As a social media recruiter, you’ll need to go where the job seekers are hanging out. While you may assume that the bulk of job seekers primarily use LinkedIn, you’ll be surprised to learn that most of them are actually on Facebook. Facebook is far less saturated with recruiters than LinkedIn. What does this mean? It means you will have even better odds finding employees on Facebook! I know you are saying to yourself, sure, but “how do you find available talent on Facebook”?
The first thing you must do before before jumping into recruiting candidates on Facebook is polish up your own profile. To do this, you must post relevant content, engage with your followers, and promote your work culture. Once you have done this, then and only then can you have an effective recruiting strategy on Facebook.
Step 1: Locate your prospects
Once you are logged into Facebook, what do you do next? Where are all the prospective hires? You must identify what kind of applicants you’re trying to reach. Once you have identified the personal and professional criteria, you need to find out what Facebook groups you may find your target audience. It is important to join groups and become an engaged member. What is an engaged member? You need to offer advice and other useful information which may or may not have anything to do with recruiting. If you have a sufficient friend base to reach out to, you can also ask around to find out if your contacts can recommend someone for a job you are trying to fill. Remember, recruiters are detectives!
Another great way to target prospective employees is through paid advertising. You’ll have some control over the ad’s reach and your intended audiences. The process is simple, it allows you more time to work on other things, and will bring in additional candidates.
Step 2: Reach out
While you can send a message to anyone on Facebook, you run the risk of your message ending up in one of three places:
- Their inbox: This is really the goal. You want your message go into their primary folder because they will be notified that they have a message. That can make all the difference in the world.
- Their “other” folder: The dreaded “other” folder is a place reserved for messages from people outside of your friend list. Facebook will not notify a user if a message lands here. Many users just don’t know the folder exists.
- Facebook’s filter: If your message looks like spam, it may be forever caught in one of Facebook’s filters. When this happens, it won’t be read. This also applies to the relatively unreliable email-to-Facebook method.
So, what are the workarounds? Are there any? Maybe.
- Facebook may present you with an option to pay $1 to ensure your message gets to a user’s primary inbox. Compared to other social media platforms, $1 is actually a decent price. Don’t discount the idea entirely, but do factor it into your hiring budget! If you’ve exhausted your messaging quota, though, this option may be unavailable.
- The default “basic filtering” option can work also because many Facebook users probably haven’t switched to the strict filtering option. This means that your messages could get through to the subfolder “filtered requests” of their primary inbox. This happens as long as there is reason to believe you may actually know the person you’re trying to reach. Such reason can be established by being a member of the same Facebook group.
Step 3: Craft your message
It’s understandable that you may feel a little awkward reaching out to a prospective employee on a network that isn’t primarily branded as a professional platform. But don’t let that deter you! With all of the changes on LinkedIn, this may be the preferred way to recruit very shortly! Most Facebook users will not be upset by your approach. Believe it or not, many Facebook users will feel flattered. When crafting your initial message, keep a few points in mind:
- You can begin with an apologetic tone, recognizing that the method of communication may not be ideal. Then ask what their preferred method to speak to them would be if they wish to continue the conversation.
- Keep your message polite and genuine, just as you would if the introduction were being made in person.
- Make sure your message is free of red flags like spelling errors, unusual syntax, or anything else that may make a person think it is spam.
This method of recruiting will take some time. Building your profile and reputation may take a while, but it WILL PAY OFF. And if you have the capacity, approach your hiring strategy more broadly. Don’t limit yourself to one social media platform, and don’t discount other methods like job boards and email announcements.
David Grover
Timeo
David Grover is a Communications Manager at Timeo, a useful tool for businesses in the UK. He’s also a freelance career coach, who’s always eager to share his experience. In his free time he enjoys traveling.
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]]>There is a stigma regarding sales people that inaccurately lumps together professionals with offensive losers. We’ve all had that experience where we wished the person in front of us would shut up and go away. The very thought of dealing with a sales person makes people cringe. Why? We know why! There are people out there selling things that are as far from professional as they are insightful. The guy hammering you on how much you need a new and improved rotisserie should know by your blank stare and restless body language that you aren’t remotely interested. The reality is that they don’t.
