BAD Personal Branding Case Study Recruiters Doing It Wrong

BAD Personal Branding Case Study Recruiters Doing It Wrong I shared two very cool examples of how to position yourself as a subject matter expert and/or thought leader with Thom Singer and Marty Val Hill. Heres something thats been on my mind for years.  About four years ago I was a relatively new blogger.  I wanted to network with other bloggers and thought that recruiters could be great evangelists for JibberJobber.  In general, that was a very bad assumption most recruiters were so busy with their job that they really didnt have much advice for job seekers. Anyway, I blogged alongside many recruiters.  Back then there werent many resume writers or career coaches that were blogging, so these were the closest I got to identifying my career-minded peers online. I didnt realize how problematic it was at the time but I saw it a few months later most recruiters were blogging to get this eachother! They were trying to establish relationships with one another (thats fine). They were trying to show one another who had what expertise.  They were talking to one another. I guess thats okay, with one major exception: These bloggers were not talking with/to candidates (the job seeker). And they were not talking with/to clients or potential clients (in other words, with companies who would hire them). It was like a lot of inbred messaging and frankly, probably a waste of everyones time. If I had a recruiter come to me today and ask what they should blog about I would tell them to write to their audience. Whos the audience? Not fellow recruiters. Maybe not candidates. Follow the money the audience has to include the client the company that writes the checks to the recruiter. What would the recruiter write about? Think about what Thom Singer is writing about, in the case study I did a couple of days ago write to your audience! Who is your audience?  I cant answer that for you (I can coach you through figuring it out).  But you need to define your audience and then figure out what messages are relevant to them. Not to you to them. Make sense? BAD Personal Branding Case Study Recruiters Doing It Wrong I shared two very cool examples of how to position yourself as a subject matter expert and/or thought leader with Thom Singer and Marty Val Hill. Heres something thats been on my mind for years.  About four years ago I was a relatively new blogger.  I wanted to network with other bloggers and thought that recruiters could be great evangelists for JibberJobber.  In general, that was a very bad assumption most recruiters were so busy with their job that they really didnt have much advice for job seekers. Anyway, I blogged alongside many recruiters.  Back then there werent many resume writers or career coaches that were blogging, so these were the closest I got to identifying my career-minded peers online. I didnt realize how problematic it was at the time but I saw it a few months later most recruiters were blogging to get this eachother! They were trying to establish relationships with one another (thats fine). They were trying to show one another who had what expertise.  They were talking to one another. I guess thats okay, with one major exception: These bloggers were not talking with/to candidates (the job seeker). And they were not talking with/to clients or potential clients (in other words, with companies who would hire them). It was like a lot of inbred messaging and frankly, probably a waste of everyones time. If I had a recruiter come to me today and ask what they should blog about I would tell them to write to their audience. Whos the audience? Not fellow recruiters. Maybe not candidates. Follow the money the audience has to include the client the company that writes the checks to the recruiter. What would the recruiter write about? Think about what Thom Singer is writing about, in the case study I did a couple of days ago write to your audience! Who is your audience?  I cant answer that for you (I can coach you through figuring it out).  But you need to define your audience and then figure out what messages are relevant to them. Not to you to them. Make sense?

Girly Getaways for Summer 2015!

Girly Getaways for Summer 2015! So ladies! Have you given much thought as to where you’d like to spend your next holiday? More importantly, who would you like to go with and what will you be doing? You see, in an ideal world we could pick and choose the destination and simply be able to have all of our favourite activities laid on as and when we desired. But back in the real world, planning your break well in advance seems to be the best alternative. A little research and a few well sourced recommendations are usually all you need to experience a holiday to remember. This year, instead of the typical beach and hotel break, why not try something a little fresh instead? Here we have 3 excellent tips that all add up to a girly getaway you will never forget, for all the right reasons! Spa Time Who doesn’t love the idea of spending some serious quality time at a luxury spa? So how about basing your entire break around this invigorating back drop? We ladies work our socks off all year around so let’s kick back for a week or even longer and look into the best Spa breaks available  for the year ahead. A typical health retreat is all about the pampering and holistic development. If you’d like to learn more about yoga, Pilates and a whole host of other health centric activities, remember to use these search terms when selecting your spa break. Even a spa weekend will be enough to make you feel like a brand new woman and once you return to the daily grind of life, your colleagues will want to know all about the new you and how you managed the transformation! Language Exchange Think that education is a little boring? Well you couldn’t be further from the truth! They say that French is the language of love and how about some spicy Spanish lingua to add a little passion to your life? Language exchange holidays are now more popular than ever and when you look a little closer at these tailored holidays, it isn’t hard to see why that is. Simply look online for language exchange communities and you will soon be inundated with potential options. The bonus here is that your language exchange buddy will be just as keen to learn your own language and would love the chance to visit you in your own environment. Glamping Love outdoors but hate the idea of slumming it on a grubby campsite? Why not look into glamping as a very cool alternative? This cross between camping and living it up has really taken off in recent times and what better way to indulge yourself whilst lapping up some of Mother Nature’s finest? Indeed, since glamping became a thing in the UK almost a decade ago, interest there has exploded. You can now stay anywhere from a pod, yurt, or bell tent to a tipi, treehouse, or shephert hut! Find your own luxury camping hideaway in the UK at www.glamping-holidays.co.uk, or closer to home here in the US, try glampinghub.com. We’ve discussed three less than obvious alternative holidays here ladies, so why not pick the one that floats your boat and send us a postcard when you get there?

