Jobs Ireland

Author: Carole Gunst is a marketing consultant with expertise in product marketing, marketing communications, and leveraging social media

Résumé is French for "summary".  It's a collection of things that you’ve done in your work life that doesn't really give an indication of your aptitude, your natural talents, or how you'd fit onto a new team.  A lot of the time, candidates have them written by others so it's not an accurate reflection of how a candidate writes or organizes thoughts.

Why Do Employers Still Rely on Résumés?

The résumé still does get used because it's easy for pre-screening purposes.  In my opinion, this gets done by organizations who use administrative people working from job descriptions who scan resumes for keywords or job titles.  In a candidate-rich environment, it gives them a quick reason to eliminate people missing a particular bullet point on the job description and to narrow down the stack that they pass on to the hiring manager.

There are many problems with this starting with the first call made to set up the interview is by the HR person who has never worked in the role they are hiring for who often doesn't follow what's going on in the industry.  The résumé gets used to have a chronological discussion designed to look for gaps.  Here's an example: 

Phone Screener:  "I see that you only stayed at Company X for one year. What happened there?"

Candidate:  "The company ran out of money and closed down.  Didn't you read about that?"

Phone Screener:  "No, but that sounds terrible.  Now, I see that you were with Company Y for 12 years.  Why did you stay so long?"

Candidate:  "Well, it was a great company.  I got promoted three times while I was there and I needed to let my stock options vest."

Phone Screener:  "Oh, I can't really tell that from your résumé.  Now, before that Company Y, you were a camp counselor.  Is that right?"

Candidate:  "Am I going to get a chance to talk to the hiring manager?"

You get the idea.  An document that doesn't really sum up you very well leads to an unproductive Q&A session about you.  It never gets to a discussion about what the job is and how your skills would fit into it.  And, it keeps you from a discussion with the members of the team you might be joining.

And, the Internet Changes Everything!

A recruiter friend of mine was interviewing someone over the phone the other day using an electronic version his résumé sent through e-mail while looking at his LinkedIn profile.  They didn't match up!  The phone call ended shortly after that was discovered. 

These days, you have know that most of what you do can be found online.  So, use that to your advantage and keep things accurate and up to date across media.  Use a blog to show how you write and what you can do and know that people who share your interests will find you online.  If they like what they see, you'll hear from them directly. 

Your LinkedIn page should reflect what you have done in the past, who your network is comprised of, and include links to more information about you like your Twitter stream, your website, and anything else you want to share.  Don't forget to Google yourself from time to time to see what's out there about you, because that information will get found.

It's All About Your Network, Anyway

Even in the “old days” of résumés, most people would tell you that once you get to a certain level, the best way to land a new job is through your personal network. Executives, rock star engineers, top sales people, well-published academics don’t ever need to look for a job: they get asked to come work at places.  Let that be the way that you get to your next job.  May the résumé rest in peace.

Author: Pat Sheridan, Managing Director, 1 Stop HR Limited

No really, I am serious and I am not a politician trying to up-talk the national psyche! It is coming; the real skill is in knowing when and how.

No really, I am serious and I am not a politician trying to up-talk the national psyche! It is coming; the real skill is in knowing when and how.

I have already written here (several times) about managing in recession, the need for change management, critical business analysis, cost and risk reduction etc. Some companies may have tackled these things rapidly and professionally and know precisely where the business stands and how it will survive for better days. Other companies may be still wrestling with the difficult problems, carrying out very little strategic thinking and may be overly-worrying with the related and damaging stress. These latter companies need to bite the bullet and have a clear plan for, at least, survival for a minimum of another year.

Several years ago there was the possibility of a serious pandemic (bird flu) and those larger companies with the financial and human resources at their disposal began to examine where they might be exposed. They prepared contingency plans to manage the risks involved. The pandemic never happened and these plans are probably now out of date and may even fail if put to the test; circumstances change and so do our business and personal needs. For example, do those plans to address a bird flu outbreak adequately cover the current Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus we are currently experiencing? How has the current recession affected the way our company was structured and staffed and is it a different organisation to what it was back then?

In any case, it is always better to have a plan than to have no plan at all. Even a bad or outdated plan can be modified, corrected and applied incrementally in response to changing circumstances.