There is a difference between a good sales person and an order taker. Sales professionals have a career and order takers have a job. Welcome to McDonald’s can I take your order? You get the idea. They are simply waiting for you to tell them what they want. This is done in every industry and at every sales office because people often mistakenly hire order takers instead of sales professionals. Whether your company sells widgets or multi-million dollar processors to billion dollar companies, the people on the front lines selling your product need to be professionals in the art of selling.
Remember when the new flavor of pumpkin spice was introduced at Starbucks? I certainly do. I went in to get my usual latte and I was greeted with a warm smile and casual conversation. I said I would like a caramel latte please. Enthusiastically she said have you tried our new Pumpkin Spice latte? “It’s so good, you won’t believe how much it changes your palate”. Hmm, I was intrigued. She began to tell me her experience when she tried it, what it tastes like and then reassured me that I wouldn’t be disappointed. That was a sales professional. She informed me of the product, read my level of interest and then sold me on how it would benefit me. Sales are made everyday by people who take pride in what they do and know how to do it. Conversely my wife and I were looking for a new breakfast table. We walked into the store and were greeted by a sales guy. “Can I help you”, he asked. We are looking to buy a new breakfast table. “Ok, they are over at the far end of the store. Take a look and let me know if anything interests you”. Gee thanks! We looked and left. Without being told the features and benefits it was all just wood to us. That guy was an order taker and could care less if we bought anything. It was simply a numbers game to him. Eventually someone was going to buy.
Sales drives the machine. Companies need to look at their talent pool and determine if they have a staff of professionals or order takers. It’s a waste of precious prospects when the sales person doesn’t create the motivation for the customer to buy. Rarely do people stumble into a grocery store looking to buy a car. People are purposeful when they buy something. They want to learn how the product will enhance their life, job or business. It’s a professional that will create excitement and the desire to buy. Not an order taker!
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]]>If you’re like many people in the world of talent acquisition, you probably feel like you’re running on a treadmill most of the time. A req comes in, you post/inmail/call to fill it, and move on to the next. Each day you’ve got to put one foot in front of the other in order to keep pace, or risk falling off.
An idea came along a few years ago around building communities of talent so source from. Typically these take the form of a following on Twitter/LinkedIn, or an email list serve.
Why haven’t these worked?
While we’ve all heard about how recruiting is becoming marketing, the reality is that most of us aren’t marketers yet. One implication of this is that we don’t really know how to create content that’s engaging and interesting.
For most companies that have a talent community, the messaging that goes out to their followers is in the form of job alert blasts. “There is a new opening in sales that’s not very relevant for you!” “There’s a customer service job that just opened up which you probably don’t care about.” Ok, so maybe I shouldn’t use quotations here, but you get the idea.
Even more targeted job blasts aren’t effective. Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. I followed you on LinkedIn, or signed up for your talent community, because I thought your company was interesting. I read some press you had, or my friend told me about you. But, I wasn’t ready to apply. My resume wasn’t up to date. I actually like my job. In the future though, things may be different.
This person who’s thinking about their future, who had an initial attraction to your company, they are an amazing person to keep warm. But, they don’t want to hear about job openings (for the most part). They know where to find those. They want something more interesting.
The more effective way to keep candidates warm
Think about a major purchase you’re thinking of making in the next 6-12 months. Let’s say it’s a new car. You’re interested in five different brands, so you sign up for the local dealerships’ email lists.
Four of those dealers send you emails that include the make of the car, and the price. Ok, we knew that already. But, one of those dealerships sends you an interesting video about how their car performs when off roading. The next month, they have a blog post from a recent customer talking about the amazing customer service they received when one of the tail lights got smashed in an accident. We now have a connection to this dealership. They’ve built trust, and actually increased the attraction we initially felt towards them.
Do you see the parallel? The company who sends out interesting information to their talent communities is going to build mind share in the people who engage with their content. This mind share allows you to effectively source from this pool when you get a new req in. It means a higher response rate to emails. It means easier first conversations. And, it means better interviews from people who know your company. The recruiter who is now a marketer wins.
What content do candidates want?
What job seekers are looking for isn’t too dissimilar to what you’d want to know before you applied for your next job: What skills will I get, what’s the day to day like, how’s the culture unique, how should I prep for interviews? Of course, there are many role specific questions too: what’s the tech stack, what was your last sales process like, how do you run customer discovery interviews?