6 Ways Recruiters Can Stay Efficient (Even When Exhausted)

6 Ways Recruiters Can Stay Efficient (Even When Exhausted) Hiring targets and rising attrition rates are taking a toll on recruiters who are compelled to put in extra efforts and extra hours to identify, attract and hire qualified candidates. If you don’t want the quality of candidates to suffer as you continue to work without break, consider leveraging technology to your advantage. Recruitment has finally reached that tipping point where innovation has become the new norm and this is why recruiters are going social with their hiring strategy. But social media recruiting will only add value when integrated with technology. Here are 6 smart recruiting techniques to save time and stay productive even when your energy levels start descending: 1. Leveraging social media to target top talent Today the employment marketplace belongs to the candidate so if recruiters want to stay productive, adapting to the latest hiring trends is the key. While you incorporate social media into your recruiting strategy, ensure that you make the most of it with an applicant tracking system. ATS integrated social media recruiting boosts your efficiency by automating all your time-consuming tasks like posting jobs on different channels, making modifications, adding new job posts, screening relevant candidates, uploading all the resumes and converting every resume into a standard format for easy viewing. Imagine the amount of time you will and think where you would want to invest it! 2. Using the Facebook careers tab for expanding your recruitment reach An ATS comes with an in built Facebook Careers Tab that lets you share your openings with a massive user base. With an applicant tracking system, recruiters can publish every new opening on the company’s Facebook page automatically and socialize job feed to generate more referrals. 3. Saving time with website integration plugin An applicant tracking system syncs with all your social media channels making it fast and easy to update new openings. Every time your careers site is updated, all the openings on your connected social channels are updated automatically. This eliminates all the time and effort recruiters invest on posting vacancies manually and adding new ones as and when vacancies are generated. 4. Capitalizing on a centralized talent pool for improved collaboration A centralized talent pool is easy to follow, facilities instant sharing of candidate information across locations and makes it easy to collaborate with team members in real-time. This eliminates the need to create complicated spreadsheets, scrutinize emails back and forth, and make phone calls for verifying information. An ATS allows great control and flexibility while making the entire process faster and smoother 5. Using smart filter intelligence for faster screening An ATS efficiently overcomes the biggest hassle of social media recruiting â€" filtering the desired applicants from the influx of resumes you’ve received from multiple channels for different positions. What earlier took hours of your time will now be accomplished in minutes with a smart filter that uses keywords to scrutinize your relevant applicants. Whether you want to filter candidates by experience, location, designation or skill set, an ATS gives you accurate results instantly. 6. Tracking recruitment efforts using real-time reports You cannot manage what you don’t measure and so reporting forms an important aspect of every management function â€" whether it is hiring, sales, finance or marketing. Managing reports manually when you are already struggling to fill vacancies faster can increase the chances of errors and discrepancies. An ATS auto generates reports in real-time helping recruiters track their performance and improvise processes while keeping you prepared and informed â€" always. For more such hacks that can make your hiring process hassle-free, check out this interesting infographic  by Jobsoid that compares manual social media recruiting with an ATS integrated approach. Learn how you can make all your hiring efforts count and share it with your team â€" because only an updated, self-motivated team will help you achieve your hiring targets even in a tight market. About the author:  Kelly Barcelos is a progressive digital marketing manager specializing in HR and is responsible for leading Jobsoid’s content and social media team. When Kelly is not building campaigns, she is busy creating content and preparing PR topics.

