I have to admit I am someone that does listen to some of the conversations that go on at other tables around me at the local
Starbucks,
Paradise Bakery and
Panera Breads.
It's amazing how many of those conversations seem to touch on employment. Either someone is unhappy in their job, looking for a job, trying to fill a job... or just frustrated with their staff. My guess is that 75% of coffee shop conversations will touch on employment at some point.
Furthermore, coffee shops have become second offices for many professionals, and one business meeting can result in 3-5 mini meetings when you are introduced to others by the person you're with at the time. Kinda like speed networking!
Those mini meetings at coffee shops allow the next meeting to be warm, and much easier. Likewise, building a profile on
CareerScribe, along with an introduction video, is an easy way to introduce yourself beyond a one page resume, making that next meeting all the more warm. When you realize that you can build a professional portfolio as part of your CareerScribe profile, you can understand how first interviews can be eliminated, and why online employee screening is becoming so popular.
I never thought the Weiner Mobile could be outdone.
... but then the Nut Mobile comes along!!!
You just never know what you'll see when you're out driving around. Brands are all around us. If we were only as recognizable as Mr. Peanut, we wouldn't have to worry about a career portfolio. A place like
CareerScribe to put our best work and examples of our accomplishments to help develop our own personal brands.
Companies are always looking for progressive ways to differentiate and screen employees, both internal and external. Consider progressive ways to represent yourselves to them!
In a recent comment to the Smaller Indiana question above, I offered these thoughts:
The term "personal brand", is a bit lame... but it has begun to stick. I live in this space, and I can tell you, that in just the last 30 days, I have heard the term "personal brand" used and recognized more than in the last 6 months. I'm willing to wager, you are going to hear it more in the next year, and it will be nothing new in 3 years.
Call it what you will, the concept is about the information that is available to everyone about you. Information that forms a basis for who people think you are.... whether it is your hobbies and interests, your religious affiliation, your family, your education, your career, charitable work, where you grew up, etc., etc., etc. Organizaitons use this information to screen employees. Fair or not, all of these things collectively allow others to form an opinion of you. An opinion that you can't discuss with them.... not that they would even give you a straight answer if you asked them anyway.
Everyone should consider being proactive with this. You will have a tough time removing much of the information on you that can be found on the internet, but you can make a conscious decision about what you would like others to think about you in the next 5-10 years, and try to manage that impression. Develop an online professional portfolio of your best stuff. Over time.... you can likely change your "brand", much like Target did.... but it takes time.
Most are going to talk about personal branding, but many aren't going to take the long term steps necessary to really make a difference. I believe that there is great opportunity here.... obviously (CareerScribe), to get ahead of your competition, at least for a few years.... then who knows.
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!!!!
In a recent career class at Indiana University, a student asked an interesting question. This student was concerned that an employer would actually take the time to review their professional portfolio on
CareerScribe.
My response is
"Well... do you think an employer is taking the time to review your resume among hundreds?"
It's not the first time that I've heard this comment. Unfortunately, what I've come to find is the question is really less about whether they believe an employer would want to have additional details, proof, artifacts and a video introduction to screen employees...
OF COURSE THEY DO! The reality is that most people just dread the idea of having to spend more time documenting their career accomplishments, successes, etc. Do a video?..... "
I hate the way I look on video." They are hoping they can just get by with that boring resume!
Fact is.... you can get by with just a resume. Resumes will not be going away anytime soon. The question to ask yourself is do I want to be competing for jobs with an archaic, dying tool like a resume, or do I want to give myself an edge by using progressive tools that help me tell my story through a free online portfolio... and make my best first impression through video? Give a potential employer the opportunity to get some real insight on you, without asking them to invest 4-10 hours of time scheduling, and bringing you in for an interview, which most of the time doesn't result in a fit.
My final comment.... as your "
Career Personal Trainer".... Don't be so lazy, and get out there and compete in the top 10% of your peer group who are using these technologies to present themselves and their personal brand in a compelling way.
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.
Video is a great tool for personal branding. If you're not using it currently, you should and likely will. So better to start getting comfortable with it now.
Speaking as a former Accountant and CPA, I know video is scary for 75% of the professionals out there. You see it all the time on the internet,
YouTube, etc., everyone makes it look so easy, but you get paralyzed before even explore it.
Most phones or even cameras have decent forms of video quality now. Quality that is perfectly acceptable for use in your professional portfolio, etc. Other options include webcams,
flip videos ($129 or less at Best Buy) and personal digital video cameras. I often try to steer professionals away from overdone, overedited videos. Being yourself, or at least your professional self (so know kegger party videos), is usually more effective these days when using video for personal branding or video job interviews.
Since it is highly recommended that you keep these personal, professional video introductions to no more than a minute or so, it is frequently possible to do the video in one take, with a little practice. However, using simple video editors, like
MS Windows Movie Maker... which comes standard on most computers, can be a lot of fun and not take a lot of time. If you're video is much longer than 1 to 1.5 minutes, you risk not having it viewed during the online employee screening process.