No offense, but candidates want to hear the answers to these questions directly from employees. They speak their language, are more credible than a marketer/recruiter, and employees know all the details from actually doing the job.
Advice on how to get going
If you have a talent community already, then start getting some interesting content from your team to share. You can literally do this with an iPhone for starters. And, don’t stop at email. This information is great for social too!
You should be able to get in depth information about what content candidates are engaging with in order to understand who the warmest leads are in your pipeline. Now, when that new req comes in, you can quickly pull up a list of people who know your company, like your content, and are most likely ready to have that conversation about what’s next in their careers.
Good luck.
Phil Strazzulla is the CEO of NextWave hire, a software solution that builds your employer brand through authentic employee stories that live in your careers page, social media, and more.
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]]>Let’s talk about the interview process for a minute. A recruiter scours the internet for the right candidates. They call the competition. They look through all of the applications. They work very hard to make sure they are identifying the right talent.
Once the recruiter identifies the talent they spend 30 minutes to an hour talking to the candidate. They go deep into their work history, find out about gaps of employment and find out if they are a cultural fit for the organization. If the recruiter is good, they will talk in detail about the role, explain how the recruitment process works and prepare the candidate the best they can for the next part in the interview process.
What should be the next step in the interview process? Should it be with the hiring manager? Should it be with another recruiter?
It depends.
I would say more often than not though, it is with the hiring manager. Should the hiring manager agree to take an interview, then how long should their interview be? Should it be 30 minutes? 45 minutes? An hour?
Okay- here is where I have an issue. The next stage in the interview process is critical. A recruiter is the one who gets the candidate excited about the company, the product or service they are offering, and what they will be doing in a role.
If you are the hiring manager, you are representing the organization. You are the name and face of the organization. If you are busy, everyone understands. Everyone. Especially the candidate.
What I have seen a lot lately is organizations setting up 30 minute calls with candidates. Is that enough?
It can be. Most of the time though, it is not enough time.
If a hiring manager uses the 30 minutes to build rapport, tell the candidate about the company, the role, and the direction of the organization in order to see if the candidate is interested, then yes. It is completely warranted to have a 30 minute conversation. I have seen this tactic followed up with another interview to REALLY interview the candidate. Hiring managers can spend 30 minutes to essentially screen the candidate and develop enough rapport to decide if they would work well together.
It works. Trust me. I use this tactic all the time as a recruiter.
IF, on the other hand, a hiring manager uses the 30 minutes to drill the candidate on their skills, then it is not enough time. The candidate gets a sour taste in their mouth. They don’t get a good feeling about who they would be potentially working for at all. If the candidate is good, all of the good things they learned from the recruiter will go out the window. Truthfully, how can you fairly evaluate a candidate in their career in 30 minutes. You can’t. There are a lot of questions the candidate has and you need to be fair to answer them appropriately. 
So, how do you expedite the time without giving the candidate a bad experience?
If a hiring manager has some concerns after reviewing a resume, they will usually go into the interview with those same reservations. My suggestion is for the recruiter to ask the hiring manager for specific feedback prior to the interview. The hiring manager should say “I’m concerned about” and the recruiter can address them prior to the call with the hiring manager. If the hiring manager is still has concerns, don’t interview them! Don’t waste your time, or the candidate’s!
If the hiring manager wants to talk further, then have someone else involved in the interview process before you speak to them. It could be a great “second screen”. Maybe, just maybe, the unbiased third party sees past some of the concerns and can alleviate them when the hiring manager has the conversation.
The point here is the last thing you want to do is to have one of your candidates go and say something negative on Facebook, Twitter or Glassdoor. Don’t think for a second that people don’t read poor reviews on the interview process or that people don’t talk.
Recruiting is a partnership. As I was taught 22 years ago, recruiters don’t just deliver resumes, they narrow it down to the top 3-5 and then it makes your job so much easier as a hiring manager. If the 3-5 are not what you are looking for, then re-calibrate with your recruiter. If you are working with someone you don’t trust, find someone you do trust.
Think about this the next time you schedule an interview. A good candidate experience brings great employees. Let’s flip the table. How would you feel if someone drilled you for half an hour about a job without covering things that you felt were important?
Lastly, don’t ever forget, it is a candidates’ market! Candidates are interviewing you just as much as you are interviewing them. What if you take 30 minutes and fall in love with the candidate and you want to move forward with next steps and they are so disturbed by your interview style that they aren’t interested in moving forward with you?
