Friday, May 29, 2020
How to Lose a Candidate in 10 Days
How to Lose a Candidate in 10 Days Have you ever wondered what it is that annoys candidates the most about dealing with recruiters? There are a number of things you can do to test a candidates patience think Kate Hudson crazy in How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. Over the 10 days make sure you introduce them to your split personality, turning commitment levels from 0 to 100 intermittently, depending on their application status. To really get under a candidates skin, all you have to do is follow this 10-day plan. (Candidates, maybe you can also relate.) Day 1: Call a candidate with no agenda Maybe youre new to recruitment or simply low on your call times. Try calling a candidate with no agenda, get them to step outside their office for at least five minutes while you watch the seconds tick away and ask them about salary requirements, their previous managers, applications and any other fishing you can do! When the candidate asks about the opportunity you have in mind bluntly tell them that you dont have one, just keen to find out in case something comes up. Once youre done, if you really want to test the candidate you can transfer them to your colleague who you sit next to in the office (and repeat process). Day 2: Keep them guessing When the candidate calls in to check whether the advert is describing a company which theyve already applied to, enter into a Mexican stand off with them and firmly tell them that they can only know the company name if they tell you the company name by process of elimination. If they dont want to agree to this then assure them that the only way for them to find out is for you to submit their application and let them know if it comes back as a duplication. Day 3: Go hot and cold like theres no tomorrow Make sure you alter the amount of contact and pressure you put on the candidate based on whether it is you or the candidate who is required to complete a task. When you first realise that they could be a good fit for an open role make them feel like the world could end if they dont leave work to go to a library and email over their CV within the hour. As soon as you have their CV you can take your foot off the pedal and if they chase feedback make them feel as if theyre being clingy, assure them that you have other important things to do and will get back when/if you get feedback! Day 4: When they call in, get your colleague to say that youre in a meeting Still not got that feedback from the client? You basically asked the candidate to book days off from work the following week, assuring them that you would get them an interview slot. You assured them that, as its an urgent role you needed the commitment for interview and that youd sort the rest. Its the Friday afternoon and you told the candidate to book off the following Tuesday theyre calling in and as your colleague calls out the candidates name it reminds you that you havent chased up the client (Oops!). Swerve that call, having your colleague tell them that youre in a meeting is usually believable. Day 5: Tell the candidate a different salary Youve had a look at the candidates CV and you dont think the client will pay above a certain salary for the candidates experience, beat them down on their salary requirement which is lower than they are looking for. Assure them that this is the absolute maximum for the client. Get off the phone to the candidate and immediately send out a blanket email to candidates on the database advertising the role above the discussed salary. Day 6: Dont call me, Ill call you They sent you their CV to you months ago but there wasnt anything open at the time which led to a number of ditched calls and lost emails. Now that theres a live job, by lunchtime youve managed to call them, their partner and their company to let them know! Day 7: Presentation prep, what presentation? As they call in after their interview to tell you how it went, act surprised when they tell you that they werent aware that they were supposed to be doing a presentation, or maybe they were late as they went to the wrong company building (oops!). Plead ignorance, if they question too intensely about this tell them that you have another call and youll have to pop them a call back when youre free. Day 8: Oversell the job Tell the candidate that, whilst it may not be the salary or even close to the type of job they told you they are looking for, definitely emphasise they will be working on cutting edge, world leading stuff that definitely matches their profile. Vouch for the office location (even though youve not been there yet the manager told you its nice, though). Short contract? Tell them theres a 99% chance the company will keep them on even if you have no clue! Let the candidate take the day off work and sit back as they experience the disappointment for themselves! Day 9: Book that much needed spa day on the day of the candidates interview Youve had a difficult week, treat yourself and book in a nice RR day for the day of the candidates interview. In your excitement forget to mention this to the candidate so if they call in flustered about directions 5 minutes before the interview it will take at least 5 minutes for them to track down a colleague who is of any use! Day 10: They didnt get the job? No need to get in contact then No one likes to be the bearer of bad news, Im sure the candidate will forget about it if you just dont get back to them anyway. If they chase it up you can always dodge the call and send them a template email saying that you tried to call to give feedback but couldnt get through, just a one liner saying they were unsuccessful will be fine! Guilty of the above? Hey, no ones perfect but dont expect a Christmas card from said candidate/s next year!
