What better examples of personal branding.... Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn, Apolo Ohno, mogul star Dale Begg-Smith (the Man of Mystery).
All memorable brands, but if you think this happens by chance, or without effort.... think again! And without these brands, will their athletic accomplishments be remembered years in the future?
Much in the same way, individuals need to be developing their own personal brand through use of career portfolios and personal branding tools. By using tools like this, professionals can stand out amongst their competition, and be remembered during the candidate sourcing and candidate evaluation process.
Check out
CareerScribe for just such a solution!
Recently I conducted several career classes at IU University where I discussed personal branding and
CareerScribe.
One of the first questions I asked each class of 60 was... "How many of you have Googled your own name recently?". I was shocked that only 4-5 students raised their hand. Taking into consideration that probably 8-10 of the students were sleeping... I still think those are surprisingly low numbers. Upon asking the question... you would have thought I asked who in the room had logged onto a pornography site recently. Students appeared embarrassed to admit they checked what was out there on themselves.
Fact is.... If you're not paying attention to the
personal brand that is being developed about you online, you are really missing the boat, and the longer you wait to develop these habits, the harder it is going to be to change that
brand if it's inaccurate.
All progressive companies are utilizing the internet in their candidate sourcing process, as well as internally for performance management and to screen employees. Individuals are using search engines to form an opinion about people to network with, friends, coworkers, etc. If you ever used an web dating site and not Googled the person you met to see what else you can find, you are REALLY taking a chance!
More and more career portfolio sites are surfacing to help individuals better tell their stories and have an impact on their
personal brand. I can certainly be accused of being biased, but over the next 3-5 years, I believe you will be left behind by your peers if you are not developing the habits of true "Career Management". Of course I also believe
CareerScribe is one of the best tools out there to help you do that now!
Happy Branding!!!!
There seems to be a real opportunity out there for recruiting and staffing firms to reinvent the recruiting process for their customers. The old processes that have been around for years, which involve presenting resumes to companies for their open positions, is dying a slow death... significantly increased by the events of the past year.
The staffing firm of the future, must be able to present their candidates in a much more progressive way than resumes, if they want to beat their competition by helping their clients screen employees more efficiently. Thinking you have a better database of candidates than the next guy, and that is your competitive edge.... has been over for at least 3 years now.
Staffing firms should be considering the use of candidate profiles, which isn't entirely a new concept.... but the content and look/feel of the profile has changed. Profiles should likely include portfolios of documentation that prove the accomplishments, experience, education and certifications a candidate has. Furthermore, video should be considered to introduce presence, professionalism, passion, enthusiasm, etc. A profile might also include background verification and personality/skills assessments. Essentially, you are eliminating a first interview through the use of a professional portfolio.
CareerScribe offers this type of candidate evaluation tool. An application that allows professionals to develop an online personal brand.
I was speaking with someone about their job search today. They were frustrated by their job search. They were being selective about the jobs they were applying to through the big boards and not receiving any calls back.
This caused them to stop and reflect. The result of that thought, though, produced some interesting results.
Instead of concluding that he needs to find a way to seperate from the rest of candidates that are sending the same cover letter with the same resume attached to an email, the conclusion was that they were not sending to enough jobs. The odds were not in their favor.
What we are proposing is a change in philosophy. What a lot of people do not understand is that for good jobs, they are not entering a pool of 20-30 candidates. They are entering a poole of several hundred or more inside of a talent management system. They usually just use the big job boards for candidate sourcing.
Every hiring manager knows the secret to quality hiring is getting past the several hundred into a manageable amount. There are many different ways that different managers use, but obviously, someone that sticks out as interesting or deserving of more attention gets included in this.
The short story is most professionals are only beginning to realize they have to market themselves just like any other product a company buys. CareerScribe is a great tool that allows people to do just that. It allows you to market all of your skills and value in a professional and dynamic way and share a rich amount of information beyond a boring resume/cover. If you want that first interview, you can still be selective. It's just time to start being your own biggest fan and spend some time with CareerScribe.
Yesterday I had the unpleasant experience of realizing I set Alarm #2, instead of Alarm #1 on my clock. So 5 seconds after the alarm went off, and I realized it's already 7:30am, when I have an 8:00am meeting, that's 30 minutes away.
