6 Ways to Get Better and Get Hired

February 24, 2010

Filed under: Job seekers — admin @ 12:33 pm Comments (0)

Get Results

In a recent blog post on Work Strong, Peter Weddle pulled no punches when he described the current job market and what job seekers need to do in order to remain competitive:

“This job market is a poser. It wants you to think it’s a regular old job market just like those we’ve always had. And, if you buy into that notion, you’ll be setting yourself up for failure…Today, the come as you are job market has been replaced by the “get better if you want to get work” job market. And most people are unaware of the change.”

You can read the full article here, but in summary, Weddle tells job seekers that they can no longer rely on past skills and accomplishments. In order to compete against the job competition, you have to continually upgrade your skill set.

We present 6 ways you can “get better” and get the attention of more hiring managers:

  1. Dedicate 30-60 minutes each day to train on a new skill. 30 minutes a day is doable for anyone. The time you would normally spend watching a television sitcom, playing a video game, or talking on the phone, could be used to develop new software skills, learn a new language, or study for a certification. Your 30 minutes could be spent with a training book, practicing functions in a software application, or following tutorials on the web. Just google the skill or software you’re after + “tutorials” and you’ll find plenty of free resources that can help you. The Supporting Cast offers free MS Office tutorials to job seekers – just contact us to receive a link.
  2. Take a class. This may require a greater investment of time and money, but taking a night or weekend class can get your skills up to speed quickly. If you find that self-study takes too much self-discipline, a class with set days and hours could be the way to go. Classes have the advantage of a live, interactive environment, and an instructor can give you immediate answers to your questions. It’s also a chance to network with peers and learn from people with similar goals.
  3. Intern. Many job seekers scoff at internships. Afterall, who wants to work for free? Although internships might not pay the bills, they are a great avenue for anyone, regardless of experience, who wants to learn a new skill or embark on a new career. In fact, an internship can be the most effective way to learn new skills – nothing beats on-the-job training. Although there’s no guarantee, internships can lead to full-time positions. Before picking up an internship, just make sure the employer is clear on what you’ll be doing for the company. You want to develop skills and applicable experience, not make coffee runs.
  4. Find a mentor. Do you know somebody who has the skills and experience you would like to achieve? Ask them if they would mind spending an hour each week mentoring you. When it comes to sharing expertise, most professionals will have no problem paying-it-forward. In addition to gaining knowledge, you’ve also made an industry contact who might be able to help you find work.
  5. Drop skills that are no longer useful. Sometimes, to learn new skills you have to abandon old ones. For instance, a graphic designer who knows Quark, but wants to learn the ins and outs of InDesign, may need to stop building layouts in Quark. When we’re comfortable using an application or skill set, our natural tendency is to turn to it every time. Sometimes, to become better and master new areas, you have to break out of your comfort zone.
  6. Join Groups and Communities. Online groups, like the kind you can find on LinkedIn and Meetup, can be a great way to learn about trends in your industry, and to pick up pointers from your peers. For instance, if you’re an Administrative Assistant, you can network and learn from other assistants by joining the Administrative Assistants Group on Linkedin. Meetup.com, although an online resource, allows like-minded individuals to schedule in-person group meetings based on location. And again, besides building knowledge and skills, you’re also building an invaluable network of contacts.

Follow one, or all of these skill building, self-improvement strategies and you’ll be taking the right steps to becoming more competitive in the “get better to get work” job market.

Blog your way to a better job

February 5, 2010

Filed under: Job seekers — Tags: , , , , , , — admin @ 1:54 pm Comments (0)

To Blog or Not to Blog

Social media is a terrific way to build your personal (professional) brand. Blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and even YouTube can get you in front of recruiters much faster than your resume. The problem is many job seekers don’t have a strategy for using social media, “Should I start tweeting first?” “Isn’t Facebook just for personal connections?” “How can YouTube help me with my job search?” In this series we’ll outline a basic strategy for using social networking tools to advance your career. Today’s article will look at why a blog should be your entry point into social media.

Your blog’s purpose
A personal blog allows you to show-off your expertise and experience by developing content. The primary content of your blog should be articles, how-to’s and videos that you author. Are you an administrative assistant? Write an article telling other assistants how they can use Outlook more effectively. Graphic designer? Use screen capture software and record your own Photoshop tutorials. The information you share will help others, but it will also show prospective employers that you know your stuff.

