Here is a Q&A Response Chris Wellington responded to from LinkedIn about finding international job openings.

QUESTION:

How can I find and get an international job?

ANSWER:

Many US and International brands are hiring for international positions, we (The Wellington Group) have just completed a recent non-US hire and are currently working two additional searches which will not be based in the US. Here are some quick tips to try adding to your international job search.

1. Go to Google.com and set up an alert for the job title(s), geography, companies, etc that you would want to work for, ensure you have “job” or “jobs” in your search alert. You can set up the frequency of alerts notices, I would suggest once per day so you can use that hour each day to check all your alerts, i.e. calendar and manage your job search just as if you were in a job. Google will allow you both to set up multiple alerts and to adjust or edit them until you are seeing the desired results.
2. Set-up Indeed.com or other job aggregators which will pull from the internet to your email every morning new job listings across the web, but specific to the details you add. You can set-up multiple alerts to target specific companies, job titles, key words or geography.
3. If you are targeting certain companies, go to their job page and set an RSS feed to come in daily with any changes
4. For specific countries,  use the mainstream search engine to create daily alerts of combined key words as Google and other search engines may not be optimized or fully functioning in that country
5. Finally, I would look back to LinkedIn and go into the groups and sub-groups of your niche skill set and background. There you will find both paid job positing and “job discussions” to filter through and connect directly most times with the person who posted the job.

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. 

by Chris Wellington “The Recruiting Guy”, President, The Wellington Group

Chris   

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

by Chris Wellington “The Recruiting Guy”, President, The Wellington Group

This is in response to a LinkedIn Q&A answer I gave to the question, “What’s the best way to auto-distribute jobs content on a limited basis using Twitter? Not too much, not a firehose, just select ones?” I also presented similar information to #recruitcamp on “Should Recruiters Be Twittering?” in which I talked about the same theme, using this open-platform tool to generate your job openings across the internet. Many Recruiters and HR professionals are leveraging these tools more and more as the way we post jobs, find top talent and interact with the internet has continued to evolve with the ever changing World of Work.

I have tried many options in this space (twitter-land) and still continue to experiment, but by far the best gizmo I have found is a tool called Hootsuite. I would go for the $9.99 per month pro-plan to be able to both manage when and how often your tweets go out as well as the analytics or metrics on this ROI for your time and employment branding. Hootsuite is great as you can upgrade to add other team members so the content and messaging are all coming from one “brand” or Twitter handle, Facebook Fan page, LinkedIn profile, etc. The other nice option is that you can have it go to all your social media accounts with one step, on a timed or calendared schedule then review the analytics to see the click through results! Hootsuite has also upgraded to add in LinkedIn groups with your messaging blasts, direct to those “open” groups so less time on all social platforms and a better shot at a mass dispersing of your job opening. The site for this is www.hootsuite.com. You can use it on a smart phone, i-pad, tablet, or any computer as Hootsuite is browser based when not utilized in app-mode.

The second option is to see if your current ATS or HRIS system has a social media blast tool. Some good example of this are BullhornReach and Top Echelon’s BigBiller with the Job Javelin add-on. While Bullhorn is still working through the advancement of the core tool’s code to bring it up to (modern) speed, the BullhornReach program is great! Best of all is that you do not have to be a Bullhorn client to use the tool (this may have changed since I gave this response). What is nice with BullhornReach is that you can again load all social media accounts then choose the frequency, but not the exact timing, of sending that job out to selected profiles. The tool also hits the job aggregates (where the true gold in recruitment is right now) such as Indeed.com and SimplyHired. **Keep in mind this is a for profit company, the tool is Bullhorn owned and they do collect data from people who click through, some OFCCP or EEOC potential issues possibly. I have had applicants tell me Bullhorn has sent them follow-up messages after registering with the site/tool.

The other options are Tweetdeck which I have referenced many times before, and some newer tweeter feeders most trying to build a service and not mainstream just yet. Tweetdeck has added a timing component to the tool, still not as robust as Hootsuite and a major memory hog on your computer. Tweetdeck is more of a social media and content monitoring tool than a message management tool, but I still like the tool and the ability to group and follow lists. For this it is the best social media monitoring tool out right now in my opinion, but not my top choice for job post dispersing.

I did not mention in my response, but Monster and other jobs boards are seeing, and feeling, a major shift from their platforms to social media and are scurrying to develop “me-too” plug-ins to their services. “BeKnown” seems to work ok, but is more geared to Facebook vs twitter and the others, even with their apps, just are not at the same operational and effectiveness level as the tools named above. Could we see a Monster or CareerBuilder buying Hootsuite? Probably not, but it would make for an awesome business solution and put some major distance to the competition!

Links:

• http://www.hootsuite.com
• http://www.bullhornreach.com
• http://www.tweetdeck.com

Good luck with using Twitter for pushing out your job openings!

Chris    @therecruitinguy

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

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.

OK job seekers…this one is for you! Here is a quick tip to help you stop some bad habits we are seeing in the World of Work or avoid them and put yourself ahead of the competition when it comes to applying to a job either with a professional recruiter, staffing company and even the Human Resources department.