The dreaded nightmare of oversleeping.... only to be outdone by the nightmare of showing up to class, and there's a big test that you haven't studied for.
Then the panic and questions set in :
How did this happen?
What could I have done differently?
So now what?
How do I avoid this ever happening again?
All great questions, much like the questions one asks themselves when they find out they are losing their job. This scenario has been playing out all too often over the past year as professionals realize they've made mistakes in managing their careers, and they aren't prepared to market themselves in a competitive job market.
There isn't anything you can do now to change the past, but you can deal with the situation at hand as best you can, and look for better ways to market yourself, such as free online portfolios. Online employee screening is becoming much more popular as a means of candidate sourcing, so if you don't have a professional presence online, you are likely being overlooked for some opportunties.
More importantly, recognize there are habits and skills you can be developing now, so that you aren't in this situation again. Begin developing a career portfolio, and maintain it routinely so you can avoid the panicked feeling of waking up late for your meeting.
As I was reading the entire internet, I came across an interesting article on msn.com from CareerBuilder.
The article was about how you should format your resume and put certain keywords in there that will help you be found. They weren't suggesting you lie, but they were highlighting a serious problem with their software.
They search resumes. As we know by now, things have changed and we are not our resumes. CareerBuilder obviously agrees with this. How did they fix it? They decided, let's help our users make our search better. Instead they should be telling people to use tools that help them market themselves better. Using tools like virtual portfolios in their job search allow companies improve candidate sourcing without relying on keyword tricks.
Quality hiring has been a hot topic for companies since the dawn of time. Many are using sophisticated tools to help with their online employee screening. Candidates need to realize this and start using the same tools to better define what they want and what they have to offer.
Resume "keywords" aren't going to cut it.
I recently was involved on a panel for the local HR association, and was pleasantly surprised by the level of interest they seem to have in social media and the future of candidate sourcing.
I've experienced a lot of apprehension on the part of HR professionals in recent years to the uses of social spaces, video job interviews, etc. to screen employees. Many have used it for quite a while, many are just beginning to use it more, and still many act as if it is just a passing fad.
Concerns about discrimination claims seem to top the list of concerns around the risks of such tools and processes, but I feel the issue is one more of fear. Fear of change, fear of new technology and processes that have seemed to take place overnight. Just 5 years ago, no one was talking about videos, tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn. Let alone the cataclysmic changes that have taken place in the past 6-12 months, which have forced millions of people into the web social world.
3-5 years might as well be overnight in the HR world, when many of the recruitment processes and underlying fundamentals have remained essentially the same for 20 years.
However, I have seen many positive things in the past few months that lead me to believe the HR profession will embrace these changes as a whole. However, there will always be a pocket of people praying it all goes away!
Isn't it overwhelming? Your focused on quality hiring, but are challenged at every turn. Applicants seem to seep in from every crack, but identifying the best ones can be elusive. Applicant tracking systems help, but it's a blind process that can leave out great candidates. And there's no way you're going to thumb through the 2,000 resumes you received to see if you're golden boy didn't make the cut. But it's all you've got, right?
No.
Welcome to 2009, where technology conqueors and innovation reigns. Applicants who are creative and proactive can create profiles that sell their skills and expertise, document those claims chronologically, and provide the proof. Candidates even have the opportunity to provide a brief (less than 3 minutes) video for you to view at your leisure. Which means you don't have to sit through 2 hours of interviewing to get a broad picture of the candidate.
Having a tremendous number of candidates respond for each position lessens the chances of you finding your needle in a haystack. So ask for more than just a resume. Simply requiring more than the bare minimun will dissuade many candidate from even applying. If all I have to do to apply is click "send" it's a piece of cake. Spray and pray, right? That makes finding quality candidate more challenging on your end.
But a system that allows you to understand the candidate in a dymanic way, and requiring thought, effort, and proof from their end, makes a better match. And that's the goal here - quality hiring and talent management.
Check out Craig and Jeff's profile on our home page and then ask yourself these questions - How much more do you know about them vs. having had only a resume. Would that type of knowledge be helpful in considering candidates to fill your vacant positons? How much more effecient is this than inviting a dozen candidates in for an interview?