News of the World When Organizational Culture Takes the Helm Marla Gottschalk

News of the World When Organizational Culture Takes the Helm Marla Gottschalk Its not often that a crystal clear lesson concerning corporate culture and organizational failure makes headlines worldwide. Certainly, we have come to understand how an organization can fail because of overall mismanagement, poor or untimely decisions or even the occasional leader mismatch. But it is a rare case when the sum of the parts, so to speak the culture itself has evolved into such a beast that it actually does the dirty work by itself. In the case of the UKs News of the World, it seems that the terminally ill corporate culture was indeed the culprit. Can a sick culture be cured? In a sense the culture of New of the World was so vile, that even the surrounding environment closed ranks and acted similar to that of a lone mutated cancer cell within the human body. This was a catastrophic failure of culture, not unlike an insidious mental illness left unchecked and untreated. Apparently the lack of regulation surrounding the British press was all the prodding required to bring about an organizational break with reality, decency and control. The question remains as to whether this organization could have been cured. Mr. Murdoch (its owner) decided that this was not to be for various reasons related to a much bigger picture. At the very least, we can surmise that the illness permeated to the quick of the organization and that transforming it into a healthy state was most likely impossible. For Mr. Murdoch, the damage to his reputation and his future business dealings, were being weighed in the balance. In a deluge of public disgust and disappearing advertisers, he pulled the plug on a 168 year old tabloid. More than a leadership issue: When the culture takes over Personally, I have always held the belief that the culture of the organization was determined by the people at the helm and could be saved by the helm as well. When asked as a young psychologist as to the quickest way to ignite a needed organizational culture change, I responded that it was to replace those at the top of the organization. But in a situation such as this, it appears that in the end, the culture operating as a rogue offender did the deed on its own. As time goes on, it is certain that more News of the World employees will be brought to justice for their role in the specific crimes committed against innocent individuals. But, in the case of the organizational culture gone bad, many of the associated crimes (disrupted careers, financial ramifications) will most likely remain unpunished. Dr. Marla Gottschalk is a Workplace Psychologist. You can also find her on Twitter and Linkedin.

Why your family should not dictate your career - Debut

Why your family should not dictate your career - Debut Had I followed every single wish that my parents wanted for me when I was studying my GCSE’s and A-Levels, there’s no way that I would be living in London and working in a creative role that I’m genuinely happy in. Fact. Don’t get me wrong, both my mum and dad have given me other invaluable advice throughout my life (my particular favourite is to ALWAYS buy an ‘emergency pizza’ on your food shop). However, when it came to educational and professional choices, I knew I had to go with my gut instinct and convince them that my decision was the right one. So, if you’re feeling the pressure from others to choose a path that you’re not comfortable with be it your university (or choice to not go at all), your subject choice, or your career here are a few things to help you gain some perspective. Listen to other opinions During my placement year, I spoke to a girl who was doing work experience with my company at the time. We chatted about university, and when I asked her what she wanted to study, she replied; “My parents want me to go to Oxbridge and study a science-based subject.” I replied firmly, “That’s not what I asked. What do you want to study at university?” Sure enough, I got a very different answer. She didn’t want to go to Oxbridge, and she didn’t want to study science. But she felt like she didn’t have a choice. Her institution was putting pressure on her to go an elite university, as were her parents. I did my best to instil some confidence in her, but I knew for a fact that her family and school would have far more sway. But what we should remember is that our parents are from another generation. The career market was very different when they first started working to what it is now, and there are a multitude of opportunities out there for young people from all subject backgrounds and institutions. Even if you dont want to go to university at all, apprenticeships and school-leaver jobs are still an alternative option. As for schools and colleges, many of them are concerned with their own reputation above your own happiness. It’s sad, but unfortunately true. Our advice? Go elsewhere for true insights. Look at articles, contact professionals/students and speak to someone with a different perspective. For example; you may wish to pursue writing, but those around you may dismiss this as ‘too risky’. Well, why not send an email or tweet to a professional writer? Ask how they broke into the industry, and get an opinion from someone whos actually been there and done it. Show, don’t tell It’s one thing saying that you want to do ‘something’, but physically demonstrating what that ‘something’ is can be far more powerful. For example; both my parents were hesitant about me going to university at all. I was the first in my generation, and the tuition fees had just recently been raised to the astronomical £9,000 a year (lucky me). But I managed to change their opinions when I took them on an open day with me. By seeing the bustling university campus and talking to the professors, my family began to understand why this was the right decision for me; I wanted my independence and the chance to open more doors for my career. And showing them something tangible finally seemed to demonstrate exactly what I was talking about. Now of course, we can’t all take our parents on a campus tour and say ‘job well done’. But there are other ways to get your point across besides just a conversation. If you want to perform, invite them along to a showcase and flaunt your talents. If your dream is to be an entrepreneur, create a portfolio of your ideas.   In short, show you’re committed. We can all dream about our ambitions, but not everyone follows through and backs it up with evidence. If you do that, it will show your confidence and enthusiasm for your chosen path. Future-proof realistically   I’m an advocate for taking risks. I chose Theatre and Performance as my subject because it was my passion, despite it being stereotyped as a ‘Mickey Mouse’ degree that won’t get you anywhere in life (thanks, Daily Mail). And frankly, my Dad had the same opinion. He’s an engineer, so he wanted me to study a STEM subject as it’s seen as a much more reliable choice. But I was determined to prove him wrong. So I made choices throughout university that helped my employability. I picked Leeds in the first place because they were one of the few institutions to offer placement years with every subject. I chose that particular course because it offered electives like marketing and an internship. I got involved in societies for the transferable skills and responsibility. I worked a part-time job to demonstrate that I could balance my time. And sure enough, three days after I graduated I got offered a job in London. So yes, it’s healthy to take a risk, but make it a calculated one. Our families only want what’s best for us at the end of the day. If you’re choosing a subject or career that’s not seen as ‘stable’, then think about everything else you can do to help broaden your CV work experience, academics and societies/hobbies all factor into this. In summary, be confident and firm, but look at your choices with the future in mind. You’re in the drivers seat, no-one else. Work for that dream. Connect with Debut on  Facebook,  Twitter,  and  LinkedIn  for more careers insights.

