The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is conducting a challenge to find online career and search tools. This is a perfect challenge for CareerScribe as we are a free, ongoing virtual career management system for individuals to develop their personal brand.
The DOL has created a website for this challenge, that allows a company in enter information about its solution. After a company enters into the challenge, it is up to the public to vote (and comment) on entries. CareerScribe has already submitted our application and would love your help in securing a top spot in this challenge, as we provide opportunities for both individuals and companies to utilize our online platform and services for career management and development.
One vote already cast for us summarized our tool in a great comment:
"As a Career Coach, I find this tool to be extremely useful in two primary ways.
1. Information -
While preparing my clients for a job search, this tool gives them the ability to collect all of their valuable information about their career in one place.
2. Presentation-
The CareerScribe system allows for a through and organized presentation of their skills to potential employers.
I am confident that this system has helped many of my clients in the acquisition of their next opportunities, and I intend on using it for years to come."
To cast your vote and help us continue the CareerScribe movement, and grow our community, follow these steps:
1) Visit the U.S. DOL Challenge
2) Click "Login/Signup"
3) Enter unique email address (each email counts as 1 vote) and create password
4) Answer the 2 questions and click "post data"
Here's the important part!
You are now logged in and can submit your vote.... to do so:
5) Visit the CareerScribe entry page
-
Be sure it says "CareerScribe" before you vote!
6) Click "Recommend Tool" to vote
And your done!
We appreciate all your help, and look forward to helping more individuals develop their personal brand and manage their careers! For more information on how CareerScribe works with companies for quality hiring and our applicant tracking system, you can find more information here.
This morning, CareerScribe presented at an event called "Branding Yourself". The name is pretty self explanatory. It's exciting to see that many people are becoming aware of the concept of personal branding. Although, when the attendees were asked why they were there, of the 120 in attendance, most were there because they were involved in an Indianapolis Job Search.
Unfortunately, it seems that most people associate personal branding with resumes and looking for a job. Personal branding is something that needs to develop over time, it's not something you do in a day, week or even a month. Brands are not developed overnight! It should be viewed as a long process. Be deliberate about the brand you want to develop, and add something every week to your story, and eventually over time, your brand will develop.
There are many free online portfolios that can help you accomplish the organization associated with this process. Selecting the best tool, like
CareerScribe, is an important part of the process. The right tool should allow you to tell your story with words, documents, photos and video. It should be easy to navigate, and it should allow you to share your story, or professional portfolio, with others.
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.
So we've all heard it by now - the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over the same way and expect different results. Yet we all do it.
So after running and doing weights for two years, I haven't seen much of a change in my physique in the last twelve months. But I had been doing the same thing, thinking eventually I'll see different results. Duh. Time to try something new.
So I went to an orienteering meet with a friend this weekend (pause while you all google 'orienteering'). I didn't have the right gear, so I had to invest some time to put toghether the assets I would need to succeed. Then asked my friend a MILLION questions about what to expect, so I would be mentally prepared. Finally, I showed up. Deep breath....
I loved it! What a great workout, escpecially since I was so distracted by my self-preservation insticts to notice the stinging nettles and sweat in my eyes. You know, the thought of trying someting new is often far more fear-invoking than actually DOING something new.
So if you have blasted out 100 resumes with little to no success, are you going to continue a process that has not yielded the result you want, or will you spend the time to create your free online portfolio to improve your Indianapolis job search? And if it seems overwelming, ask us questions, a MILLION if you need to. We're hear to help you succeed (and I promise, no stinging nettles!).
If you check out the following link, you'll learn where you could move to quickly find a job:
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/where-struggling-americans-can-find-a-fresh-start.htmlI'll give you a little cheat sheet. The top 5 places for growth, safety, good schools, etc are in Alaska (brrrr), Utah (hot), Washington (rainy), Nebraska (flat), and Iowa (I get corn rash). Now I'm sure the inhabitants of these locations are enamored with their landscape and weather, but as for me, I'd like to stay right here. So if I were looking for a job, I'd have a choice to make - tough it out in the competitive market I'm in, or learn the 100+ words for snow or get a giant tube of Cortaid.
So I'll stay here and tough it out. But to be succesful at that, I'm going to need to stand out the vast sea of job seekers. MY FIRST ACT as a job seeker would be to create a free online portfolio at CareerScribe.com. My Indianapolis job search will be more successful if I can supply employers with more than just a resume. Remember, being noticed is the hardest part of being a candidate. So quit reading this blog, and create your professional portfolio at
www.careerscribe.com!