It happens. Trust me.
What are your thoughts?
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]]>Let’s face it. We live in a virtual world. Every day more and more of our lives are moving online. And so it only makes sense that the process of job hunting, hiring, and job fairs is going virtual. More and more companies are moving their old fashioned physical job fair to Virtual Job Fairs. Not only are we seeing large corporations utilizing virtual job fair technology to expand their global reach, but we are also seeing colleges and Universities provide a platform for companies to make an impression on soon-to-be graduates. Employers are eager to engage with the best possible candidates and are very quickly realizing that they need to think globally versus locally, in order to truly do their due diligence. One of the ways they are doing this is to employ virtual job fair technology.
One major mistake made by job seekers is to underestimate the Virtual Job Fair environment. The Virtual Job Fair can also seem overwhelming and intimidating at first. Have no fear, we are here to help. Here are six insider tips to acing a virtual job fair for candidates:
Do Your Research
Virtual job fairs are not job boards. There are times when virtual job fairs are for a specific industry or discipline. Make sure you know the details about the job fair before registering. Understand what departments are going to be participating and when they will be “live”. When will the right people be manning the Marketing booth so you can visit it at the right time? All companies post the schedule for the event, take the time to strategize and know when and where you need to be to make the biggest impact.
Take The Time To Register
The registration process can be fairly robust on a lot of the virtual job fair platforms, and for good reason! Reporting is one of the main draws of these solutions. Hiring companies can look at wealth of information, from how many different “booths” are visited to how many other attendees or recruiters the participant interacted with. The information they see in the reporting is based off of how much information you include during the registration process. So be thorough. Fill out all the fields, regardless of whether or not they are required, and be very specific about WHY you are visiting this specific virtual job fair.
TEST TEST TEST
Make sure you can enter the job fair on your current equipment. All virtual job fairs provide requirements and preferred equipment. Some might even ask you to have a webcam ready in case they want to chat with you live during the event. Make sure to run all the tests prior to joining to make sure you can visit all the areas you would like to visit.
Have Multiple Documents Ready To Go
One of the things that has frustrated companies looking to recruit candidates in a virtual job fair has been how ill-prepared candidates have been. The companies take the time to design and customize the space, staff specific areas, and provide all relevant information about their company. It is the candidate’s responsibility to do the same! Have your resume and relevant cover letters ready to go. One of the biggest issues we have heard is that candidates visit a booth to “learn” about specific role or department but when asked don’t have an updated resume for that role. Just know recruiters can note in the system, right then and there, that a candidate was NOT PREPARED.
Interact In The Booths
If you are prepared (research, register, resume) then you should feel comfortable knowing that, when you enter a booth, the people you want to talk to are there. Don’t be afraid to engage with them! We have typically found that companies assign 3-4 people to a specific booth during the “on hours” to answer questions and chat with the candidates. By no means does this replace the face to face meeting at a local event. It does, however, offer the opportunity for you to make the initial impression for your dream job. And remember…there is reporting behind the scenes that can tell the hiring company who engaged in the booths they went to, how long they stayed there, what questions they asked, and most importantly, what the recruiters thought of that candidate!
Interact In The Virtual Job Fair Itself
Companies are adding more and more interaction to their virtual job fairs. This includes things like company trivia, personality testing, networking areas, and company archives. Have fun with this stuff! Learn about the company’s history. Download relevant company documents. Meet other folks looking to work at this company and see what you have in common and why you would be great teammates! Hiring companies are really looking to see what level of interest you have in their organization and this is one way to show them that you are really committed to knowing anything and everything about the company and the people that work there.
Seize The Opportunity
A virtual job fair is not like an in-person job fair. You are going to be able to take many more notes, download contact information from recruiters, have all relevant resumes/cover letters at your fingertips, and put your best foot forward with organizations you would most likely not be able to meet in person. Take full advantage of these benefits and show these companies why you are the best candidate for the role you want! Remember, you’re also leaving your digital fingerprints all over the virtual job fair. Act accordingly and leave a digital impression worth remembering!
Virtual job fairs are gaining in popularity and the future for both hiring and discovering employers. As a rule of thumb, treat a virtual job fair as you would an in-person event. Be yourself, put our best foot forward, and make the technology work for you. Virtual Job Fairs can seem intimidating at first but by following these tips you can impress prospective employers, stand out from the crowd, and land the job of your dreams.
