Category: Hiring

Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Diversity, Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Latest News and Articles, Military, Monster, New Job, US Employment Numbers

It is Veterans Day next week and time to figure out if we are as loyal to them as they are to us. Military.com and Monster.com have many ways to help you with your loyalty. Because waiting to help them may in many ways be too late. Like Mayor Garcetti in Los Angeles (largest population of veteran homeless) has begun with the assistance of Military.com, he is trying to end homelessness of our Veterans. Let’s join the forces and do our part.
~The Organic Recruiter

By  Sourcecon

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The 1st Infantry Division of the US Army has a saying: “No mission too difficult. No sacrifice too great. Duty First!”

Over 30,000+ veterans are placed in corporate America each year and there are over 7,500 companies that do the hiring per year of those military individuals. What is even more impressive is that these military officers do not even have online job seeker profiles like those you see daily on the web boards like Monster or Dice. What tops everything else is that these amazing individuals who defend our freedom look to us as civilians in their transition into the corporate environment. However, there are stigmas that they have to fight just the same.

One stigma is the negative stereotype. First are the assumptions and stereotypes about members of the military that make some employers reluctant to hire them. About one in three employers considers post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to be an obstacle in hiring veterans, according to a survey report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). In particular, seven percent of post-9/11 veterans are estimated to be suffering from PTSD, according to the U.S. Army.

Another stigma is how skills can be mismatched or misunderstood by a hiring manager. Hiring managers can easily understand a resume that shows any technical skills whether it is Java or .Net in a related field. What hiring managers do understand and how it correlates to corporate is the skills that a battery fire direction officer or artillery specialists can bring to an organization.

When speaking to a field grade army officer (with a specialty in tanks), who asked for obvious reasons to keep his anonymity, he gave a firsthand account of what the interview process is like for a military veteran. Now keep in mind this is an individual that brought in new equipment (mostly paratrooper equipment) for an army corps and has an MBA from Duke, a prestigious university.

“I interviewed with a few large companies that are looking to hire vets. I think I received interest from them because of my vet status. HR wanted to talk to me and their MDs (and even one CEO of a fortune 500 company) liked me. So I got through many rounds of interviews but then I went to talk to the direct hiring manager and my potential future boss. They needed a plug and play a guy that had experience doing the job (corporate finance, pricing, operations management, etc were some of the jobs I interviewed for). This happened over and over again. That was an obstacle I had to overcome in finding employment.”

A lot of companies have veterans programs. From a top-down perspective, it makes sense and sounds even better. Hire veterans as they offer great skills and attitudes that will add to our company and in the long run, it will make us look good too. There are some companies that are doing their part to help in the hiring of military veterans. In 2016, Union Pacific Railroad hired approximately 3900 new employees of which 15 percent were military veterans, where military experience was more relevant than certifications earned. JPMorgan Chase hired over 40,000 new employees in 2016, where approximately 15 percent were military veterans.

The question remains, how can other companies follow suit? First would be to educate management of the companies so that they are not scared that a few months ago this person was killing someone or seeing others killed, and now they have to integrate them into their “team.” There might even be hiring managers cannot comprehend what really goes on in the military, but they get the college and internship type of experience, so they hire what they are familiar.

There are some companies that have gone the additional mile and have set up assistance programs as well. AT&T has helped launch the 100,000 jobs mission initiative to hire 100,000 veterans and transitioning service members by 2020. Even GE plans to hire 5,000 veterans over the next five years through its “Hiring Our Heroes” partnership to sponsor 400 veterans’ job fairs this year.

Another company, Orion International is a firm that spends over 11 months with each military candidate before they are even hired, to ensure the best possible match for each company and candidate. Orion represents 34 percent of military technicians and technical NCOs separating from the military. A Naval officer from Pennsylvania explained how helpful it is to have someone, a company that can help make the transition that much easier though daunting.

 “To have a company willing to stay with you every step of the way was extremely comforting. I was transitioning out of the Navy and my wife had family here so I needed to find a way to get a job locally. Not too many companies looking for a naval officer. There were coaches that shared with me the proper interview techniques and the things not to do during interviews. It’s a blessing.”  

In November of last year, the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics found that veterans had a lower unemployment rate at 3.6 percent than Americans overall, who faced a rate of about five percent. This reflects ongoing efforts to train members of the military with valuable job skills before they join the workforce, new initiatives by businesses get veterans jobs and the slowly changing attitudes among everyday Americans about the value that former service members bring to the workforce.

In a time where there is increased the level of violence, political deceit and increasing cost of living we need to find solace in those that put their lives on the line every single day for us to even have a living, to have the ability to speak our mind. When that military personnel leaves the armed forces and transition into civilians looking for employment just like those that haven’t served we need to stand up, recognize and do what we can for them as they have done for us. Hoorah!