Gut instincts and hunches do not suit all and are not the professional manager’s way. In general these things are only of real value when viewed in the context of a professional plan; like a test for the logic of the plan. Relying solely upon gut instinct and snap decisions is a sure-fire way of increasing stress and the likelihood of failure.

So, for the purposes of this exercise let us say that you have met the recession head-on with detailed problem analysis and decision-making and are now operating within a strict budget which will see you through until those elusive ‘green shoots’ appear. These shoots are as elusive and just as mysterious as crop circles. We cannot yet be sure if they are genuine or just created by politicians to deceive us into thinking things are improving.

Of course there is risk; we do not have a crystal ball in which we can see the future. Therefore it must be a combination of experiential knowledge and good analytical reasoning which will allow us to foresee the potential fluctuations which indicate positive economic/commercial shifts – the real green shoots.

The gut instinct is actually an interesting phenomenon. Of course it is not the gut, although we do sometimes feel that tightness in this region when activating a decision which appears to be based exclusively on that logic-less hunch. That is probably the result of fear. In fact, it is a complicated and automatic process involved at several levels within the brain where, at a subconscious level, all the stored information about the subject matter is scanned and compared against the ancillary information which is, in turn, measured off against a desired result.

The brain or mind, reaches a conclusion and filters this to consciousness and we have our spontaneous decision which we call ‘gut instinct’. Perhaps it is in the last nanosecond, when the realisation of this decision is perceived at a conscious level that we start questioning and challenging this and the result might be somewhat different from that created at the subconscious level. For this reason the gut instinct is not always reliable and it takes practice and many successes before we can hone this internal human ability to a sufficient level of trust.

This brings me to leadership and management; the seat of all decision-making. As you know there are always good and bad managers and leaders. Unfortunately, the trust is sometimes vested in the position of authority rather than in the individual who inhabits the position. There is a difference.

So although the leader or manager carries the responsibility for analysis and decision-making, the clever ones, those who understand their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses and general limitations will seek third party assistance and advice before proceeding with an action which could have potentially damaging consequences. This is also a positive management and leadership ability and demonstrates intelligence. I would prefer to know that my managers are engaged in this cross-referencing of knowledge and experience rather than reckless under-informed decision making.

Bridging the invisible internal boundaries between people in business is a way of capitalising on the human capacity of the organisation. Sharing information and requesting information and participation in the search for beneficial initiatives is not an automatic process. Such a developmental culture needs to be established. This is a formal way of seeking a constructive and positive way forward. It is not consensus management, which can create a management abdication of responsibility and accountability. It is, however, a way of recognising and utilising human capacity in a practical and beneficial way.

For every business there are trends, indicators and evidence of change. This occurred on the way into recession and will be found on the way out. The clever ones who looked and found these trends on the way in and acted accordingly, are in all probability, not suffering as much as others and may even have created something very new, productive and profitable from the exercise. It will be these same ‘lateral thinkers’ who will find the evidence of positive change on the way out and benefit again.

There may be many factors to be considered and observed and many different people with different abilities to see these often delicate threads of change. Combining these information byways will lead to a more detailed map; a highway rather than a byway, where the way forward becomes more visible. With this clarity we will be able to identify the opportunities.

As management consultants we can assist leaders to develop these proactive and creative skill-sets; to establish a common effort, to identify and benefit from the structured sourcing and analysis of particular key business trends and take advantage of the positive threads of change.

Pat Sheridan, Managing Director, 1 Stop HR Limited

1 Stop HR provides comprehensive Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations support services. Pat Sheridan can be contacted at 021 4614020 or at pat@1stophr.ie and further details are available at www.1stophr.ie .

Job boards, by tradition, provide a platform on which recruiters pay to advertise their vacancies then wait in anticipation for applications to flood through to designated in-boxes. There is nothing particularly deliberate about the service and the reactivity is both its strength and its weakness.

But in the current climate there is little room for limitations, so whilst reduced-cost recruitment solutions will continue to feature in most recruiter’s budgets, technological development dictates that unless job boards embrace more innovative strategies, they could see their status stifled by the sophistication of integrated products such as applicant tracking systems (ATS), CV parsing and the prospects of disintermediation.

