Tag Archives | Recruiters

Top Tips For A Job Seeker

Over 1M Recruiters, Who Is The Right One?

Every job has it’s perks and down falls and the biggest downfall in recruitment is the quality of talent that comes through staffing firms directly so here are the qualities needed for top performing recruiters you should know about if you are going to be working with them:

Emotional Intelligence: Being smart is one thing but a great recruiter needs to be able to read people and situations. They need to know what to say when and how, and WITHOUT LYING! Lying gets you nowhere but trouble

Diligent To The Point of Obsession: It’s one thing to be a perfectionist however top performing recruiters are people of the now with the vision of the long term as everything has to happen instantly for their candidates and their clients but building the solid relationship is always #1.

Multi-Task Masters: There is no way a top performing recruiter will take on one job at a time or talk to one candidate for one search. The don’t NEED a retained search as they know that they will find the top candidate and there’s no way they are working with one company so why make a company work with only them? Due to their busy desk, they need to know how to manage a different projects at different stages, hand while being observant enough to know what priorities are. As I was once told it’s “Magic hands”.

Listen: In sales it’s always important to listen but recruiters aren’t just sales people selling a glass. Their class walks, talks, speaks to other glasses and if they fall of the shelf, the recruiter can’t just find the exact same glass. So it’s so important they listen to the needs of their clients.

Caring: In all jobs the bottom line is important but someone who is in recruitment for the money is in it for the wrong reasons. The career placement industry isn’t a numbers game, it’s about changing lives.

Friendly: If the recruiter you are working with can not take the time to talk to you with a smile and caring voice, you have a problem

Sense of Sportsmanship:Recruiting is the People Person Sport. It’s impossible to be a successful recruiter without a team. It takes a village to make the right higher. They need the right tools and guidance from their clients and their candidates so if they aren’t working with you, they aren’t going to be able to help you

Energized: If a recruiter sounds like Eeyor you have a problem, they shouldn’t be like Tiger either. You need them to be a healthy balance of professional, fun and educated regarding your needs.

Self-Motivated: A recruiters lively hood depends on the clients they manage and the jobs they fill. If they are happy with just being at the level they are at, they will not strive to fill your jobs as they have no drive. A top preforming recruiter has drive faster then a formula 1 racer.

Ridiculous Researcher: A top recruiter won’t just research a company to know what they do, they will know the company and the match of what they are looking for better then an adult tooth moving into a mouth. They love to research, to the point of almost stalking. It;s their passion to research, learn and talk to others. It’s just in their blood.

Laugh At Themselves: If they can’t laugh at themselves they will die as some things said and done along the way can kill them…literally.

14 Small Business, Big Hiring Mistakes

Expanding a small company is never easy. Everyone has a role and in a small office a bad hire has a greater impact. Below are 14 of the biggest hiring mistakes small business make:

Hiring A Friend Not A Fit: Your friend is great but unless you already have an established company keep them out of the office. There are studies that less work is completed when hiring a friend plus there is a reason you don’t mix business with pleasure…not everyone can separate the two.

Not Knowing What You Need:You know you need someone but do you know where or how. Write a list regarding where you feel your company is lacking strength from there you can decide where you need to hire but once you decide to commit to hire, hire.

Hiring Someone With Limited Skills: Don’t pin one person into a specific category. When hiring, think of their growth potential as you intend on growing.

Hiring Someone Do To A Bit Of Everything:You don’t want a jack of all trades with skills in none. You want someone who can fill a specific void or strengthen a weakness.

Hiring Someone Who Is Cheap: When push comes to shove if you hire the cheapest option you will get the least results. There are times you need to pay more to get more or at least know the market value of what you are looking for. Pay less and you risk losing that person which will cost you a lot more in the long run.

Hiring Someone To Help Them: You need someone, and yes many people need work but even a non-profit has to be selective and you are not a charity. You became an entrepreneur to run your own business, make your own hours and see success where there were clear issues in the systems out there. Remember that when hiring.

Making People Partners Too Soon:If you can’t afford someone, don’t hire them. Making someone a partner too soon means you will not have control over your own company, is that what you want so soon?? Hire those with potential but don’t make them partners off the bat.

Take Too Long To Take A Decision: Great talent who is interested in your company will get off the market quickly if they decide to interview at other places so don’t take too long to hire your ideal candidate. If you like them, put a ring on it!

Nitpicking: Being overly picky will hinder your chances of hiring the right person. There is no such thing as perfect. You have to make compromises

Over Hiring: Do not hire so many people that you don’t know what to do with them or that you have to train everyone at once. Know what your needs are then hire accordingly. Everyone will have their place but there’s no point in hiring 10 people if there’s only enough work for 4.