Morgan Will is the Director of Operations at Lighthouse Conferencing. He is passionate about improving the inner workings of companies and making sure that life’s a breeze for Lighthouse clients. He is a huge University of Colorado fan (which has aged him terribly over the last few years) and once sat next to John Elway at Elway’s Steakhouse! He loves the snow and mountains, trying every new restaurant he can find, and ridiculous movie quotes.
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]]>Among all the hiring related application materials, resumes were, are and will continue to play immensely crucial roles in the hiring process. Statistics say that today, average employers spend only a few seconds looking at resumes, which makes it imperative to make your resume an impressive one. All of us understand the importance of first impressions and when it comes to the hiring process, your resume is your only chance to grab a prospective employer’s attention. In today’s competitive job landscape, you must have a professional resume that mirrors your expertise, so that you can get the best possible chance to capture a prospective employer’s attention. Remember that you only have a couple of seconds to represent all your expertise through your resume, which makes it important to create a resume that’s absolutely error-free. The reason why most of the resumes are tossed into the rejected file is using the wrong words. Here, we’ve jotted down 7 such words that you must not use in your resume.
1. Hard Worker
Anyone can say that they are a hard worker but that doesn’t make the word eligible to be placed as a different heading. Instead, you should provide concrete examples of situations that you’ve handled much more efficiently than others. While it’s true that a company is less likely to hire you if you’re not a hard worker, mentioning that in your resume won’t convince the employer unless you provide solid evidences.
2. “Responsible For”
‘Responsible for’ is a completely superfluous word, much like ‘duties included’. It simply complicates and hides your actual potential. For instance, don’t use something like “I was responsible for handling manpower”. Instead, you should provide the actual details like “trained 30 sales personnel in a week”. Describe yourself concisely, directly and write active verbs to demonstrate your achievements.
3. Team Player
Simply think of it like this – how many jobs are there in the world that allow you to work completely alone? If you get selected, you’ll have to work with someone, at the least. Therefore, using this word won’t make your resume stand out. Rather, you should mention clearly what role you’ve played in your earlier teams and how you saved your organizations’ resources, money and time when working on a tough project or in association with others. Remember that hiring managers want to see your track record to actually understand your capability.
4. “Highly Qualified”
We know that you’re highly qualified but does it really merit a mention to get the job? In reality, it simply leaves a negative impression about you. By using ‘highly qualified,’ you’re actually telling the hiring managers that you’re a little silly. Again, your achievements and work experience should do the talking. The references provided by you are adequate enough to demonstrate your qualification. Therefore, let the hiring managers talk about your qualification while you focus solely on establishing the value you could add to the company, if selected.
5. Salary Negotiable
On your resume, this word simply shows your desperation for getting the job. Unless you’re specifically asked by your employer to mention your salary requirements, you should avoid using it. Unless stated otherwise, it is commonly understood that it’s negotiable. Additionally, it is considered as a padding sort of thing to fill out your resume. Instead, you should conduct a market research for the post you’ve applied for and keep a specific figure in mind.
6. “Flexible”
Describing you’re flexible is something like being proud of strapping your own shoes. In today’s business world, things change at an unbelievable speed. Technological advancements have started changing our working lives almost on a regular basis. Today if you want to get the job you desire, you need to be adept at flexibility. So, instead of inserting ‘flexible’, mention actual job accomplishments where you have displayed your flexibility. For instance, you can mention when one of your team members quit with a one-day notice, you had to perform his/her duties for several weeks together with your job duties and how that helped your team to work seamlessly.
Always remember that your resume has one and only one goal which is to bring you to the interview board, nothing else. So, go through the job description provided by the employer carefully. It always covers the required skills they are looking for the position. Pick some of the major highlighted attributes and expound on them while writing your resume. Remember that you need to show the actual results to the hiring managers, not your claims of greatness or your appreciable characteristics. So, the more you can demonstrate the actual facts, the better your chances will be for getting the job.
benkarterBezon Karter is senior recruiter at www.xist4.com in UK,also works as a consultant & trainer for top IT companies. He writes about the technology that IT decision makers need to know about, and the latest happenings in the tech scene. You can follow him on Twitter @benkarter_1
The post 6 Statements & Words That Can Ruin Your Resume!! appeared first on Bulls Eye Recruiting.