 

Why You and I Need One Another

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Big Data, Hiring, Latest News and Articles, New Job, Uncategorized

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You buy, we sell. Does that mean we don’t need one another? Sure if we want to walk life to the next journey on our own. Vin Scully (Vincent Edward “Vin” Scully – sports broadcaster and Brooklyn/LA Dodgers MLB play-by-play baseball announcer) just retired after 67 years yesterday and was bitter sweet. A man needs to take his next steps sometime, even if it’s after an amazing run like his. Vin said over and over these last few weeks, “I have needed you more than you needed me”. This rings true to you and I as well.

Think about it. You have goals to hit and so do I. Tomorrow I will be on a plane to Chicago to share with the West and Great Lakes Regions on how my quarter went. I won’t get into my quarter but why I bring this up is because as much as you think we are trying to sell to you to get that fat check, I want you to sit back and think, “is he really trying to help me hit my goals like he says?”.

The answer is yes. A good majority of us are trying to get you to your goals as it will also help our goals. But your thoughts are, “why is he always calling me?”. To that, I answer because I am here to help and I monitor what your goals are (from what you told me…plus keeping a pulse on your industry) and where your stand today on those goals.

Relationships are defined as: the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected, or the state of being connected. While a symbiotic relationship occur when two organisms, individuals or groups of people work together by helping one another with the intent of getting help in return. Keep in mind, even when we are dressed like a shark, it doesn’t mean we are, we are just you to have our back as well.shark-symbiotic

Let me let you in on a little secret. We like to go to sleep with a clean conscious of knowing we gave you the best deal to get to your goals. We spend countless hours, days and months on your account to manage what we sold you. When we are calling you to share updates, insights, and possible twist-a-plots, it is so you hit your goals. By using me as a consultant to what is really going on out there, you get free advice and knowledge in case there are any curveballs you did not anticipate. There may be a time when I offer you something and it comes at a cost, but keep in mind it is to assist you in hitting your goals.

You may not realize, but I am aware you have KPIs like time to fill, cost per hire, and for the few lucky ones out there, you get bonused off those KPIs. I am here to help as a friend who understands symbiotic relationships. As we embark on the 4th quarter or what you affectionately call ‘budget season’, keep in mind when you ask for that discount, favor or freebie, just remember, the rhino and Vin, we all need each other. Let’s work together towards 2017.

~The Organic Recruiter

The 1%ers and Their Poetic Sourcing – My SourceCon 2016 Experience

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Employment Value Proposition, Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, New Job

 

hackathonOn a very poetic weekend for this Los Angelino as our greatest baseball announcer was sent off to retirement from 67 glorious years of telling stories like no one’s business; he is sent off with a walk-off home run.

This gives me joy as I am here to write about a bunch of other all-stars from the recruiting and sourcing world of which I work with daily. Last week I had the great fortune to go to SourceCon for my second time in as many years. I got there, not as a vendor, but as a user. You see, I spent nearly a decade as an IT recruiter in the staffing world and always* believe once a recruiter, always a recruiter (*if you stay up on your game). So my goal, when I left and started selling recruitment services was to always recruit and stay fresh on my game.

Being a rep that touts free recruiting tools and ideas to their clients seems counterproductive, however I feel it lends credibility and confidence in what I sell as well. So suggesting for the last 5 years to my clients they should attend SourceCon has been a no-brainer to me. Now having been the last 2 years, I can tell you these sourcers are the 1%ers in our industry.

The last 2 years have confirmed I am still on my game but what some of the things these guys and gals pull off is just amazing. I affectionately call these 1%ers the Ultimate Geek Squad. From tools to tricks to Chrome extensions, they have it all plugged in. Admittingly, they do say they use media, job ads and databases, just a lot smarter and don’t depend on the post and pray model of sitting around ands waiting for candidates to flow in as they want to beat you to the rock stars.

Kerri Mills from Indeed was one of my favorites (yes, I loved one of my competitors). Six Secrets to Sourcing Like a Grandmaster was well…masterful. Her ideas of hyper-personalization should be locked in your brain forever, even after (gawd-forbid) you leave recruitment. This idea is “stop templating your messages”. Find out more about your candidate and make them feel like they are the only one you want to hire EVER. She is not saying she does not use templates. You just don’t know it because she is a poet to what she knows about you.

So as I sit here and romanticize the similarities of the Ultimate Geek Squad and their correlations with the great athletes and play by play announcers (like I have been spoiled with like Chick Hearn and Vin Scully of the LA great), I want the world to know that recruiting isn’t, “where are my resumes” or “I pass” with no explanation. Rather, it is all about these ridiculously talented sourcers who find these amazing people and transform them into even better candidates. Like Kerri spoke of when she said, “oops, I got lazy and did not pick up the phone to her hiring manager to which he said I pass”. Then Kerri, who knew this candidate better than anyone, refused to lose this rock star and called the hiring manager and said, “no, you are not going to pass…you will interview him for the reasons of…”. The candidate turned into a hire because Kerri was the grandmaster that knew WHY her candidate was amazing.