Reactivity is history. Witness the rise of integrated proactive engagement.

In good times desirable candidates are comfortable, entrenched in their positions and paid well. They are confident. They don’t reach out and share because they see no purpose in it. Conversely, in bad times, everyone feels the need to share, so recruiters are inundated by CVs, most of which are either irrelevant or wholly generic; the latter being as bad as the former during a time when standing out from the crowd is so important.

So what should job boards be doing to ensure their users receive a service that will make them return? What is the future for job boards and how will they tackle the undoubted challenges that lie ahead?

The recruitment landscape now is about conversations. Web-savvy jobseekers are communicating in language that is natural, open and honest, sometimes even direct; more direct than recruiters might wish them to be. Everything is changing. People are connecting and working together. The Internet is enabling these conversations and there is nothing corporations or recruiters can do to stop it. What they can do though, is embrace it: for joining them and showing innovation is surely the only way to preserve.

For some job boards social media has come at just the right time. It provides them with the means of providing information (e.g. advertising jobs), building relationships (with clients and candidates) and conducting forums for discussion on how they can improve as an industry. Most importantly of all, however, social media allows job boards to get messages out from their clients to a far wider audience than many other recruitment channels. And these messages are delivered real-time, with accuracy.

If a job board operates in a niche sector the dissemination of this information is even more specific, so even more relevant. A jobseeker looking for marketing jobs in the UK, for example, should be better served by a job board specialising in the marketing field. They return to job boards where the content (and the current age is all about content) is targeted at them. People see tangible value in subscribing to newsletters and feeds, contributing to forums and joining groups if it directly benefits them. Generalist sites, whilst clearly valuable, cannot offer this exclusivity. Their unique visitor stats may be high but they are unable to harvest customer loyalty. Return rates are relatively low.

Sector-specific job boards are also far more likely to be empathetic to their clients. They hear where they are coming from, understanding their frustrations and working to their needs. For niche job board owners it is essential they engrain themselves under the skin of their market. Generalist sites have multiple variables and bigger margins for error. If a niche board fails to engage with its audience it will soon lose its unique identifier and will be dropped in favour of a more meaningful competitor. This is the same for traditional recruitment generalists.

The word ‘traditional’ is an interesting one. When does something stop being contemporary? Job boards have been around for ages but are still commonly classed as modern-day recruitment mediums. With the advent and development of social media, however, do job boards now fill a void between traditional recruitment companies and en vogue employment media? Irrespective of the answer it indicates challenging times ahead.

Job boards offer a low-cost but highly speculative place for employers to advertise their vacancies. Job boards offer recruitment agencies a platform from which to attract talent and develop brand identity. Two separate entities, two different purposes. But whilst the impression is one of mutual exclusivity there should be no reason why the pair cannot develop symbiosis via a job board. By the same token why should recruitment agencies view their competitors as foe? In an age where sharing information and being transparent are the currencies of social engagement, perhaps a job board provides the perfect place to perpetrate a fee-sharing mechanism.

Referral-based recruitment will dominate the employment landscape within two years. In the same period social media will evolve and, with it, opportunities to network will be met by a larger number of experienced social-engagers. These people will be accustomed not only to integrating with social space but using it to find a job and developing their careers. They will also be used to earning fees from recommendations.

Job boards can be a vehicle for recruiters to attract a better quality of candidate to their vacancy by advertising the role with a cash incentive for recommending someone to it. This serves two purposes: firstly, few recommendations are offered lightly so the recruiter will receive endorsed applications – always a winner. Secondly, recruitment consultants can become referrers, working on vacancies with cash incentives, collecting fees they would not otherwise have been able. There are multiple benefits: recruiters always have new briefs to work on; a recruiter-registered jobseeker has more job options; it reduces the number of speculative calls/applications to the employer/recruiter.

Any niche job board embracing the referral model will add stickiness to its site and through an undoubtedly vast people network can ensure it is the oiled handle of this multi-cogged mechanism. Referral-based recruitment links all the staffing components together and manages to cohesively combine social media, social networking and innovation into one malleable solution.