]]>It is always a red flag when sales people leave jobs before 18 months. I would say the first 6-9 months are really about the individual learning about the company, the products, and seeing if they are a good cultural fit. The next 9 months are really about performance. Either you get it and do well in your job, or companies feel like there is a need for a change. Would you agree?
It is true most of the time. Not all the time.
I talk to people all of the time who have had short tenures at jobs. I have heard it all. I know that sometimes it isn’t the individual’s fault for making a job change. After all, things do happen. I also know that somewhere in your career you are going to have a failed venture. Sometimes, it takes a failed venture to prepare you for your next role. Trust me, I understand.
What is bothersome is when sales people consistently have short tenures. When I see 18 months at one job, 9 months at the next and then 1 year at your latest job, I begin to question is it you or is it the company you are working for that is causing the job changes.
When an economy is in a recession, it is common to see “layoffs” or “downsizing”, but in a thriving economy, companies begin to get concerned. I don’t blame them. As you get older, your career can either progress or regress if you are in a sales role. If it begins to regress, you have a long uphill battle to climb because the high paying jobs you want will not be available to you.
I know there are risk takers. I, for one, am a huge risk taker. I don’t mind pushing all of my cards in to see if I can win. If you want to hit the bulls eye , sometimes you have to do something that others will not. Working for start-ups is a risk. In 2017, you are seeing an abundance of start- up roles. I would say if you join a start-up, make sure you have done your research.
You need to know how much money the company is making and how much VC money they have coming in. Be sure you understand the leadership and the product that they are selling before taking a role with a start-up. Understanding the vision is essential when you roll the dice.
So, if you are a company and looking to hire sales talent, how do you decipher which candidate is better than the other? Despite common theory, not all sales people who have less than 18 months tenure are bad sales people. Here are some questions to determine what kind of sales person you are really getting. Hiring the wrong person can be detrimental to your company and cost you a lot of time and energy.
You worked for company XYZ. Tell me what attracted you work at this company? – This question will allow you to determine how well the candidate evaluated their previous company before joining. Was he/she desperate for a job or did they make an educated risk and it didn’t work out?
Tell me about the leadership at XYZ Company. This can tell you how they interacted with the leadership at the company before leaving. If you find the candidate is constantly badmouthing their former employers, the problem may not be the employers, but the candidate!
Why did you leave? Okay this seems simple enough, but you will be amazed at the answers I get. It could be company funding. It could be the product. It could be the quotas. It could be the territory. You need to understand what kind of individual you are getting. Ask them point blank.
What is the biggest deal you sold? This will cut through the crap. If they haven’t sold anything, don’t hire them. If they badmouth the employer, the leadership, the product and a bad territory, then cut your meeting short. Your time is valuable and you don’t need to waste any more of your time.
Did You Hit President’s Club? There are some great sales people who have overachieved quota and done some great things in 18 months. You shouldn’t discount them, but proceed with caution. You may be that next employer that gets a short-term hire. Like I said earlier, it takes time, money, and energy to on-board people.
What would you have done differently at XYZ Company? This will tell you if they blame other people for their mistakes or own their own mistakes. If they can tell you something they have learned and not made the same mistake over and over, it is worth listening to what they have to say.
What are you looking for in your next company? So often companies are so busy talking, they forget to listen. Does your company offer what they are looking for in a role? If you are talking to an account manager and you are asking them to hunt new business, then you may get an employee that only lasts 18 months.
What attracts you to this company? If they are talking to you about a role, you need to understand in their own words why they think this is the right role for them. After asking them this question, you may realize that they are an ideal candidate OR they don’t know anything about what you do and really shouldn’t be considered for your role.
Are you a risk taker? So, put it back on them. If they say “no”, then they haven’t been successful. They were “laid off” or “downsized” for performance. You don’t want anything to do with them. Move on. If they say “yes”, then ask why they are risk takers. Get to know who you are hiring.
What questions do you have for me? What kind of research have they done on YOU? YOUR COMPANY? C’mon, they should do their due diligence and have some educated, well thought out questions.
In conclusion, since unemployment is low and the pool of available candidates has shrunk it is important to view every candidate. You should even evaluate candidates with short tenure. Move forward with caution and ask the right questions and you can build your dream team.