Envision the Future

Envision the Future I find myself running into brick walls a lot while trying to help job seekers. Not necessarily my brick walls, but theirs- I cant, it doesnt work, it wont work, thats not me, its not fair. But these become my brick walls too. My role as a sherpa is to get you to believe you can, so that you will take the actions necessary to break through these walls. Im pretty no-nonsense and my family has declared me un-fun. To prove them all wrong and change up my imagea bit, Ive surrounded myself with people who are fun and full of non-sense (they may or may not know who they are). So to all you job seekers out there, what can you do that is uncharacteristic?More fun? Years ago I attended a wonderful and too brief keynote by Yvonne Conte. If youve ever seen her, you know how fun she is! One of the exercises she asked us to do was to describe our dream job. Not just what we would be doing, but all the details of the work environment.So, here aresome questions you can answer: What is the job title Who are your customers Whatindustry or focus does your companyhave What does a typical day involve How fardo you have to travel to get to your job What does your workspace look like What hours do you work Who are your co-workers What is your boss like(whats their background and management philosophyand howdo they recognize your successes) What is your favorite part of yournew job When your workdayis over, how do you feel This isabout creating a vision of what you are striving for. Once you can picture it, it is much more likely to come tofruition, right?! You could even get really goofy and begin cutting out picturesand articles that truly helpyou visualize your newrole. Heck, youve got nothing to lose in trying this. It might seem silly, but it might just work!

Do You Know What is Best?

Do You Know What is Best?Over the past year, the best resume writing services rose to the top of the list of companies who are seeking to find and employ new staff members. It is no secret that many companies have seen a significant drop in the number of applicants due to the economic downturn, however they are willing to be flexible and find alternative ways to fill positions. The best way to answer the question is that they are willing to hire employees that have strong communication skills and a high level job-relevant experience.Most positions have some kind of requirement, whether it is job or skill specific. This will usually be mentioned on the resume or on a separate job application. If you are looking for the best resume writing services, make sure that you take the time to fully research the company before signing any employment contracts.Just like any other form of advertising, it is vital that you do your research before entering into a contract with a company. Some of th e companies may be reputable, but others could be fly-by-night operations. Make sure that you understand the terms and conditions of the agreement before signing a contract.The best resume writing services are those that offer to provide you with the content, but give you the ability to customize it to your needs, time schedule that you can fit in. The best services do not require any upfront fee, but they will take up to four weeks to complete the document. This is something that is often demanded by employers that need to keep their business operations moving at a fast pace. However, you will still need to provide them with a copy of your resume if you want to get a piece of the revenue.A company offering resume writing services also provides the ability to do an initial screening of resumes, which is similar to an interview. In this process, the firm will review every resume for grammatical, spelling and academic errors. If you find anything that needs to be fixed, then you can b e assured that they will be.Resume writing services also offer to offer feedback, if you do not have a problem finding one. There is always someone to talk to during the consultation session. They may offer suggestions that they feel would work for you.Resume writing services are a form of marketing for some companies. Some of these companies have already established a successful business, but they may be looking for a way to create more revenue. For this reason, they will try to offer different services to different clients. This is why hiring the best resume writing services is important, as you can be assured that your chances of getting hired are a lot higher than if you were to use the services of a fly-by-night operation.Make sure that you do your research and choose the best company for your needs. There are many services available, but it is wise to find the best one available. You will not have to worry about any glitches as long as you choose a reputable company that has a proven track record.