Why blog before using Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media?
Think of your blog as the place where you house all of the content you want employers to see. Think of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook as vehicles for getting employers to your content. For example, a web designer could tweet, “Working with jQuery on several projects” and leave it at that, but it would be much more effective to link that tweet back to his blog where he discusses the projects and his jQuery skills in detail. Blogging tools like WordPress can also be setup as full-fledged websites, so you have a portfolio of work to display, you can easily integrate it with your blog.

More work but a bigger payoff
Writing a good blog post takes a lot more time and effort than updating your LinkedIn status or retweeting someone else’s content, but it’s worth the effort. One well crafted blog post can get you a lot exposure if it becomes popular on sites like Digg, and tweeting your own content means others can retweet it – again, giving your personal brand more exposure.

Have your blog update your other social media accounts
If you already have a Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter account, you can easily setup those accounts to receive your blog’s feed. This integration is another great reason to make your blog command central for your content and personal brand.

If you’re already tweeting, leveraging connections through LinkedIn, and maintaining your Facebook profile for professional use, all without the use of a blog, that’s fine! It doesn’t mean you’re doing things wrong, but you should consider the benefits blogging can bring to your personal brand and career development.

In our next article we’ll look at job seeker do’s and don’ts when using Facebook.

Job Seekers Get More Control Over Their LinkedIn Profile

February 2, 2010

Filed under: Job seekers, News, Videos — Tags: , , — admin @ 10:35 am Comments (0)

A major update from LinkedIn, “Starting today, we bring you the ability to reorder the sections on your LinkedIn profile via drag-and-drop. This enhancement, one of the more highly-requested features from our users, gives you the ability to highlight the skills, expertise, and/or experiences that make you stand out.”

Here’s a video on how to use the new feature:

Hospitality How-to: Opening Wine

January 28, 2010

Filed under: Videos — Tags: , , — admin @ 9:42 am Comments (0)

Uncorking some vino? Leave that clumsy butterfly opener in the drawer. Matt Roth, Account Executive for the Hospitality Division of The Supporting Cast, shows you how to properly open a bottle of wine using a wine key.

Twitter for Job Search

January 27, 2010

Filed under: Job seekers — Tags: , , — admin @ 10:20 am Comments (0)

The article below, Twitter Could Become the Unemployed’s Best Friend, is from Monday’s NY Times. Job seekers can follow The Supporting Cast on twitter http://twitter.com/castny to get our latest job postings.

One of Twitter’s advantages is that unlike e-mail messages or Facebook updates, tweets can reach an unknown audience — a benefit that recruiters, human resources departments and job-seekers are fast discovering.

In the last month, 340,000 jobs have been listed on Twitter, said William Fischer, co-founder of WorkDigital, which created TwitJobSearch, a site that searches Twitter for jobs.
The latest tool that job hunters can use to find openings is called JobDeck, a new product from TwitJobSearch and TweetDeck, a desktop Twitter application.

JobDeck

Screenshot of JobDeck

TwitJobSearch scans Twitter for job postings by paying attention to the context in which employment-related keywords appear. For example, if a Tweet links to a story about the construction industry losing jobs, that should not show up on the list. If a Tweet says there is a job listing for an assistant to the vice president, the search engine needs to categorize it under openings for assistants, not vice presidents.

“If someone has 20 followers and they say, ‘We’re thinking of hiring a new sous-chef’ and a link to the restaurant blog, their 20 friends would know,” said William Fischer, co-founder of WorkDigital. “But somebody could come to our Web site, put in ‘restaurant work Bay Area’ and see it.”

JobDeck, the new service, adds other things, like Tweets from human resources professionals and the ability to set up continuous searches. It also pulls in job listing status updates from LinkedIn, which recently teamed with Twitter. Advertisers, including KFC and Adidas, submit job listings and can pay for premium placement in the search engine.

WorkDigital built TwitJobSearch on a lark to demonstrate how its search engine technology works, Mr. Fischer said, and he has been surprised that so many people use it. Twitter is a “cheaper, faster and easier” way to recruit, he said.

Other companies looking to hire have also been surprised by Twitter’s potential for reaching applicants.

On Jan. 7, Richard Barton, chief executive of the real estate Web site Zillow.com, fired off this Tweet: “Greg Slyngstad & I are cooking up a consumer internet startup. R U our founding CTO? Seeking smart, passionate team-builder.” (Mr. Slyngstad and Mr. Barton helped start Expedia together.)