Over Interviewing: You need to know the person you are going to bring on is the right person for you. You can interview them, have them interview team members, give them a test and have a trial but after all that, you really need to make a hiring decision.

Not Prepared To Conduct An Interview: When someone arrives at your office, have your questions in hand. Know what you want to know from the person. Respect their time and ask questions about them while giving information about your company. This is not a you show. You do not need to prove why you are worth working for. Let them figure that out through their own answers.

Do Not Do Background Checks: You love the person, they have everything you need and want. They are 11 on 10 but don’t jump the gun just yet. Make sure you or someone you know checks their references or does a background check on them. Just because they appear great, know they might just be great interviewers…be weary.

Don’t Consider Head-Hunters: Small companies work on tight budgets. Shop around as some agencies aren’t as expensive as you think they are and can work with you to ensure you make the right hire. As stated earlier a bad hire can cost you a lot more then a little recruiting fee and a great recruiter will help you through the entire process.

Write THIS Resume To Land Your Dream Job!

The time will come when you want to leave your snug job and when that time comes you have to ask yourself: “Is my resume parallel to the career I am looking for?” That resume you put together in college landed you your first office job but as you try to scurry up the food chain that resume sink right into the interweb trash can. So as you grow up, so should your resume.

1) Write about your achievements. You had x job and did a, b, c. But NO you didn’t just do a,b,c you accomplished x, y, z!! You save the company money, you opened multinationals, you led a team of all sorts of trades, you negotiated off the ying and the yang to reach the end of the earth for the company you worked for and THIS IS HOW!! Explain what you did and how you did it! Your new hiring manager wants to see numbers and names. Throw them!

2) You didn’t just reach targets you went above and beyond because you did THIS!

3) Add color and spice and everything nice. You need to stand out on paper. Your resume is you selling yourself on paper. Cap where caps go, italic where italics go, use small and large fonts, use graphs and diagrams BUT ALWAYS BE CONSISTENT!!

4) You are one person with many talents who may have a few jobs that are of interest to you. You may want to be a GM, a Director of Operations or a VP. Whatever the case may be do know it’s okay to have more than one resume for more than one job.

5) Say goodbye to your objectives on the top of the page. Your applying for a job, we get it you are motivated, highly educated, and a thought provoking team leader. Instead brand yourself, add information we can’t find anywhere else on your resume, add things you did but be sure you actually did them.

6) NEVER LIE!! I don’t care how great this all reads to you, don’t you dare lie. Liers get caught in one way or another….Karma baby karma!

7) Date your work. If you are senior go about 15-20 years but not more! DO NOT add high school but add dates to all other places and if you worked at one place for many years, break it down to what you did when. And don’t tell me you have to think…we all have to think!

8) Just because you are out of school doesn’t mean education isn’t important. Add all relevant degrees, affiliates and certifications. And do know if you are applying to certain careers a scuba certificate can be interesting BUT for others and most…keep it out! (Point 8.5, Know your audience. Do your research about what works and doesn’t work with the company, figure out if and where they volunteer, perhaps not only are your interests are the same but you have both been to the same event at the same time.)

9) References upon request is old school. Of course you will give references if requested. If not what’s the matter with you?? And with that though don’t add your actual references here, wait until asked or bring your glowing letters to an interview. It’s manners 🙂

10) Your information on the top of the page can be limited to your name, your phone number, your email address, your twitter, linkedin link but after that no need to add more. You can leave your actual mailing address out, it won’t be used until you are hired.

11) If you are too lazy to do this all yourself. There are resume writing agencies that can help….including ours but do know no resume will guarantee you a job. It will hopefully get you an interview but after that it’s all you.

Do know, the bigger the job, the more humanistic the process will be. You will have multiple interviews with multiple people. It may all be for nothing but you don’t know what you can or will have until you try. So fix your resume and get on out there!

12 Sure Ways To Not Get A Job

1) You are are applying to jobs you want to work for but have zero experience in the field or industry

2) You are pushy. If you are pushy in the interview process how will you be in the office?

3) You are late. You don’t call. If you want a job and you are late you call, if you are lost you call, it’s that simple.

4) You know everything so act like you do. This is sure to be a winning personality trait.

5) Ask about money and benefits. You don’t want a job you want a vacation your first day!

6) Talk terribly about your previous employer and coworkers. People love gossip chatter box away!

7) Ignore recruiters. Ignore their emails and their calls. What do recruiters know anyway? There’s no way they know what they are doing, just because they have a job, doesn’t mean they are good at it!

8) Don’t analyse the company, the team or the people you will be working with. The less you know the better. Who doesn’t love surprises anyway??

9) You job hop like a pub crawl.

10) You don’t sell yourself. You don’t care about the job and you don’t care about you. You wonder why they are even interviewing you in the first place. You were only picked out of probably 50 profiles!