Monday, May 25, 2020
3 Example Answers To What Is Your Dream Job Interview Question - Algrim.co
3 Example Answers To What Is Your Dream Job Interview Question - Algrim.co
Friday, May 22, 2020
Helping Sam with his CV content. Can you spot the difference in content University of Manchester Careers Blog
Helping Sam with his CV â" content. Can you spot the difference in content University of Manchester Careers Blog Can you stop the difference between this version of Sams CV and the one published on Friday? Sam doesnât have to put everything on his CV â" but he has to put on the stuff thatâs going to get you to interview. You may notice that Sam has some gaps on his CV. He left school in 2008 â" but didnât start university until 2011. Did Sam make a mistake? Or are there things missing from his CV? Sam didnât make a mistake, he did one thing applicants commonly do: He forgot some relevant experience that took place several years before â" 9 months as an English teaching assistant in the Chilean primary school. To prevent this from happening in the future, Iâve suggested to Sam that he keeps a diary, a portfolio, or simply takes time to update his CV every few months. Something he did that is less common, but I have experienced several times with students from countries all over the world: He left off 2 years of work experience because he was working for his brotherâs landscaping business to save money and to decide what he really wanted to study before going to university. He left excluded this experience because he was concerned that other employers âwonât take working for family seriouslyâ. We discussed Samâs concerns and established: It was a real and demanding role â" in fact, Samâs brother hired someone to take his place after he left. He had crucial responsibilities, including effectively running the business for several weeks while his brother recovered from knee surgery. Several key achievements during the 2 years The possibility of getting a former client to give a reference, as well as his brother, to alleviate any worries about favouritism. Many people work with the family business â" Lego, Bechtel, Hermes Group are just a couple of high profile organisations which are still in the family. It doesnât matter if you are working as part of a family business (or volunteering: âI wasnât getting paidâ is another reason students give for excluding or minimising this sort of experience) or an international conglomerate â" potential employers are going to be focusing the skills, experience and evidence that you are marketing to them. Speaking of gaps on CVs â" itâs best if you donât have them. Hereâs some advice for applying for graduate jobs and for more experienced candidates. Your university qualification â" whether undergraduate, Masters or PhD needs âtranslatingâ. University study takes up an enormous amount of your time â" even if âonlyâ a year for a Masters or Diploma. Employers need to know what, if anything, that gives you in terms of relevant skills and experience. In terms of this role, Sam: Has relevant course work with high marks. A dissertation topic which enabled him to gain some experience in community biodiversity projects and working with volunteers. Thereâs much more Sam could probably draw attention to, but he can probably include some of this in his covering letter, as well as talk about it at interview. If Samâs experience had been less directly relevant, he could have drawn extensively on transferable skills from group work, research, writing, presenting and more. Drawing out the relevant experience Elsewhere in Samâs CV, you may notice where not much seems to have changed except for a few tweaks in language. You can see from the highlighted version of the job advert where weâve identified key criteria Sam needs to link to his CV: Enthusiasm, communicating excitement, working on the ground and online, developing activities, working with volunteers/mentoring, eye for detail, relevant subject area. As with many students, Samâs recognition of his own accomplishments only emerged when he came to a careers consultant to talk about his CV for a specific job. Iâve suggested to Sam that he ask for some feedback from friends and family to get a more rounded picture of his skills, abilities and achievements â" as well as areas to think about improving, or ideas for filling any gaps that emerge. Is this the end for Samâs CV? Probably not. Arguably, there may be more that Sam could do to get his CV in shape for this role â" and letâs not forget his covering letter (which we havenât looked at. Yet.). Are there further suggestions youâd make? The most important thing is whether or not Sam feels his CV is now telling the story about his experience that he wants to tell the employer. Prior to seeing this advert, Sam hadnât thought much about his CV, and itâs all been a bit of a rush trying to pull it together. Discussing his application has helped recognised his achievements, identify some of the gaps he has in relation to the role and helped him develop a more nuanced perspective of the application process â" itâs hard work, requires self-awareness, critical thinking and time. Sam recognises now that a CV is a living document â" it will need updating, as well as tailoring to specific vacancies in order to be effective. Actually, is Sam even a real student? You may come across Sam in other University of Manchester Careers Service resources. Iâve based my version of Sam on several students Iâve been acquainted with over the years to highlight critical areas of CV writing. All Applications and interviews Postgraduate Applications and interviews CV job hunting
