and their projects totally unsupported or not needed as the new company has a different vision and/or resources.

Person was miss-hire to begin with – Some of these cases are truly a miss-hire and the company was overly ambitious or sometimes exceedingly lucky to gain the addition of an “A” player in their industry. The company has just not been able to keep pace with this individual and in many cases their production has lead to cash flow, product production or servicing issues for smaller companies

Why this blog piece? I thought it was important to highlight the reality behind the unemployment numbers as we continue to hover around >10% in the US. These 8 million or more impacted are not all the bottom performers of our workforce, nor just hourly, nor retail or manufacturing, nor in outdated industries. In fact, many were high-earners for their employers that for some reason or another their organization just could not “afford” to keep that individual onboard. So I caution, before over-looking the unemployed take a minute to truly study this individual’s background and track-record. After all, unemployed is not, and should not be a four letter word when hiring for top talent!

UPDATE: Jeff went on to take one of three offers, running the West coast Division of another fortune company. CK is managing a new company that has a unique service offering, adapted to the changed economy we now love.

Chris

To hire The Recruiting Guy as a speaker or trainer visit The Recruiting Guy or contact The Wellington Group @ info@thewellington-group.com.

“ABC Recruiters company has just added Dr. James E Worthing Jr. as Managing Director of the company’s X niche recruitment focus…Dr Worthing has spent the last 35 years of his career in senior management with a number of well-known companies…”

Being so involved in all aspects of the recruitment or executive search business, I see headlines, email blasts (spam), self made PR pieces, tweets, etc all with a very similar theme. Someone with a great career in another industry making the jump now into recruiting based solely on the credentials they have on their own resume. I am not saying this is good or bad as I myself have focused 7-8 years of education on the FDA regulated product development niche. What I will attempt to do in this blog segment is help educate you the consumer (hiring company or job seeker) on what to look for when you see this information or someone selling their past career and not their current results.

Let’s start with the obvious. How can someone who knows NOTHING about the recruiting, executive search, or the staffing industry all the sudden be an ideal “Managing Partner, Principal, or General Manager of XYZ division?” That is like saying, “we have a new Partner in our law firm with a chemicals background, he never went to law school but he has managed a chemicals plant.” What? Can this new figure-head, who has never gone through the training nor put in the time to become a professional recruiter, suddenly lead a team of people through a true talent search process?

At this point I am going to get, “Chris, they have been a senior manager before and have hired people.” That is great, it means they have been handed pre-screened resumes or the application of someone who works in another area of the company and went through a predetermined interview process, WITH ALL THE RESOURCES OR WORK DONE FOR THEM. What they lack is the 2-6 months of training before being put on your most critical staff need or taking and helping to structure your resume and bio to represent you at their client. You see, just being a manager and having to hire in the past does not anoint them as a true, professional headhunter. It goes to the old belief that if we hire a PhD in Chemistry every Chemical Company will want to work with us, ignoring the fact that we may not have a database, network nor the experience as a firm in that niche.

I have had a lot of experience in my career dealing with this very same challenge in adding staff or growing a company. Do you hire experienced recruiters to meet either your internal needs or as headhunters to meet the need of your clients? Or, do you hire someone from their industry and hope they can pick-up the recruitment piece? 9 out of 10 times the second scenario does not work out in the long run. Short term it seems great. They have a lot of connections, make a number of calls, etc, etc, etc. But, that call list grows short very quickly, more so when the past companies they have worked for are large fortune or global in nature. Take IBM for instance. Hiring an ex-IBM executive was a major trend a number of years ago with both the Manpower’s and Korn Ferry’s of the industry. The trend we thought, was if the individual has been there in the past they can call back in and WHAM we have business or we’ll have an immediate candidate base. Well, that was not the case. People, more so Sr Management, worked in very specific groups, had limited networks and employee access, and did not want to start at the bottom and work their way back into a new career (which is truly what this situation is). The same goes for ex/current legislators, judges and even HR Directors.

Here are a few questions to ask when a firm is trying to sell you on the non-recruiting credentials of this new figure-head:

1. What training have you had on the latest recruiting technologies and techniques
2. What is your firms on-boarding and training program
3. How many similar clients and staff searches do you have under your belt
4. Name some of the tools and resources you might use to fill our need
5. Do you have an HR or Recruiting Certification (to ensure they don’t get you into a hot mess by asking illegal questions on your behalf)
6. Who is on your team doing the actual research, sourcing and headhunting work
7. What is your recruitment process

At the end of the day, the headhunter or recruitment firm is representing you, your company or your brand. Be cautious on who you select with this invaluable possession – for it is not enough to have the working knowledge of your industry – the person or firm must also have the training, technology and recruitment process expertise to make them a true extension of your recruitment resources.

Chris

^{To hire The Recruiting Guy as a speaker or trainer visit The Recruiting Guy or contact The Wellington Group @ info@thewellington-group.com.}

Now, yes now is the time to get proactive for the upswing in the economy and the coming job market. As we headhunters know, companies are hiring again and new positions are being approved daily. And this is not just a US based movement but an international lift to the global World of Work.

Great news right? Yes, but with so many people either out a of job, in a temporary or “quick fix” job or looking to change jobs you better be ready for the competition! One of the best ways to get noticed quickly on the web in our current technological times is with an internet resume. What the heck is that?

An internet resume is quite simply a way for perspective employers and professional recruiters to find you quickly and easily on-line. More than just a LinkedIn or Twitter account, having a true-to-form resume existing on the internet, outside the mainstream jobs boards, can help you get noticed instantly and more efficiently. Without getting too technical or giving away all my trade secrets, it’s like typing in your name, experience and a company you have worked for and WHAM the internet delivers your resume right to my computer screen.