Here's the last question - How much better can you hire if you have a career profile for each of your candidates?
Better people = better outcomes.
I hope this has given you something to consider as you move forward with your organization and cadidate sourcing. Have a great day!
Susan
It was encouraging to see CareerScribe featured on some pretty major blogs and news sites this past week. For example, here's what appeared on Yahoo Finance:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/CareerScribe-Launches-Beta-bw-14713461.htmlHere's some of the CareerScribe features most talked about:
- Sharing - Candidates can load their entire career portfolio into CareerScribe and, with the click of one button, share it with anyone they choose, even if the recipient is not a member of CareerScribe.
- Candidate Sourcing - For companies, the big benefit is being able to screen potential employees in a dramatically better way. Rather than look through a stack of resumes, companies are conducting online screening by looking at CareerScribe Profiles. So much more information, so much more quickly.
- Quality Hiring - Companies have all the chips on their side of the table now. And yet struggle is still present: the challenge now is to work around the applicant tracking system and find good candidates in a more meaningful way. There's just too many resumes to wade through.
CareerScribe continues to gain momentum. Perhaps this truly is the "resume of the 21st century."
I met a guy in Career Services at a big ten university last week. He got kicked off facebook for sending out 700 messages to alumni from university. I love that. Good for him.
700 messages. Whew.
There's an easier way to do this.
It starts by getting graduating seniors to build their profiles on
CareerScribe. It's a perfect tool for them. They have a way to share their professional portfolio and introduction video, free of charge.
Once the students are in CareerScribe, universities can track their career path, geography and they can group them and message out to them by any categorization (e.g., year of graduation, major, etc.). CareerScribe is the way to keep in touch with alums and to promote students. (This is good for companies associated with the university as well: they've got a ready means for candidate sourcing and evaluation.)
Sooo much easier than 700 messages in facebook.
Companies and Universities typically ask CareerScribe, "How many candidates are in your database? And candidates usually ask," How many companies are in CareerScribe, how many jobs are posted?"
Reasonable questions. But, not the best questions. These questions limit the utility of CareerScribe to a job board.
Questions Companies Should Ask- There's too many resumes to functionally screen future employees. How can I conduct candidate evaluation and find the best candidates?
- How can I track the accomplishments and performance of my internal people in a meaningful way?
CareerScribe is the best means to see into candidates presence, accomplishments and aspirations, after you've done the work of candidate sourcing. The free online portfolio candidates populate gives you deep insight into the their work; it's so far beyond a resume. (Of course, candidates can post their resume on CareerScribe.) This concept works the same for internal talent management. You can see their accomplishments and potential so much more clearly. And they're responsible for maintaining it.
Questions Candidates Should Ask- The resume is so limited. Two pages? How do I share best stuff, my professional portfolio?
- How do I stand apart from the sea of candidates out there now?
CareerScribe enables candidates to document and
share their professional profile (i.e., portfolio, introduction video, goals, etc.). With anyone, even if they're not in CareerScribe. This places an excellent, free resource in candidates hands. It can really set a candidate apart.
This utility for candidates and companies is where CareerScribe's immediate value is found. It changes how good people share their stuff and how they're found.
So, the chicken or the egg is a reasonable question, it's just not the most relevant one.
I'm frequently told by people that they don't like the way they look on video, so they'd rather not do it. My answer to them is....... so don't!
Unfortunately, the reality is your competition might be. So like a dating site, you are much less likely to be considered, if you're not willing to introduce yourself through video.
Many companies are turning to video as part of their candidate sourcing process, and if they haven't, they will be thinking strongly about it because of the abundance of talent out there right now. Beyond video introductions, companies will likely incorporate a video job interview as well. This involves the company asking for your response, in a video format, to specific questions they ask.
CareerScribe.com is a tool that was designed with the concept of video introductions and video job interviews in mind. More importantly, CareerScribe.com also allows you to develop a free online portfolio as well.
I was sitting down after emailing with some new registrants on CareerScribe and one topic continued to come up.