Sunday, May 17, 2020
5 Ways to Make Sure Your New Employee is a Perfect Fit For Your Company
5 Ways to Make Sure Your New Employee is a Perfect Fit For Your Company The key to improving your employee retention is hiring individuals who fit your company culture. They could be the most qualified candidate in the running, however if the work environment and team dynamics do not suit their personality and working style, they are unlikely to stay with the organisation for long. Your company culture is shaped by a series of factors, from your company values and processes in place, to the your employees themselves. It can be hard to form an impression of how an individual would fit in, based on your brief meetings in interviews; however there are a few signs to look for. Here are a handful of ways that you can assess a candidates culture fit: 1) Know what qualities you are looking for If you dont have an idea of the kind of individual you are looking to fill a particular role, how will you know when youve found someone suitable? Ahead of meeting candidates, construct a list of the qualities that you would like the ideal employee to possess, including their personality traits and work ethic, as well as the skills and experience required for the job. For example, is the role better suited to a studious introvert who works well independently? Or would someone who is a little more outgoing and good with people suit the culture more? 2) Ask open ended questions You will learn much more about an individual by asking open ended questions that get them talking about themselves, than closed questions that leave little room for elaboration. Try to ask questions both in relation to work and their personal interests and give them the opportunity to speak freely in order to get an insight into their personality and how they communicate. Asking them questions to do with culture, such as what they enjoyed about their last workplace or how they stay motivated, will help you to directly compare what they want from a workplace and what you can offer. Some employers also like to ask slightly quirky and outside the box kind of questions, that may not have anything to do with the role, but can divulge a lot about the kind of person the candidate is. 3) See how they interact with others You and the candidate may get along like a house on fire, but this doesnt necessarily mean that they will gel with the rest of the team. To get a better idea of how they would fit in at the company as a whole, get your candidate to speak to a few other employees when they come in for their interview and observe how they interact with them. Dont just introduce them to the people who they will report to, but also their peers and anyone who would be reporting to them, as this will build a fuller picture. It also means that you can pick a number of your colleagues brains about their thoughts on the candidates suitability when it comes to making a decision. 4) Compare them to your existing staff Think about some of your best employees. What qualities do they possess and what kind of personalities do they have? You can then use this as a model for the ideal candidate. You dont necessarily want your employees to all be clones of each other, as different people can bring different things to the table; however chances are that if your top employees are doing a good job and fit in well with the way the company runs, then somebody who exhibits similarities will too. The same goes for any problem employees youve had in the past. What went wrong? If it was a personality clash, then somebody with a similar temperament may also struggle to fit in. 5) Make sure they are familiar with your company culture In order to find someone who is a good culture fit, you must have a clearly defined company culture that you and your employees agree on. Think about how you get work done, what kind of people work there, what hours employees work, what the office is like and how the company is structured. All of these factors contribute to the company culture and could impact how an employee fits into the running of things. Once you have defined your culture, you must ensure that candidates are informed on this upon applying. Job seekers want to find a job that is a good fit for them as much as the employer, so failing to be transparent about the company culture is not beneficial on either side. Providing information about the culture in the job advert and the interview will help to prevent a bad hire. [Image Credit: Pablo]
Thursday, May 14, 2020
4 Ways AI is Changing the Interview Process - CareerMetis.com