11) Your biggest weakness when asked you answer “organizational skills and prioritizing” (yes, we have heard this)

12) Your resume hasn’t been modified so it’s not only outdated but you actually didn’t change the template, not even the words “place information here”

Protect Your Ass..ets

You have been with your arse more than you have been with any employer or any company so protect you ass…ets.

We just had a candidate tell us the most horrific story I think I have ever heard in the business, and I have heard a lot!

Recruiters change lives. People want to change jobs like they want to change houses, so working with a recruiter you trust is important. You don’t need to work with one agency but you need to know who you are working with.

So the story:

A candidate we met today indicated a recruiter in the Montreal area placed him at a company and did not tell him the salary he was going to be earning before he started. On the 2nd day of work, the candidate went in to sign papers as the candidate was signing he noticed it was 10k less than his original asking price and 15k then the recruiter presented him at. When the candidate called the said recruiter the recruiter apparently replied “Well….you were offered less because you did not have the technical skills required”.

Starting a career without a signed contract I understand, it happens, especially with smaller companies…btw this was with a large organization but how the candidate went to work without knowing his salary is inexcusable.

When accepting a career be sure if nothing else a recruiter or the company about to hire you sends you an email to confirm you salary and your start date this way you know what you are getting into. Protect yourself as at the end of the day, it’s your day that matters most.

 

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Contract VS Permanent Careers-HuffPost Article

Why Having a ‘Contract’ Job Instead of a

Permanent One is a Good Thing 

Michel Kelly-Gagnon President, Institut économique de Montréal

Posted: 11/11/2013 5:12 pm

There are still some people, including government officials, who look at any job which is not full-time and permanent as a non-standard or undesirable job. But these people should know that “non-standard jobs” are actually more numerous in Canada than the standard ones.

2013-11-11-Graphagencesdeplacement.jpg

This change has happened mostly because it is a desired phenomenon. Indeed, many people yearn for such jobs because they want to balance work with family obligations, with the pursuit of their studies or with gradual retirement. In fact, three quarters of people in such “non-standard” jobs are choosing this course.

When they answer people’s needs, there is no way that we can characterize these changes as “undesirable”. On the contrary, the flexibility now offered by the labour market is a good thing.

Rigid regulations cause unemployment

Adapting and evolving are central aspects of the concept of flexibility. More flexibility does have the effect of increasing uncertainty for both employers and employees. But rigid labour market rules and regulations are not a solution since they generate structural unemployment . In Europe, where the regulation of labour market is very heavy, we see that unemployment rates have been higher than in United States or Canada. The scale of unemployment among the youth and immigrants is alarming in several countries.

The reason for this can be grasped very easily from the point of view of an employer: if hiring someone ties your hands for the future, it creates a risk for your business, and the decision to hire won’t be easy of frequent. Hiring and laying off employees are two intimately connected decisions and both are necessary to adjust to an ever-evolving economy. So regulations should preserve flexibility.

Staffing services on the rise

Change in the labour market goes hand in hand with the continuous rise of staffing services. In Canada, this industry’s operating revenues have gone up considerably in the last dozen years, reaching $10.6 billion. So have salaries, wages and benefits paid by staffing services.

This raises a tough but legitimate question: are businesses using staffing services to subcontract jobs and pay lower wages? When asked about their motivations , American businesses cite these various reasons: to deal with unexpected business growth (52 per cent); to fill long-term absences (47 per cent); while waiting for permanent replacement (47 per cent); for special projects (36 per cent). Also, 21 per cent use staffing services in order to pre-select candidates for regular positions. No mention of lowering wages here.

A German study went a bit further by examining the behavior of companies making extensive use of staffing services, meaning that they find more than 20% of their labor force that way. The conclusion of the authors is that they do so only temporarily, making it unlikely to be part of a low labour cost strategy.

A springboard for the unemployed

One of the least-known facts about staffing services, that we see confirmed in various studies, is the “springboard effect” for the unemployed.

In the U.S., the overall impact of staffing services was quite impressive after the last recession. Even though they account for only 2 per cent of total employment, the industry was responsible for 12 per cent of net job creation over the past three years.

In Canada, 60 per cent of previously unemployed people who found a job were hired for “non-standard” work. Compared to staying unemployed, working for an agency increases the probability of finding a job, and also the prospective salary, as shown in a Dutch study. This positive causal effect was also raised in an Italian study.

In other words, some people chose to work part-time or temporary contracts. But even for those looking for a full-time and permanent job, staffing services offer a leg up.

It is especially true for immigrants, the reason being that when they graduated or were trained abroad, they have a harder time convincing future employers of their skills. Staffing services provide an opportunity to be evaluated on the job.

All in all, there are no real downsides about having a more flexible labour market. It gives everyone the opportunity to achieve what they want. And the possibilities abound.

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