As employers seek the feasibility of disintermediation, job boards and recruitment consultancies continue to prove their worth. But isn’t the true middleman the traditional recruiter? And if so, where would that leave job boards? Because if the figures are correct more than 50% of job board advertising revenue comes from recruitment agencies. Removing them would mean a huge reliance on direct employer spend, something they are trying to reduce. It is a merry-go-round of conjecture and hypothesis but one thing is for certain, as and when the economy flourishes again it will be the job boards with value-added customer retention schemes that will benefit and profit most.

Around 75% of job boards are owned by the major publishing groups in the UK. Clearly these companies are suffering in the current recession. Classified advertising revenues have dropped by over 17% in the last 12 months; some individual results are much more serious than this. The downturn is hitting advertisers and recruiters hard, attacking job boards from both angles. The short-term cites continued embattlement against cautious employers and cash-strapped recruitment consultancies. So, now more than ever, digital recruitment solution providers should be putting a reciprocal arm around the metaphorical shoulder of their clients, urging them to embrace their new solutions.

When the economy recovers it will be the innovators who thrive. Statics will die. There are too many potential landmines out there for a ‘traditional’ job board to remain reactive. Get with social engagement or get ready to fail.

Read more about the outlook for the recruitment landscape in 2011.

Simon Lewis | Only Marketing Jobs (via Onrec)

Written by Yuki Noguchi, Correspondent, National Desk, NPR News

With the unemployment rate at 9.4 percent and ticking up, millions of Americans are in the job market for the first time in several years.

But the job market has changed in that short time. The paper resume is laughably passe, at least in some circles. Not having a profile on the social networking site LinkedIn is, for some employers, not only a major liability but a sign that the candidate is horribly out of touch.

“If someone sends us a paper resume folded in thirds, stuffed in an envelope, it’s hard to take it seriously,” says Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, an online real estate brokerage.

Kelman says he has friends in their 30s and 40s who just missed the social networking boat and now need coaching in how things have changed.

For example, he says blogs and Facebook pages have gone from mere kids’ play to essential for communicating with employers online. Someone applying for a job in marketing, for example, will do much better in an interview if he or she already commands an audience through a blog. People in sales look better if they can prove they have a broad network of contacts in their field.

These new rules especially hold true in the high-tech fields, where being up to the minute is considered essential. But even other industries are following suit.

Job applicants are required to submit their resumes digitally at UMB Financial, a bank based in Kansas City, Mo.

“We get very few paper resumes,” says Pat Cassady, the director of recruitment at UMB. Cassady says 10 to 12 percent of UMB hires come through LinkedIn, and she searches niche networking sites for active users who might be promising business leaders. She is even planning to use Twitter to reach out to new recruits.

Landing your Ideal Job – Interview Preparation Tips

I have talked to a lot of Job seekers over the past month and I have been amazed at how poorly many of them have been preparing for their interviews. In the current climate it hard enough to get to interview stage for a position, so when we do we need to impress the socks off the interviewers! We need to go into the interview confident, positive and prepared. Here are some key points you should consider prior to interview.

Do you know where you are going and how to get there?
I would suggest that you go out to the company a day before the interview, so you know exactly how to get there. I used to walk into the reception area to get a feel of the organisation prior to the interview.

Do you know the names and titles of who you are meeting?
Have you where possible researched those individuals? Use the internet or even your personal network to get as much information on your interviewers.

Have you researched the company?
Again the internet is a super place for learning about an organisation. However in addition to that – Do you know of any working or that has worked in the Company that you could talk to prior to your interview. You should know exactly what the company does, who their competitors are and what the company’s values are?

Do you fully understand the Job Description or do I have a detailed job description?
Always make sure you clarify any grey areas prior to interview. It will keep you from getting thrown at interview stage.

Did you write your CV?
Many people are getting their cv done up by Agencies or even CV services. Often the end result is that the CV is not written in your words and reads like a foreign document. So know your cv and make sure it represents you and not someone else.

Many interviews today are competency based interviews.
Practice answering competency based questions. Eg. Tell me a time you dealt with an awkward customer. Do “Mock” Interviews with friends or family prior to the interview and ask for constructive feedback.

I strongly believe good preparation will help quash nerves at interviews and ensure that you maximise your chances of excelling at your next interview. And who knows your next interview might be the last one you have to prepare for in a long time. Good Luck!!