Here is the scenario…

Jane sets out this weekend to apply to all the jobs that she has been finding on-line or through some sort of job alert strategy she has in place. She amasses all the individual email addresses and even the “apply to” or “hr@” and attaches her resume, ready to send. Jane hits send, with all 50+ contacts copied, CCed. See, she has put some very valuable time into perfecting her resume or has perhaps hired a professional to write her resume. So she is very proud of it and is sure that when all these people see Jane’s email, her week will be full of calls. Right?

Wrong! Here is the problem. While she did all the right actions to find a new job; set up alerts, targeted her niche and areas she wants to work, gathered contact email information or apply to email address, etc. She did not put in the extra effort to send an individual email to each contact or job opportunity. Instead, she mass emailed the entire group, hoping it would be seen.

Unfortunately when you do this, the recruiter seeing it hits delete as they feel you are just reaching out for anything OR that you applied to competing recruiters, the hiring company, etc. The ATS system, HRIS tool or even Outlook on the receiver’s end sees this as spam and tucks it away into a neat little folder or completely abandons the email message into the black hole of the internet. Jane’s resume is never really looked at by anyone, and she never does actually “apply to” a job for it won’t go through the system with this approach. Ouch right? Below are some tricks to avoid this from happening.

How should you send out your resume?

1. Send to one contact, recruiter or job opportunity at a time
2. Take the time to make sure your resume summary, bio or intro talks to the job and company you are applying
3. In your email, write a brief summary of why you for that job; skills, experience, education, etc. Bullet point out the critical areas is most ideal
4. Select the “read receipt” option before you send, at the least you know if someone did view your resume
5. Follow-up with a call within 24 hours to ensure your resume was able to be seen, many times it may get bumped out of the tool, dumped into spam, over-looked, or even deleted without review

Take the few extra minutes and put some thought and time into each resume you send out or job you apply to, put yourself ahead of the competing job seekers. After all, you have done this much work and a couple minutes more here and there to better your chances can’t hurt.

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 at info@twgrecruiters.com  or visit The Career Store.

Are you consistently showing up as the person everyone expects? Or, are you Chris, Kris, Christopher, “The C Man,” etc as your mood, personality, professionalism and even attire change based on how you are feeling that day?

When you walk in the office door each morning, pick up the phone to call clients or peers, are you doing so in your own character OR in the character that your environment or current emotions have allowed you to be at that moment?

If you are in a management position or “the boss” can your staff count on you to be consistently you with very little deviation, OR is there a Scout or Forward Observation Post in place so they can all secretly inform each other of the either impending danger or gleeful cheer of the person, YOU, they will have to face that day? Do your internal and external clients feel the same way? Do they perhaps screen your calls to gauge the person calling them, and then MAY call you back based on the message and tone?

Now that I have you thinking, “How am I showing up?” I will elaborate and explain on why this is so important for your career and in the World of Work. For my entire readership, network and those just stopping by…this personal character trait transcends all Careers; from Corporate Executive, the Military, Healthcare Professionals, Sales, Administrative Assistants, Small Business Owners, Assembly Line Workers and Consultants. You see we all have a personal value of what we are worth to ourselves and in the eyes and minds of those we work for and with each day. This value is not just based on a tangible list of skills, how many acronyms are after your name or where you attended school. Your value goes well beyond this measurable set of “workplace criteria” to items like; team player, nice person, ethics, a smile, compassion for those around you and the commitment you bring to the job each and every day!

Many people I help coach on their career transition fail to stop and conduct a self evaluation on their personal value in the work place. Most people are all too quick to blurt out where they have worked or what they have done and overlook the cultural and interpersonal aspects of their accomplishments. What types of culture do you thrive in, do you know? In the evolution of the World of Work we have gone through in recent years, companies have slowed their hiring decision and organizations in general have reevaluated their staff promotion criteria. No longer is it “what have you done lately,” it’s now also about, “who are you every day.” Sure we can blame this on the strong advent of social media, more people than jobs, and perhaps we can say it’s the darn new HR trend. NO! People value people who show up consistently and predictably every day.

So what do hiring managers, human resources, peers and the overall corporate community look for in you?

1. Personality = Can you in a name or describe your personality type? What do those close to you, management or staff, have to say about your personality? Don’t know…ask!
2. Appearance = Are you in jeans and inappropriate shirts one day and a suit the next? Are you consistently aware of the first impressions OR are you always in repair mode for the impression people have of you?
3. Reliability = Can management, peers, staff and clients count on you to get done what you say you are going to do?
4. Effort = Do you go the extra mile as often as you can? OR do you wait for that 5pm “Bell” and run for the car or a means home? 
5. Attitude = Different from personality and character, what attitude do you display each day? Can you maintain this in an emergency, with a client complaint, or days when your personal life is at an all time low?

As you move forward in your current job, a job search, management of staff, or working with clients, think about how you are showing up. Take some time to perform a self-evaluation, or go the next level and conduct a proactive 360 group evaluation with those around you in the work place. Then, take this invaluable data and apply it to be the person you want showing up every day. It will take some consistent effort and work, but the end result is worth walking the path!

In short, be the person you want others to see each and every day! It just might help you get that next job, promotion, new client or the respect from those in your network and work environment!

Go be you, but be consistently you each and every day.

Good Luck!

Chris

To hire The Recruiting Guy as a speaker or trainer visit The Recruiting Guy or to retain The Wellington Group for your staff search needs contact us at info@thewellington-group.com.