4 Ways AI is Changing the Interview Process As popular as artificial intelligence has become among tech industry analysts, it can often bring up two different images for most people: science-fiction supercomputers straight out of the movies or smart home speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home.But in many fields, AI isnât simply a loosely-defined buzzword anymore. For human resources and hiring professionals, AI has already started to enter the industry in various areas.evalA LinkedInreport found that more than 50 percent of hiring professionals found AI to be helpful with tasks like identifying and developing applicants.Hereâs how AI has shifted the job interview process for both candidates and interviewers.1. Making grunt work easierIn any job hiring cycle, the early stages usually contain the most tedious work. During this point, staffing professionals traditionally had to comb through countless applications to manually identify potential qualified and unqualified candidates.But in many organizations, AI has emerg ed as a valuable tool through two applications: chatbots and candidate screening automation.âBusinesses would be smart to start using AI in the interview process,â Micah Pratt of Business.orgsaid. âAt the very least, Smart technology could aid in screening candidates, which would save manpower.âPopularized on platforms like Facebook Messenger, chatbots refer to customer service programs that work similarly to instant messenger or text messaging clients.Current-generation chatbots can take advantage of the versatility that AI provides. Especially for hiring professionals, chatbot developers have the resources to develop bots that can automate tasks such as interview scheduling, low-level candidate screening and answering application questions for areas like benefits and salary expectations.evalIn customer interactions, advanced chatbots typically rely on a dedicated knowledge database to pull answers from in conversations that seamlessly work like those with a human.Shobhit G uptaAI-powered automation has also streamlined how hiring managers handle early rounds of the job search process. In areas like resume and candidate processing, machine learning, which broadly refers to AI applications that independently learn how to perform tasks, has been a valuable asset for organizations.With these tools, hiring managers can quickly analyze applications and filter out candidates on any number of customizable criteria.Automated AI screening has also played a major part in interview tools like video interviews. In these instances, candidates will record themselves answering a series of standard job interview questions.Using AI, hiring managers can similarly analyze these clips to measure candidates in areas like body language, personality, and cadence. While these tools arenât typically the only factor that goes into early round hiring, managers have used them to efficiently identify potential applicants and save time.3. Making implicit bias harderFor hiring tea ms that have to process countless applications and candidates, it can be easy to fall back on obvious crutches when deciding who to identify or turn down. But with its focus on data-heavy filtering, AI can be a potential tool to avoid these issues.âAI also has the promise of eliminating unconscious bias in the hiring process because it can ignore a candidateâs name, race, gender and appearance,âCarisa Miklusak, CEO of smart recruiting company Tilr, said.Unconscious bias is a well-documented problem for hiring managers and businesses, as it can be easy to overemphasize certain aspects of a candidateâs profile over other areas.LinkedInfound that 42 percent of surveyed hiring managers felt that traditional job interviews could be affected by interviewer bias.Tools like candidate psychological tests and aptitude evaluations have become increasingly popular among companies who want to reduce the effects of implicit bias.evalBy collecting this soft and hard-skill data and using AI to analyze it against certain factors, companies can develop predictive models that, in a best-case scenario, determine how capable a candidate might be for a role.By themselves, AI-powered hiring tools wonât be the only way to eliminate biases from hiring. Poorly-developed AI that weighs the same bias as human evaluators can continue the same negative hiring trends that itâs supposed to prevent.But for hiring managers, AIâs emphasis on data can be a potential way to evaluate a candidateâs ability alongside their credentials during the hiring process.4. Making the human element smarter, but harderFor all the progress that AI has made among hiring professionals, thereâs a reason why the field is called human resources.âThere is much to be said for human intuition and âgut feelingâ when it comes to interviewing candidates, especially when it comes to a cultural fit,â Pratt said.evalVia LinkedIn, hiring managers agreed that AI and automation wonât replace human man agers entirely for tasks like closing on offers and building personal relationships with candidates.Especially for senior-level hires, the hiring process relies just as heavily on intangibles like personality and negotiation as it does on tasks that automated AI-powered tools could perform.For job candidates at firms that have integrated AI into their hiring teams, expect these tools to shift the hiring process in varying ways. In many cases, acing the interview wonât be the make or break factor for an offer.Instead, candidates will have to go through a wider ringer of tests and interviews as AI-driven companies try to collect as much data as they can in advance of hiring or rejecting a candidate.While these extra hoops can be a burden for both sides of the interview process, itâs ultimately working towards finding a strong fit for both the hiring company and the job candidate.