The post 10 Questions to Ask Sales People If They Leave Companies before 18 Months appeared first on Bulls Eye Recruiting.
]]>Have you had difficulty getting applicants to apply to your jobs lately? You aren’t alone. I have heard a ton of complaints this year. Most companies are questioning if it is the job posting itself. Should you tweak your description? Should you advertise in different places? Should you do better marketing towards your target audience?
Maybe. Maybe though, whatever you do it won’t be enough.
Here is the deal. Everyone is hiring. Your job description isn’t very different than everyone else’s job description. Most companies are using the same buzz words too. Candidates aren’t looking for A job this year. Candidates are looking for THE job this year. They are looking for a job that will advance their careers. They are looking for an increase in salary. They are looking to work for a company that has a cool product where they can make a difference.
The candidates that are applying to the jobs aren’t qualified either. Are they? No, they truly aren’t. An organization may get lucky and get a hire from a job posting, but chances are that the applicants are missing in one or two KEY areas where your organization is just not willing to settle.
Organizations shouldn’t have to settle. They should get EXACTLY what they want. Hiring the wrong person can cause all sorts of havoc. Once you hire an employee, to fire that individual is a huge headache, a ton of time and money lost, and it takes a toll on you emotionally.
I get this.
Don’t you feel better that you aren’t alone in finding candidates from postings? You should.
You truly have to have a targeted approach to recruiting in 2017. This isn’t that much different than what has been said over the past decade. Now more than ever sourcing candidates is essential to filling key roles.
Sourcing candidates takes time. Sourcing alone, however, won’t get a role filled. Once you find the right individuals you want to hire, then you have to have a killer salesperson to convince the candidate that YOUR job is THE JOB they have been looking for all this time!
Here is where an agency steps in. Agencies can target the right people. They have the time to really spend sourcing and attracting the candidates you want to hire with the right qualifications rather than the applicants that are missing the mark in a few key areas. They can sell your company which makes your job as a hiring manager a heck of a lot easier when they come to interview for your role.
You get it right? But.. it costs money. Sure. If you want something done right the first time though, wouldn’t you rather pay upfront than make a huge mistake?
Choosing the right agency is tough. There are so many of them. A lot of them give the industry a bad name. There are a few out there that take great pride in what they do and the candidates they deliver.
There are also internal recruiting departments. Internal recruiters are great, but sometimes they simply don’t have the time to target specific individuals because of the number of positions they have to recruit. Partnering with an agency is just smart business on select roles.
Other firms simply don’t have a recruiting department. Hiring a recruiter is essential. You can’t spend all of your time doing your job and recruiting as well! It is just too much.
If you try it, you will get frustrated. I promise.
So, the next time you have an open role. Go ahead and try to post the role if you want, but when you fail, give us a ring. We would be happy to help.
Let us help you hit the bulls eye.
The post Why it is a Waste of Time to Post Jobs appeared first on Bulls Eye Recruiting.
]]>In 2007 I lost my job. I didn’t hit quota. I was put on a P.I.P. (Performance Improvement Plan) and I didn’t make the numbers I was supposed to make. I worked hard. I put in the hours. I just didn’t meet their expectations. Looking back on it, I wasn’t a very good salesperson for their product. I wasn’t passionate about the product and my sales pitch was well… not great.
After being unemployed for longer than I want to admit, I felt undesired. I felt like I was chasing every company, but they weren’t coming after me or chasing me AT ALL! There came a point in time where I had a gap in my resume and people began to ask the question “what is wrong with him that he has been unemployed for so long”?
I am not telling this story because I am proud of this. I am telling this story because this stuff just happens. We are all human and these sort of things happen in your career. If you are like most Americans, this has happened to you more than once. It obviously happens more as you get older in life, but if you have lived through a recession, we have all seen the pink slip for one reason or another. Even when the economy is great, bad things happen to good people.
Chasing companies is tough. Networking is tough. Building your network is tough. There is a saying that there is 6 degrees of separation between every person. I think with the advancement of social media, there is more like 2 to 3 degrees of separation between every person.
When you are chasing companies you are going to get rejected. You are going to get rejected A LOT! It is definitely a character building time in your life. If you really want something though, you are going to chase after it because no one is going to hand it to you on a silver platter.