When you think about your opportunity to make
YOUR BEST FIRST IMPRESSION through the use of video, or you can just follow the heard by continuing to send resumes, I don't understand why everyone isn't using video.
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.
When I coach clients through the task of finding new employment or moving ahead in their career, my first question is, "How are you unique?" Very few job seekers answer that question well. And I'll admit, it's tough; we spend so much time trying to fit in to the organizations we belong to, being unique rarely gets a second thought. But as a candidate in the market for a new or better job, it should be your first thought.
Every step of the employment process is potentially fatal - a rotten resume lands you in the trash can, a poorly executed interview drops you from consideration, lackluster follow through and ill managed salary negotiations thwart even the best of candidates. I'm stressed out even writing about it! What is a job seeker to do?
How about thinking and acting like a unique candidate. Present a resume in a non-traditional format - CareerScribe Profile - and start off on the right foot. Embed a resume that laughs at medocrity, shoot a video that screams, "I can think, act, and perform in a way that will bring in a profit," and proactively reach out to potential employers with enough included information to earn an interview. Online emlpoyee screening and applicant tracking sytems are time consuming and often fruitless. Give them something to really sink their teeth into.
And while CareerScribe can't hold your hand in an interview, it can buy you some confidence. Your potential employer, who is focused on effecient and quality hiring, has already met you through your video introduction. That dreaded first impression has already been made, on your terms, so you can relax and foucs on demonstrating your value and expertise.
Don't just send off your resume (yawn) and hope for the best. Send your career profile and knock their socks off when they begin candidate evaluations. Good luck!
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'll admit, I hesitated for a moment to join twitter - but I'm glad that moment has passed. I'm following Chuck Gillespie, and I recently viewed a tweet that stated, "Amazed at how orgs worry about their applicant experience ten times more than employee experience. Why?" (http://crgillespie.wordpress.com) OMG, LOL!
But it's true, right? Firms wine and dine potential, but neglect assets? You'll knock yourself out to create a quality hiring process, spend countless hours screening potential employees, and endure long meetings to discuss candidate evaluations. But once you have found your golden boy, he's just another cog in the works.
Create an experience that's meaningful and lasting for candidates on both sides of the process. Those who want in should create a professional portfolio through CareerScribe so your evaluation is effecient and successful. Once that candidate is on board, they utilize that same application to create an on-going talent mangagement system that allows you to easily recognize and promote high performing employees. In the end, you're creating an environment that's attractive to people inside and outside of your organization.
Tweet, tweet.
I have never met a manager who looked forward to a layoff. Unfortunately, it's an all too common occurrence these days. Every manager searches for the kindest words, right approach, or best justification when delivering the news, but it's tough to find anything that feels adequate. Losing a job has been likened to going through divorce, and managers know what hardships may lay ahead for ex-employees. But many employers are doing their best to soften the blow.
Career coaches and outplacement firms are contracted by employers to aid recently severed employees in getting a leg up on other job seekers. Professionally written resumes, interview coaching, networking strategies, and professional document creation are typical components of the service. Good start, but something is missing - a comprehensive, on-line, value driven, accomplishment laden, job preference identifying career portfolio.
Consider using outplacement/career coaching firms as partners in a layoff, and ask them to include CareerScribe in their curriculum. An on-line professional portfolio will go a long way in helping candidates obtain their next position, and will be a permanent asset to them. As previous employees move forward in their search, they can use these career portfolios to present immediate value and stand out in candidate evaluations.
As a previous career coach, I can tell you those services are the hope and motivation that is absent for so many job seekers. Including CareerScribe brings tangible value to a much needed, and greatly appreciated, service.
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.
Here's some copy from the official press release. Nice.
ExactTarget, which plans to hire more than 100 additional new associates this year, will initially use CareerScribe to evaluate technical candidates for its Solutions Consulting Group.
“We’re excited to be working with ExactTarget and to provide them with a powerful method that will considerably reduce the amount of time spent evaluating and pursuing the most qualified candidates,” said Jeff Bockelman, founder and president of CareerScribe. “I know from experience how much time can be invested during the first round of the hiring process. As a professional recruiter, I spent hours upon hours interviewing individuals who I knew within the first few minutes of meeting were not going to be right for the position. That is one of the reasons we founded CareerScribe.”
In addition to recruiting resources, CareerScribe’s platform also provides companies with tools to simplify the performance management process for their current employees. Employees can catalogue their current skill sets, goals and track day-to-day accomplishments via CareerScribe’s exclusive CareerTracker tool. The tool provides employees with an online career journal to highlight major career accomplishments, upload supporting documents and store the information on visual timelines. At the end of the year, the journal provides both employees and managers rich documentation on accomplishments, making data compilation for performance reviews easier.
“CareerScribe provides yet another resource for us to leverage to build our team,” said Todd Richardson, ExactTarget’s vice president of human resources and risk management. “The technology gives us additional tools to interact with candidates across the country.”
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!
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.
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