Fast forward to the evening Hackathon (dang late after a long conference day) where the eager and the best of the best converge on a challenge to be the next Grandmaster by competing on a req challenge merely to get to the best 16 in the room and eventually the best of 2016. It was awesome to see all these brains get together to geek out to see the best chance to find best 6 candidates and their search strings first. From that point, the 16 are found and hardly anyone left in anticipation for who was to win.

My reason for this part is not who won but the fun of open-source recruiting and how passionate these competitors were. The fact that each person had so much love and so many people wanting to help, it brought back the feeling of love for the game and how fun it is to win as a team and willingness to receive input from others. Recruitment is a team sport and we forget that when our hiring managers are hounding us for “more resumes”. Remember, we at SourceCon are the 1%ers, not coordinators slinging resumes. We have passion for geeking out to find the best PERSON for the job, not as many resumes to get the hiring managers off our backs.

Day one is not over as I haven’t talked about the networking. LinkedIn in is the online professional network of choice, but meeting my sourcing heroes like Shannon Pritchett, Editor, SourceCon, ERE Media, Stacy Zaper, Netflix and Dean Da Costa, The Search Authority to name a short few was priceless. You can have 3,000 connections on LI but talking to these greats just makes it worth it.

As we go into day 2, my favorite speakers were Jenny DeVaughn, Senior Director, Internal Communications, ADP and Maisha Cannon, Global Talent Strategist, GitHub whose presentation on From E! To Google – Missteps, Metrics and Methods just had me at the edge of my seat.

First, let’s talk about Jenny and the idea of taking a chance.  Jenny’s story about ‘do what you want to do at whatever cost’ was hitting me right in the heart through her presentation of Learn From My Mistakes – Don’t Be a Basic ‘Brander’. Her story as a single mom and taking chance was exhilarating because no one with little support can take a plunge into independence. Yes she now works for a huge company, but the fact she tried her own thing was pure inspiration.

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Lastly, there was Maisha who was truly a treat and so warm on stage talking about a common theme of being unique and personal. To borrow one of her acronyms of ADD, be authentic, different and delightful of which she was to an exponential degree.  Going back to one of my initial thoughts of people aren’t resumes, Maisha focuses on knowing these candidates and equally important, having the hiring managers on strategy sessions (you call them intakes) and making sure the hiring manager is engaged weekly. To quote her reply to my tweet from her, “Craig. If the HM [hiring manager] says 45M a week, it’s a good time to say…We have a problem.”

In closing, my take-away from SourceCon and the great athletes and sports announcers of old is let’s respect the people that have laid the foundation, work on making it greater through open-source and always remember, candidates aren’t resumes, it’s the story you learn about your candidate that is poetry to the candidate and hiring manager. Let’s follow the steps of the great Vin Scully after 67 years of poetry for the Dodgers and make all our players legendary.

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Some Special connections I made and you should too:

~The Organic Recruiter

Gone in 6.0 Seconds

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Hiring, Interviewing, Latest News and Articles, New Job, Uncategorized

That’s how long it takes a recruiter to go to the next resume if they spent some time on yours.

According to most articles in the last 5+ years, recruiters spend no more than 6 seconds to disqualify you. So you better make an impact quick. Ladders wrote: Recruiters spend 80% of their six-second scan looking at these 4 areas:

  • Name
  • Current Position: Title, Company, and Dates of Employment
  • Previous Position: Title, Company, and Dates of Employment
  • Education

I am curious, I created a copy of my resume in the same 1 sheet format that is circulating with Yahoo!’s Marissa Mayer. Hers is getting mixed reviews, mostly good, but from the traditional, old schoolers I am seeing they are not so excited about it. From the more progressive, creative recruiters it is getting much praise.

my-experience-2016 (b)How do you put detailed accomplishments; numbers; accolades; history; culture fit; education; philanthropy and other details into a 6 second read? I am not quite sure that can be done.

So what do you do to get the recruiter’s attention quick because they do not have time to go through your 4 page resume? Some would say call the recruiter but the recruiters will tell others how that annoys the heck out them. Others would say use your network. I recently sent an email out to 164 recruiters I know in my network asking for help for a friend. I received 4 responses back. These guys and gals are busy. Getting back to you on a hope, is not that easy. In my case it was 2.4% return.

It’s not they don’t want to speak with you. It’s more about having 30 jobs to work on, hiring managers saying where are my resumes while turning down the ones the recruiters spent hours interviewing, prepping and dissecting their skill-sets. As well as sourcing like crazy and spending 6 seconds on your resume. We cannot blame them for not getting back to everyone, although it would be nice. But the best way to get noticed is to be noticed.