Have you ever met someone who lacked the experience, but made up for it in enthusiasm, professionalism, and drive? Those candidates are often some of the best hires, but they rarely make it through applicant tracking systems. Level the playing field for quality candidates and ask for CareerScribe Profiles.
Candidates in the Indianapolis job market know how tough it is get in front of the decision makers, especially if they lack one or two qualificaitons. Perhaps there is a sales person who misses the "3-5 years of experience" by 6 months, so your applicant tracking system omits them. But a tenacious, driven rep who is a little green is usually preferred over the guy with 10 yrs of experience in beating the system. On online career portfolio that includes video will help you include those candidate who lack some skill/experience without spending the time, energy, and money to bring them in for an interview.
So I really want to know...do you prefer experience or enthusiasm? Your comments are requested!
It's seems that it has become more and more acceptable to arrive late to a meeting.
I am as guilty as the next person, maybe more, when it comes to showing up on time.... all the time. I find myself easily distracted by "one more call", "one more email", etc. I may have started out with every intention of being 10-15 minutes early, but that last call or task I decided to take on, always seems to make me 3-5 minutes late.
Most of the people I talk with, seem to be ok with being 5-10 minutes late for a meeting, but there are certainly a number of more traditional/"old schoolers", who will significantly devalue you, if for no other reason than you arrived late. This especially seems to be the case in the Indianapolis job search market.
So here are the rules I've established :
1) If you're going to be late, even 1 minute, call or text message the person you are meeting, and let them know you're running a few minutes behind. In return, the person you are meeting should wait with no hard feelings.
2) If you are running more than 10 minutes behind, call and text message if they don't answer. Also send an email because most seem to get emails instantaneously on phones anymore. Be very apologetic, and don't make excuses. Give the person you are meeting the option to reschedule, and expect it if you are running more than 15 minutes behind.
3) Finally, if you are the one waiting, and you haven't received any calls, texts or emails from the person you are supposed to be meeting with. Wait for 10 minutes, try calling them and leave a message. Anything over 15 minutes late, you are free to go with no guilt on your part.
NEVER be late to an interview. Being on time speaks to enthusiasm, organization and planning in the candidate evaluation process. Interviewers will use this to screen employees.
Of course.... I'm writing this blog while I'm waiting on someone that is now nearly 30 minutes late with no call. I think I'll leave!
I attended an unconference today sponsored by Catalist Jobs (catalistjobs.com) where experts (including our own Jeff Bockelman) spoke to candidates regarding strategies to a successful job search. So I was curious, does the information being given to your potential candidates match up with what companies are saying they want?
yes and no.
There was a consistent message of uniqueness, creativity, and professionalism in the tone and content of today's speakers. And companies say they want a stand out candidate to fill the position. But are companies utilizing opportunities in candidate evaluation, beyond just an applicant tracking system, to screen employees and get the result they are looking for? Not unless they're using CareerScribe.
A resume is a good start, but it's just a start. If someone handed you a yearbook and asked you to pick a spouse, you'd laugh, right? But you'll get about as much info from a yearbook as you will a resume. A general understanding of the person, but hardly enough info to make a smart commitment. Ask for more.
Ask for a professional portfolio through CareerScribe. This online employee employee screening tool brings you a giant, efficient step forward in the commitment of hiring an new employee, teammate, bottom-line impacter!
Give candidates the (mutually beneficial) opportunity to present themselves in a unique, creative, and professional way.
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.
So I was reading my yahoo email and this teaser caught my eye:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090506/ap_on_re_as/as_australia_world_s_best_jobPretty amazing. In short, this guy submits one of 35,000 video applications to be the "caretaker"of an island off Australia and write a blog to promote the area. Skill assesments included swimming, eating, and relaxing. I'm now consdering a change in career - Professional Relaxer.
Seriously, though, how in the world do you fill the best job in the world (this lucky Aussie will pull down six digits this year)? It's hard enough to fill jobs here in the Indianapolis area with all the hopeful applicants who apply.
In a phrase, ONLINE EMPLOYEE SCREENING. Notice the story does not indicate that resumes were requested, but online videos were mandatory. This Queensland organization knew whoever they choose needed to represent them well, be well spoken, have a great personality, and strong writing skills. And make sure you check out the picture of this guy - obviously there were not looking for just another pretty face!
That's why CareerScribe is such a great choice when you consider improving your process for quality hiring. Asking candidates to complete their free online porfolio, which gives you the opportunity to conduct candidate evalutations earlier in the process, can make your hires quicker (fewer face to face interview with dud candidates), more in-depth (you already have good understanding of their background, expectations, preferences, etc), and ultimately more successful (better information, better hiring success).