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Informational Interviewing 101
Informational Interviewing 101 Too often people overlook the informational interview as a key tool in landing a new job or making a career change. I got my previous job at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia through an informational interview. It was a conversation that led to many career opportunities for me.If youve been wanting to do something different in your career and arent sure how to go about it, try this approach:1) Make a list of careers youd love to be doing (Arent sure? Read my article on Finding Your Purpose.)2) Write down all the questions youd like answered (for a sampling check out the online informational interviews at TheCareerProject.org). 3) Ask your network for anyone they know doing the career(s) you want. If you dont get any leads from this step, try going online to industry associations or check with your alumni association. Email or call the Executive Director and ask for any contacts he/she can recommend.Seems easy right? Well not if you make the conversation all about you. Rather than focus ing on why YOU need to talk to this person and why YOU need a new career and why YOU really want information; Instead, focus on why your interviewee is the perfect person for you to speak with because he or she is accomplished in this field and came highly recommended. Be genuinely interested in the career path of the person you are interviewing and you will not only get information but build rapport.If youre still not sure how to informational interview for your own situation, email me at coaching@maggiemistal.com or call in to my segment on Martha Stewart Living Radio Thursdays at 9:30am and 3pm eastern.And let me know your experience with informational interviews. Have they worked for you? Who have you informational interviewed?
Friday, May 8, 2020
Resume Writing Iowa City
Resume Writing Iowa CityFor your resume to be effective, you must have an eye for making it a perfect match to the company you are applying for. For this reason, it is important to take time to meet with the company representatives to go over your resume. And one of the best ways to do this is to see them in Iowa City.Writing a great resume can be done in as little as twenty-four hours and can help propel you right into the interview room. This is why Iowa City is an ideal place to visit when it comes to resume writing. You will want to meet with your clients, show them exactly what you can offer and get a feel for their goals for your career.When you visit Iowan companies, your resume will be read, reviewed and revised as necessary. Your supervisor will get a chance to interview you as well and provide you with feedback about how well you performed at the meeting. If there are any areas that you feel may need work, then you will want to discuss this with your supervisor. And if ther e are no issues with your resume, then you can move on to the next client.Speaking with your supervisors can be a very important part of your career. And it is a good idea to meet with as many supervisors as possible. This way, they will get a feel for who you are as a person and what you can do for them. They will also get a chance to ask you some questions which can help determine whether or not you are the right person for the job.Another thing that you can do to make sure that your resume stands out from the rest is to become familiar with the company that you are interviewing with. You will want to become familiar with their colors, logos and slogan. You can create your own logo by using photos from their website or print one out. And when you do finally make your decision, you can place a logo or slogan on your resume that speaks to what you can bring to the company.Lastly, you should visit Iowan companies that do contract work. These are companies that typically have some sor t of problem that they are trying to solve. And sometimes these problems are for free. The amount of free work that they give to Iowans is unbelievable and can help propel you into the interview room.Because of the challenges that Iowans face, finding and creating jobs can be a challenge for some people. It is important that you spend as much time as you can with these companies. Meeting with them and presenting your resume will help them determine whether or not you can do the job and whether or not you can be a part of their company moving forward.Resume writing Iowa City can be a great experience. You just need to put in the time and effort to make it successful. Just remember to meet with as many supervisors as possible and you will be well on your way to landing that dream job.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)