From Walter Cronkite

"I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game
of life everything he's got. "

These simple yet wise words come from Walter Cronkite, who certainly is one of the greatest broadcast journalists of all time.

A hiring manager, who I deal with quite often, taught me something that I try to give to each candidate I send out for interviews. Countless people might be qualified for one job and their skills could quite easily be equal or close to each other. This particular manager always hires the person who shows the most passion and drive toward the required tasks of the position. Good hiring managers easily see through smoke screens so you need to demonstrate your love for the job and your desire to give it everything that you have got if hired. Try this on your next interview and please share your results with me!

Check out this site.

Sometimes, brain flashes hit me during lunch as happened today! The U.S. Dept. of Labor discontinued America's Job Bank last year but replaced it with www.americasjobexchange.com. Though I wouldn't give it a five-star rating, it allows candidates to post resumes and search jobs regionally, and nationally, for free. Employers need to register which is free. Use its Resume Scouts section to get free resume alerts. Also, don't pay the $99 fee to place job postings. If you click around, you will be able to post jobs and search the resume database for free!

Reality Check

While it's important for both job seekers and companies to always remain positive, the current economy is certainly challenging. The CEO of a well established custom equipment manufacturer lamented to me that he hasn't seen the demand from domestic customers this low since the '80's. His solutions for weathering the storm include beefing up marketing efforts in Europe and using contract employees to fill gaps during the occasional spurts of activity rather than hiring full time folks who will be laid off in a short period of time. I hope any hiring managers and/or corporate directors reading this will think out of the box while business is slower than normal. Good luck!

Cover Letters, Valuable or Not?

Many career coaches, placement directors, and professional recruiters spend too much time perfecting cover letters. Of course, some employers still ask for them but the Internet has reduced their value. My recommendation to job seekers reading this post is to place your emphasis on developing an incredible resume. With email, it's best to write a one paragraph introduction and leave the rest for your resume. This morning, I received a call from a candidate following up on his submission. I told him I didn't see much substance in his resume. Over 3 dozen resumes were in my email today and I didn't bother to look for the cover letter. He actually had a better cover letter than resume! Please don't force recruiters and hiring managers to go fishing. Put everything we need to know into the body of your resume.

For Recent Graduates

Congratulations to all our recent grads from college, graduate schools, trade schools, etc! Hopefully, you are gainfully employed. If not, I urge you to use a resource you partially funded with your tuition payments: the Career Services Office at your school. As a former Career Services Director, I assure you nobody will guarantee you a job but the folks in this field are trained to help source out entry level opportunities. You owe it to yourself to become friendly with the Career Services staff at your school to supplement your self directed job search. Feel free to contact me at hblevin58@gmail.com with any questions.

The Right Attitude!

This afternoon, I was challenged with finding a candidate for a contract assignment where the pay rate was somewhat under market value. Unfortunately, the recent economic climate changes have impacted the dollars being offered by employers though there are still a decent amount of opportunities out there.

Since I was unaware of any candidates in my files who could do the task at hand, I started sourcing and making phone calls. One gentleman called back within ten minutes and was extremely upbeat. He spent most of his career climbing the ladder at a firm that shut down last year and took a job one step down to keep working. As luck would have it, that company was sold and the new owners eliminated his position. The job I presented is a contract position paying about 20% less than he is looking for but he was realistic and asked to be considerred. I hope the client interviews him as candidates like this are true gems!

Websites to Check Out!

There are some great websites available to help those seeking jobs in specific areas and those looking to recruit from more specialized areas. www.higheredjobs.com is a great exchange forum for those in academia while www.jewishjobs.com covers everything from teachers to fund raising experts to clergy. www.rileyguide.com is one of the earlier sites that continues to cater to entry level and mid-level job seekers and rotates its links frequently. Please feel free to use this blog as a place to share your favorite sites related to the job market!

A Few Quick Thoughts

Life as recruiter is never boring!

Today, I received a resume. Under the first job, the description consisted of 2 sentences about how unsafe the work environment was but no description of duties or accomplishments. Under the second job, the only comment was the place was great to work at but went bankrupt. Later today, I received a reply to a posting for an Engineer with 15-20 years of very specific experience. It came from someone who has never been an engineer, no technical skills whatsoever! As I have said before, the resume is your best marketing tool or...it could really hurt you. Contact me if I could help you with this!

Great Efforts = Great References

"The average person puts only 25% of his energy into his work.The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity,and stands on it head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%"- Andrew Carnegie -

Have you ever had the opportunity to contact a candidate's past employers when conducting a pre-hire background check? Those conversations are sometimes quite revealing and the unspoken words may be more crucial than what is actually discussed. Most employers will certainly verify dates worked, position held, responsibilities carried out, etc. Some will confirm attendance records but many will go no further. If you try to ask about quality of performance, whether or not the person would have been eligible for promotions, teamwork, etc. and get noncommittal responses, you likely have a candidate who fits into Mr. Carnegie's 25%. For some jobs, that may be fine, but for others it will send up a huge red flag.

I have learned many times that the effort you put out in a job, sport, volunteer activity, etc. equates to what you get back out. this definitely applies to job searches. Employers will be faster to go overboard endorsing a past employee who gave incredible effort to their job than the will for the reliable but average individual!