So even if your open position does not require long hours by the pool, it is
someone's "best job in the world." Make sure you find them - the right person, not just a warm body.
I saw this great article about folks looking for a job leveraging the power of a video job interview.
Check it out:
http://bit.ly/JbRQRHere's a quote from the article.
“Of all the 55 or so applications we received, Ryan's was the only one who had a video resume attached,” says Jossie Orense, who was an assistant to the dean at the time he applied for the job. The video resume definitely helped get him in the door, she says. “It was our first time to ever receive a video link, we were curious about what he had to say.”
The time for sharing video as a position / candidate evaluation tool is certainly at hand. Now add to that the ability for candidates to share their online
professional portfolio with prospective employers. It really changes much of what we know about conducting a job search, for the candidate and for the company. And for candidates ... it's free.
Here's a final quote from the article, “I can’t say I got the job because of it, but I think it made me seem more legit."
No question about it.
In the Indianapolis Job Search market, many people are asking me what questions they can ask to help insure the company they are interviewing with is stable.
First thing to know, is there aren't ANY guarantees. A company may appear to do well, and then something changes. Life cycles of companies are cyclical, and there will be ups and downs. Just because some bad events seem to occur within a year of you starting a job, doesn't mean you were lied to, or the facts were misrepresented.
However... that being said, there are certainly several things to ask a company, that might help you measure stability. The important thing to keep in mind when asking these "tougher" questions, is to wait until after the candidate evaluation process is over. You may even want to wait until they have made you an offer, but you haven't accepted.
1) Ask "Has there been any significant events in the companies recent history (3 years), either positive or negative, that I should be aware of? Anything that I will hear about after starting work, and will feel silly for not knowing."
2) Ask "What is the outlook for the company in the next 1 year, 3 years, 5 years. Are they considering buying other companies, strategic mergers or sale of any company divisions or assets."
3) Ask "How leveraged is the company right now? How much debt does the company have, and where does it come from.... banks, private equity, owners, etc." Keep in mind, if the company isn't public, you may not get a complete answer on this one.
4) If the person you are interviewing with, has been with the company for less than 3 years, ask "After accepting your position with the company, did you discover anything about the company's culture, or way of doing business, that was a surprise to you?"
These are a few questions that can help you collect some additional information, that may help in your decision.
However, reading a person's body language, eye contact, voice inflections, etc., may give you more insight to the answers you are really looking for.
Anyone can have an free online portfolio. Beyond a static resume, CareerScribe permits Candidates to capture and display all of their career highlights, skills, activities, documents and achievements they have received over time. Leveraging CareerScribe’s unique CareerTracker, Candidates can digitize and upload any document or artifact that brings legitimacy to the claims on their resume. Examples include academic transcripts, PowerPoint decks, certifications, letters of recommendations, etc. Any document, of nearly any format, can be uploaded into their individual online portfolio.
Are you in the Indianapolis Job Search? Your professional portfolio can be shared with anyone. It's so darn practical ... and awesome.
I was recently asked the question, what's the
best way a job seeker can go about getting feedback after an interview if they did not land the job?
My simple advice would be :
Be honest… and “ask for help” not “feedback”. I HATE the word feedback…. way overused. I would send an email, more likely a voicemail, and say. “I’m wondering if you could help me out, since I wasn’t fortunate enough to be the one you offered the position too. I’m just trying to better myself for my next interview and learn more about what others think of me in an interview setting, so I can beat out my competition next time. I’m most curious about any thoughts you can give me about my presence and presentation skills. How did I come across? Would you say I was genuine and honest? Did I do a good job with matching my skills and strengths to the position?, etc.”
Most important… be specific with questions you have. Don’t expect an answer to the question… “What feedback can you give me?”. Ask specific questions that someone can respond to, like the ones above.
Leverage the fact that the employer feels bad for you, since it’s a tough market. Especially if you KNOW you were the #2 or #3 candidate for the job. In the Indianapolis job search market, a lot of people will try to help you out, if you aren’t pushy, but sincere and appreciative of their time. Thank them immensely if you get information. They’re taking a risk by providing candidate evaluation information to you.
If you weren’t even in the running…. top 3 or 4.. don’t bother asking for feedback, they probably don’t even remember you. J
So I'm driving in the 12 inches of snow we received the other day in Indianapolis, and I realized there is a metaphor to our approach in driving in bad weather, and the way we live our lives and manage our careers.