Some great examples of internet resume building and hosting resources are Google Resume, Visual CV, Resume-Builder and getmyonlinecv.com. For a little more time and investment into your future you can build your own custom site like my friend Scott Corwin has done. As I mentioned above, your internet resume should be outside a pay-to-play job board or niche network and more public so you can be found. Thus, Google, Yahoo, and personal URLs are great places to build, house and control your internet resume.

Need help developing that perfect resume, no problem as the internet has you covered. Many sites and services like CVTIPS and iProfile exist with ideas on formatting and keyword building to help make your internet resume even more attractive to current technology. Or, you can always visit us at The Career Store to receive expert advice from Linda Gutin and others on the team.

So get busy and get your resume online. How else am I supposed to find you for that next great career opportunity? Good luck. 

Chris

For questions or help on this and many other ideas on how to make your career search more effective visit The Career Store or contact The Wellington Group @ info@thewellington-group.com.

Recruiting and Technology: Session 3

There was a recent discussion on ERE and LinkedIn about what a “modern” applicant tracking software (ATS) tool should include and the ROI for your business. Many of my consulting clients in the staffing or executive search business ask my opinion on, or are seeking, a new tool as the current tool they have is not being used or does not have the latest bells and whistles. Below is my response to this question, which has generated a lot of interest and discussion.

It seems people are looking to buy or enhance current ATS systems as technology continues to advance. I have done a lot of work with various ATS tools over the years through my exposure with sitting in technology positions / chairs within industry and HR associations. While I do have favorites and have gone as far as to be a SME and / or reference for 2-3 tools, I would say “it depends.” A true ATS tool used in the staffing / recruitment arena is very robust and not just a tracking and on-boarding tool utilized by HR. A true staffing / recruitment ATS tool not only tracks applicants, but is intuitive to the job order(s), client(s), and end user(s) for the candidate so one note in the system follows all points. The top tools on the market right now even go as far as to incorporate the following:

1. Web based
2. Integrated email which auto-tracks to all records
3. Third-party tool friendly (i.e. able to utilize some of the hot tools like Contact Capture and Diver)*
4. VoIP / Network phone integration for auto-dialing and call tracking
5. Can produce reports easily with NO extra costs
6. Integrates with your website
7. Email or at least sendouts tracking (are they being looked at, if so how often and by whom)
8. Applicant tracking back to the specific job (auto-parsing)

The reverse should be true as the ATS should also be able to act as the CRM tool for client management so recruiters are not trying to track down notes, a sales rep or looking through other systems to get valuable information about a client or manager. The best tools are based on a CRM platform where both the client and the candidate are treated as a potential lead and everything has a time stamped tracking (this way you can meet various employment standards and regulations by clients and the government). Bad tools make you work for it on the client side. Worse, bad tools require more tools to manage clients in say salesforce.com* or ACT.*

One should look through all the activity for your company to see just how robust of a tool you need and use this as the benchmark for making a decision. Far too many recruiters and firms jump into a tool based on costs or the friendly rep and it cost them 10 times to get out of it! If it is not easy and intuitive for the staff, it will not be used…hands down from experience!

Feel free to connect with me off-line and I can share what my top 5 ATS tools are…

*Contact Capture, Diver, salesforce.com and ACT are all trademarked products.

For assistance with your Job Search from Chris Wellington and others on the staff visit
The Career Store or Get in Touch.

Interesting post and news this week on Monster.com and Microsoft Office Online, “Four steps to your next job,” creating a new partnership to help the active job seeker. In the example they start to cite a specific individual’s pain and launch into this combined marketing program. A suggestion is made to utilize the Microsoft Office templates to help develop your resume. Now, unlike many of my peers or other resume writing service providers, I am not opposed to this and thus writing a negative post. Nope, I think it’s a great idea if you have no resume to work with and/or can’t afford or are unable to seek out help.

Living in “the land of resumes” as the electronic age has provided to HR and recruiters alike, I can tell you that a resume DOES make a difference in your job search. Having just the right ingredients, as Greg Miller has pointed out in previous posts, makes all the difference in the world. Too much and it’s usually overlook, not enough and it’s overlooked. I say equally important are the style, format and key selling points.

Take for example sales people which I work with on a daily basis as one of our key niche areas. When a client looks to our firm to help hire a true sales professional they are looking for a resume and candidate profile that speak sales. Duh say most of you. Duh is right but how come I still see what accumulates to the hiring manager or client as a non-professional? No stats or highlights on their successful sales career, recent accomplishments, numbers, ranking related to peers or their industry, deals won, and so forth. What happens is a lot of time spent with me or my team in creating a separate document or re-writing their resume to reflect these highlights that all VP of Sales or CEOs are looking for in true professionals!

As I wrote about in both ATS issues and resume formats, having a very complex format or even the new Office 07 .dox can be detrimental if the recruiter or hiring authority on the other end is not able to open it. That’s it, game over, done. Well not quite as if you get your career coaching from me, follow-up, follow-up, follow-up! Would you rather start with a tool which helps your job search or a template which might inhibit it?

In short, templates are a great tool and how I got my first job as a recruiter coming out of the military with no resume (boy that was a sad resume), but I strongly suggest seeking guidance in some fashion to help put you ahead of the pack. The best templates are those with simple and standard formatting. The templates I would stay away from have text boxes, rows, columns, etc.

Good luck in your career search!

Chris

For assistance with your resume from The Wellington Group staff visit The Career Store or Get in Touch.