Many were struggling with getting lost in the shuffle of candidate sourcing of a large company with competitive jobs. Being lost can be caused by several different things, but operate with the premise that if you are even looking for ideas on how to standout, you must have done the obvious things like:
Performing on the job
Becoming an expert in your field
Creating a stellar resume
Using your network
So why are you still getting lost even if you are highly qualified.
I've written about this subject before but creating new opportunity for an individual is as much about marketing the product (yourself) as any business.
Businesses use accounting software to keep track of assets the company owns. Candidates should be doing the same thing. Many try to do this in their resume, but the traditional paper resume is so limited.
Two IMPORTANT things you should be doing to properly standout:
1) Always stay current in your CareerScribe profile with new entries in your career portfolio, CareerTracker. A professional portfolio helps you stand out by providing more information about yourself
2) If presentation skills are key in your field, almost any professional field, show them off by creating a video introduction. Most recruiters know within a few moments your level of presentation of yourself and how that translates into a presentation of a product or new company. Practicing by creating a video is a fantastic way to brag. This is very different from a video job interview. You get as many mulligans as you need.
Candidate Evaluation is about exchanging information. Companies and candidates both have to exchange information efficiently.
So, now that you have that info in a beautiful form nicely presented, how to do you get that professional portfolio, resume, video, and everything else out there?
Stay tuned. CareerScribe helps you with that too.
It's ironic.
Evaluating and securing top talent is among the most inefficient and inexact things companies do. That's no suprise for anyone. It's a truism. Especially if your in HR. The irony comes out of the reality that "people are the most valuable asset." (Another truism.)
I used to work for a global pharmaceutical company. Where the candidate evaluation system was actually quite rigorous; it was just terribly inefficient. It would take months, in some cases, to find, evaluate and hire the right person.
This needn't be the case. Candidate evaluation can now be managed almost entirely via the Web.
CareerScribe offers candidates a free online portfolio opportunity. After companies have done the work of candidate sourcing, they can simply ask the pool of candidates to upload their career portfolio into CareerScribe. Much of the administration time goes away. It's better than a video job interview; this still requires a coordination of calendars. With CareerScribe, candidates upload their professional portfolio, including their video, and companies can view this information at any point they choose. They can view the profiles as a team or individually. It's all asynchronous.
CareerScribe is also an Applicant Tracking System. Every click is recorded and available for all of the EEOC reports.
Have your candidates fill out their own free online portfolio. It'll save you time and will be a lasting resource for them.
www.careerscribe.com
I remember the sound of typewriter coming from the spare bedroom. This bedroom had recently been converted to a home office because my dad chose to leave his job and begin looking for work elsewhere. He typed out resume after resume. This was before word processors. This was before digital communication. He and my mom literally typed out each resume, sealed it up in a brown envelope, and mailed it off. Bazaar.
Now, candidate sourcing is conducted via the Web, of course. Hiring managers pursue quality hiring by subscribing to job boards and accessing more resumes than they can possibly sort through.
I wonder when this particular tool for candidate evaluation - the resume - will become as antiquated as the typewriter.
Our identities now live on the Web, in amazing detail. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. Full personal and professional portfolios can be uploaded. This reality renders the standard resume (listing only previous employers, titles and time durations) seem so very limited.
When will online employee screening become entirely different, where hiring managers are reviewing entire career portfolios as the standard? When's the tipping point when we all realize how outdated the resume is?
In today's job market, where companies can be very fussy about quality hiring, I can't help but think it will be soon.
The two-page resume just doesn't make sense anymore.
I was fortunate enough to be highlighted in the Indianapolis Star's January 11 Business section's "My Big Break" article.
Having been around the Indianapolis Job Search market now for 12 years, I owe my success to having a good sense of timing. You can have some of the best ideas in the world, but without the right resources and good timing, they won't materialize.
Take poor Al Gore for example.... that close to inventing the internet... but his timing was just a bit off. :-)
Having the opportunity to sell my first business endeavour, just before the economic downturn was good timing.... starting a career portfolio / candidate sourcing tool, during the some of the highest demand for employment tools and more efficient candidate evaluation processes, brought on by some of the highest unemployment levels since the depression.... good timing.