Let’s fast forward though. How good is to feel like you are being chased? There is a huge rush feeling like you are wanted. If you are a high school athlete being escorted by colleges, or a college student being escorted by a fraternity- isn’t that cool? What about guy from the TV series The Bachelor? How do you think he feels? I bet he feels pretty damn confident. Wouldn’t you say so?
There is a 2.7% unemployment rate here in Austin. That is low. Really low. Companies are going to go after employed people more now than ever. If you are unemployed are they going to go after you? Possibly. They still want the best of the best.
If you want to be chased, you need to be on your “A game”. You have heard these things, I am almost certain, but I am going to say them again to reiterate their importance:
Your social media presence needs to be in tip- top shape. Yes, I am talking about LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs, and other sites like GitHub. People will research you! The more visible you are, the more people will reach out to you.
Make every connection count. Make sure you connect with as many people as you possibly can and offer to help THEM. Believe me when I say I believe in Karma. They will want to help you when you need it most.
Be Active. Be active with your health. Be active in the community. Get involved with something that interests you.
Always look to make yourself better. Stay on top of current events. Educate yourself further about a certain topic. Learn more about technology.
If you do these things, the chances of you getting chased are tremendously better. If you get stuck in a rut like I did in 2007, once you do these things you won’t ever have to worry about chasing again. You will get chased. I promise.
Life is a hell of a lot easier when you feel wanted and desired and people want to hire you!
The post Are You CHASING or BEING CHASED by Employers? appeared first on Bulls Eye Recruiting.
]]>I get asked daily “Where do you find your candidates?”. I kind of have to giggle every time I hear that question. The reason I giggle is because most people don’t realize how large their digital footprint really is on the web. I would venture to say when a candidate thinks of recruiting in 2015, most think about LinkedIn. While LinkedIn is a vital part of the recruiting process, if we (as recruiters) relied only on LinkedIn we would not be successful at all. Our competition would be kicking our butt.
As a recruiter for sales people in the technology field, I see that most candidates and sales people have a LinkedIn profile. You know what else most people have? A Facebook account. Yes, I have said it before and I will say it again, recruiters are detectives. We will scour the web to find out as much as we possibly can about a candidate. We look to see what you are tweeting. We are reading your blogs. We are looking at the activity feed on your LinkedIn account.
You are probably asking “What kind of information are you looking for on my Facebook account?” The answer is simple. I am trying to get to know who you are. Sure, a resume tells you what kind of work you do, but I want to asses you as an individual also. Culture is becoming such an integral part of the puzzle in today’s hiring. I want to know your interests, what kind of activities you are involved in and who you are as a person.
See, I don’t hide anything from anyone. My social presence is who I am as an individual. I share pictures of my family, my love for the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Astros, Ole Miss, and blog posts that I have written. Why in the world would I do that? The reason is because that is who I am. That is what makes me different from the next individual. THAT is what makes me real.
You have probably read the things “not to post” on Facebook. I agree that there are things you shouldn’t share with the world and on social media. I also don’t want you to be scared of social media. Social Media will give you a competitive advantage over other candidates if used correctly.
I know this post will be controversial because many will take it as I am discriminating against individuals. I am not discriminating, rather uncovering what passions you have for in life. I believe that we are all created differently and I truly want to know what gets you out of bed every morning. I may not agree with you, or share the same interests and that is fine. What I want to see is passion and fire. I want to hire the best of the best. You can’t always get that from Facebook, but you may get a glimpse.
I also use Facebook increasingly every day to ask colleagues if they know anybody for a particular role. My Facebook friends are people I trust and they may be more willing to help than my thousands of LinkedIn connections. I have made several key hires from asking my Facebook friends for connections this year.
I also like to “add Facebook friends” with the candidates I feel like I have made deep relationships with during the recruiting process . Why not? They are the people I have grown to really like and who else would be better to help spread the word. I am friends with a ton of recruiters on Facebook also. These recruiting relationships can help spread the word faster than most. It is strategic and you should consider the same thing.
Did you realize the importance of using Facebook to recruit? You should now. Stop putting all your eggs in the LinkedIn basket. There are other ways to find top talent. I would like to hear your story!
The post How I Use Facebook to Recruit YOU! appeared first on Bulls Eye Recruiting.
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