So.... my questions is..... are you the person driving fast in the left lane in bad weather, or are you the person with your hazard lights on in the right lane driving slow, and upset with all the dangerous drivers in the left lane passing you?????
I contend that most people go through life in the right lane with their hazards on, afraid to take risks and get in the fast lane. They would prefer everyone slow down and get in the right lane.
Truth is.... the one's in the fast lane, although they may get in accidents, are also the one's that advance quicker in their careers because they are willing to try new things, and take risks. Tools such as free online portfolios, like
CareerScribe offers, give professionals the ability to track their career accomplishments, and represent themselves in video job interviews. These tools are attractive to employers, and will allow them to do a better job of quality hiring.
So you can choose to take a chance and adopt new online technologies to manage your career, or you can keep your hazard lights on in the right lane and update your resume!
CareerScribe has formed a great space in the new way companies and candidates are connecting. If you haven't seen it, check out our new article in the Indianapolis Star.
1) Candidate Evaluation Time - Companies spend a lot of time and money evaluating talent. In order to correctly achieve quality hiring, companies have traditionally gone to great measures to gather information about potential employees.
CareerScribe allows companies to get a wealth of information much earlier in the hiring process by leveraging items like free online portfolios for candidates, video, document sharing, and other items that indicate what that particular person is looking for in a new opportunity.
2) Future Talent Management - Companies aren't always hiring. We know that, but the top companies are always keeping in touch with emerging top talent and existing valuable veterans in the industry. This is hard when the talent pool is deep as it currently is with layoffs.
CareerScribe allows companies to maintain contacts or even track candidates and tie them to potential future positions. It's a talent pipeline that feeds your company.
3) Up-To-Date Data - Unfortunately, many companies collect resumes for the future because they understand the importance of issue two. However, by the time it's time to call on that candidate, that professional portfolio or resume is out of date.
CareerScribe has become a destination for that new talent. As they stay up on their career objectives and accomplishments, so do you. All of a sudden those stale resumes don't seem so stale do they?
4) Screen Candidates - A lot of larger companies have some sort of Applicant Tracking System. It's clunky and old and has been there since the 90 year old Recruiter (no offense to the 90 year olds out there)! This has even hightened the pain of issue 3. Smaller companies can't afford a first class Applicant Tracking System and even if they could, it's too complex for the resources of a medium sized business, not to mention the small business owner.
CareerScribe brings tools to allow candidates to pass through stages during the hiring process. Since CareerScribe already shortens the process at the get go, you start with a more qualified talent pool. Now taking those candidates and tracking them with an online tool...how much more could you get done? Ask CareerScribe companies.
5) Employee Screening - It's very hard for someone who does not manage an employee daily to really get insight into how much value they bring to the company, especially when it comes to evalutations. Most direct managers are doing those evaluations, but even they struggle to remember all the accomplishments that the best employees accomplished. All the while, that top employee may be looking or being pursued by the competition.
Many CareerScribe companies are using the tools to help organically grow their company and growing new managers and executives from the incredible talent inside. With CareerScribe, they are able to keep evaluations and notes on a particular person safe and secure, digitally. Documenting HR actions is great, not only for legal reasons, but for employee development.
Check out CareerScribe and see how much it can help a successful company become even better!
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".
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.
I continue to talk with many people who are apprehensive about the stability of their current position, and wondering what they can do. I recently spoke about this very topic in an interview on the Fox59 Morning Show in Indianapolis on December 29.
It's seems surprising to me how many people are bitter about the volatility in the employment market, or losing their positions, but when I ask them if they have done anything to prevent it, they often look at me confused.
We have all known for months now that economic conditions are worse than ever, which means if you haven't heard it directly.... you're employer is likely desperately trying to find solutions to ease their cash flow problems. So ask if there is anything more you can do, any additional work you can perform. Put in a few extra hours a week, even if you're not being paid for it.
I don't want to suggest going to extremes too quickly, but even suggesting a cut in pay or reduction in benefits might significantly help your company, or at the very least.... make you look like a team player. Would you rather make 5-10% less for a year or two, or be unemployed. Realize that most companies will greatly appreciate the effort... and over the next 5-10 years, you will likely end up making more.
Remember that career mangement is a long term strategy, not just a paycheck every two weeks.
But never forget to keep your professional portfolio updated at all times, in the event that your best efforts still aren't enough. There are many free online portfolio services such as
CareerScribe that make this process easy.
Thank you.....
Jeff Bockelman
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?
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