I wish I could say I have a crystal ball, or was really that smart. Truth is... I consider myself lucky. I just hope that we have the right resources committed to CareerScribe.com; otherwise, with all the good timing in the world, I'll be the one pointing at the #1 Video Job Interview service saying... "that was suppose to be me".
In a recent survey conducted by Spherion Corp, approximately 33% of U.S. workers plan to look for a new job in 2009. That works out to somewhere around 45 million people that plan to change jobs.
So is this bad news... well it certainly isn't good news if you're one of the 45 million, but if you're an employer in this market, it's great news. The bad news is existing candidate sourcing processes may not work, since there may be a deluge of candidates to screen through. Employers should be considering advanced online employee screening tools such as CareerScribe, which offers free online portfolios to candidates that in turn significantly helps employers screen employees in a more insightful way and in much less time.
This candidate rich market is an inventory building opportunity for any company that plans to hire someone in the next 2 years. Statistics would say that candidates not normally as active in the employment market, are now looking, but they will become passive again.
Companies should be investing in better talent management systems that allow for the database to be linked to regularly updated career information, like CareerScribe offers.
Currently the job market is looking a little heavier on the candidate side as companies are forced to release high quality talent due to shrinking markets and lower profits.
Many economists are predicting a turnaround in 2009 however. This will result in high candidate sourcing demands requiring companies to screen employees at a record level.
Obama is planning on using up to $850 billion dollars to create new jobs and stimulate the economy. Now is the time for candidates to update their career portfolio.
If candidate's do not have a career portfolio, creating a free online portfolio is easy. CareerScribe.com has the best portfolio and is improving candidate's ability to market themselves.
As the U.S. struggles to come out of this recession, it will all begin with new hiring and top talent. The job search begins with great career management. Companies will begin to hire this new talent. Even people with great jobs will find even better opportunity.
Obama's plan includes many public projects over the next 2-4 years. He also is planning to make Congress more transparent by making bills more accessible and publishing the plans online for the public to evaluate.
Now is the time to take advantage of the opportunity that will be created by this upcoming economic stimilus package.
So unemployment rates are the highest they've been in years, and your faced with conducting a job search when competition is high. What can you do?
As with any competition.... you should first think about what everyone else is doing. Most of them will be looking for jobs on the internet, firing up their network (most of which they haven't talked with in the past year) and sending off that same old boring resume they just updated. Sound familiar? If you're doing the same thing your competition is doing... how can you expect to stand out in your job search?
To stand out amongst your competition, you should consider more advanced tools such as online portfolios and brief video introductions. Tools such as
CareerScribe are becoming very popular, and provide free online portfolios for users.
If you really want to be different, consider verifying your degrees and certifications, as well as consider getting a credit and criminal background check performed on yourself in advance of approaching a company. Most companies perform these steps as part of the candidate sourcing and employee screening process anyway.
The cost is really minimal, and is a great investment. What it says about you, your honesty, and believability is enormous. How much more believable is your resume, if someone knows you have taken steps to verify the information for them in advance?
Companies (those who are hiring) are conducting more rigorous candidate evaluation than ever. And this, well before the first interview.
The two page resume is still prominent, but candidate sourcing is moving well beyond job boards and simple resumes. Companies are now looking to receive as much information as possible about a candidate before beginning synchronous contact. In other words, they want to see a candidate's career portfolio prior to being in touch. It's no longer enough to simply bring the portfolio to the first interview.
Think about it from the company's point of view. If they can conduct a rigorous candidate evaluation prior to even taking the time to set up a phone interview, they're going to do it. It saves them a dramatic amount of time. Instead of 20 downloaded resumes and 5 phone interviews. They can now look at 40 unique, free online portfolios and get a much deeper sense of the candidates - while saving time.
It pays to get your career portfolio online. What projects have you led? What designs have you created? Where are those official transcripts from the MS degree. Get them in a safe place on the Web. This affords you two advantages : 1. you always know where all of this information is; and 2. companies you're interested in can review your experience and professional portfolio early in the process. This places you well ahead in the process to get noticed and considered deeply.
Looking for a place to upload your entire professional portfolio? Check out www.careerscribe.com.
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