How quickly do you get noticed in a crowd? If you are in an analogue world without a smart phone, I am sure you do not find your friends at a concert so easily. Same with your resume. The analogue, dot-matrix format your resume is in is quite frankly just that…out-dated.

Now I am not saying throw pictures of your family and pets on it, rather I am saying find a way to professionally get the recruiters to notice you. Once they call you, get them to know who you are and how you are perfect for that job as it is their job to sell you. Ask them what the manager is looking for that is not plainly written in the job description. Then have some backup ready to articulate that in 6 seconds so when the recruiter sells you, it pops out.

Getting the interview is the hardest part as it is like professional baseball. You have so many divisions, in our case levels of people to impress. But if you know where you are awesome and equally important, you explain in detail where you may have failed or lost an account / project, then you are ahead of the curve.

The challenge is to get noticed or you will be gone in 6.0 seconds.

~The Organic Recruiter

Understand Recruitment Cycles to Give Your Job Search an Edge

Posted on by The Organic Recruiter in Hiring, Interviewing, New Job, Uncategorized

What do 23, 21, 20 and 36 mean to you? Seasons come in all walks of life to include the right time to get serious about your job and when it just might be a little harder to be seen. Enjoy this read to find out more about what these numbers mean.

~The Organic Recruiter

by John Rossheim, Monster Senior Contributing Writer

When it comes to connecting with the right job opportunity, timing isn’t everything, but it’s certainly something. Tuning into industries’ and employers’ annual recruitment cycles just might give you a decisive edge.image

That’s the consensus of recruiters and employers with fingers on the pulse of seasonal variations in hiring. Here’s a quarter-by-quarter summary of how these hiring dynamics play out.

First Quarter: A New Year’s Wave of Hiring

Sometimes peaks of hiring correspond with workplace factors that are only loosely related, like when people take vacation. “Hiring seems to be done by consensus more than any other decision,” says Scott Testa, chief operating officer of Mindbridge Software in Norristown, Pennsylvania. “So most hiring decisions have to be made when people are in the office.”

Major hiring initiatives may follow close on the heels of the holidays and summer. “The big months for hiring are January and February, and late September and October,” says Testa. “Job seekers who make contact right at the start of these cycles have the best chance of being hired.”

Strong hiring periods like the first quarter, when demand for talent may outweigh the supply of qualified candidates, may be a good time to go for a job with more responsibility or higher pay. “If you’re currently employed and looking to improve your status, you’ll want to look during the peak hiring season,” says Glenn Smith, president of search firm Precise Strategies in O’Fallon, Illinois.

Second Quarter: Gearing Up for Summer

For those whose livelihood depends substantially on fair weather, spring is when hiring peaks. In the construction industry, hiring in April, May and June proceeds at double the pace of December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).

Tourism and hospitality hiring is also very strong in the spring. And businesses looking to hire professional workers before fall often do so now, before key decision makers start rotating out for summer vacation.

Third Quarter: Recruiters Relax a Bit, and Vacation Plays a Role

Hiring slows down in July before picking up at the end of August. For those with nontraditional but impressive employment backgrounds, there’s an advantage to looking in relatively slow hiring months like July and December, says Smith.

For example, recruiters, less pressed for time than in peak months, may be willing to take a longer look at an experienced professional woman seeking to return to work after taking years off to care for children.

Fourth Quarter: A Rush, Then a Lull

The fourth quarter presents the most complex hiring dynamics of the year, with its mix of fall activity, holiday retail hiring, Thanksgiving-to-New Year’s slowdown, and end-of-year financial and budget maneuvering.

“Hiring managers and bank CEOs will typically try to reduce their operating profits by incurring search fees towards the end of each year, to avoid paying taxes,” says Josiah Whitman, an executive recruiter with Financial Placements of Lake Oswego, Oregon. His firm’s job orders are distributed this way: first quarter, 23 percent; second quarter, 21 percent; third quarter, 20 percent; fourth quarter, 36 percent.

Although December hiring is at low levels in many industries, recruiters are determined to fill the year’s remaining openings by December 31, and the supply of applicants dwindles as Christmas and the new year approach.

Major industries classified as information, financial services, and professional and business services, having hired heavily in the second quarter, see their lowest level of hiring in December, says JOLTS.

But December isn’t as slow as it used to be, say some observers. And applications tend to slow down during the holiday season more than openings do — tipping the balance in favor of those who do apply.

“It seems that business just keeps going through the holidays,” says John Challenger, CEO of outplacement and search firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago. “There doesn’t seem to be the kind of letup that there used to be.”

So playing the recruitment peaks doesn’t mean waiting out the rest of the year. “You need to be out there looking for opportunities, not finding excuses to avoid looking,” says Tom Johnston, CEO of SearchPath International in Cleveland.

Original Article