“We were deluged with résumés,” Mr. Barton said. “It’s the most powerful recruiting tool I’ve ever used.”

He has also hired three Zillow employees using Twitter, including its new marketing director. Mr. Barton says Twitter is especially useful for job announcements because, unlike e-mail, a company doesn’t have to come up with a list of people who will receive the message.

3 Job Seeker Don’ts in a Tight Job Market

January 22, 2010

Filed under: Job seekers — admin @ 11:01 am Comments (0)

3 Job Seekers Don'ts

Don’t play the Lotto. “Hey, you never know,” is a great tagline for the New York Lottery, but a very bad strategy for job seekers. “Sure, the job description says five years of experience in java programming, and I have none, but heck, I’m good with computers, so you never know…” Even if you have zero expectations of getting called in for an interview, you’ll still count the experience as a job you didn’t get. This might not seem like a big deal at first, but when you continually apply for “long-shots” the cumulative impact can be demoralizing. Before you know it, you’ve stopped applying for jobs you are qualified for fearing another rejection. Instead, stay focused on positions that are a match for your skills and experience.

Don’t put the company before the job. “Well, it’s not really what I want to do but, hey, it’s at Google!” Job dissatisfaction knows no boundaries (even the walls of Google, Apple or (insert uber cool company of your choice here). When you apply to a job, make sure it’s a job you would be happy doing, regardless of the company you would be doing it for. And the “hey, you never know” strategy is a super-no-no if you have your heart set on working for a particular company. You may think you’re increasing your chances of getting hired by applying to every open job on the company’s job board, but all you’re really doing is convincing HR you have dissociative identity disorder. If there isn’t a job listing that matches your background, wait until there is. Better yet, if the company allows general resume submissions, submit your resume and a cover letter that explains why you want to work there, and why you would be a benefit to their team. You should also use LinkedIn to leverage connections and get an introduction to hiring managers at the company.

Don’t forget about the money. For the unemployed job seeker in a tight economy, any job can look like a good job. While it’s reasonable to make compromises and take a job that pays less than your last position, you should still be comfortable with the salary.

4 Tips For Taking Video Interviews at Home

January 18, 2010

Filed under: Employers, Job seekers, Video Interviewing — admin @ 5:35 pm Comments (0)

Video Interview

Last week’s article in Fast Company is yet another indication that video interviewing is on the rise. As companies embrace this technology as a routine part of their recruitment process, it’s a good idea for job seekers to get themselves and their home environment camera ready. Below are some highlights from the article which include advice from Colleen Aylward, CEO of InterviewStudio, and Mark Newman, CEO of Hirevue (with additional notes from us):

Invest in quality gear: That cheapo, built-in Webcam and microphone that came with your laptop is fine for recording your karaoke version of “Eye of the Tiger,” but this is real life. If your prospective employer doesn’t provide you with equipment, Aylward recommends shelling out $200 or so for a Logitech Webcam and a Blue Snowball microphone. You’ll look and sound way better. Our note: The Supporting Cast allows candidates to take video interviews on-site at our studio, eliminating the need for home-equipment. We will also drop-ship a camera to remote candidates and walk them through the setup.

Be sure to follow the interviewer’s directions. “Don’t be like the IT person who thinks he or she knows everything and comes off looking clueless,” Newman cautions.

Create good lighting and ambiance: Too little is obviously bad, but too much is worse, especially if it’s a stark spotlight that makes you look like an interrogation subject. Aylward recommends using diffused lamps or wrapping your lights in wax paper or professional soft-tint paper. Make sure you’re facing the brightest light source or else your interviewer will see a dark outline sans facial features. Our note: Sometimes a simple table-lamp with a shade is all that’s needed to provide appropriate lighting. Fluorescent lighting should be avoided whenever possible, unless green is the look you’re going for.

Also, make sure the windows are closed to shut out traffic noise, and that the dog and kids are occupied elsewhere. Pay attention to your background — a bookshelf is good, an Insane Clown Posse poster, not so much.

Practice: Whether you do a live two-way or record a video-on-demand clip on a corporate Web site, you don’t get a do-over if you come off like a noob. Aylward and Newman recommend doing a few dry runs on your own to check the equipment, lighting and camera position.

Have someone ask you some potential questions and record your responses so that you can critique your oral delivery and mannerisms. Go over some talking points, but don’t memorize a script. “Companies don’t like to hear something practiced,” Newman counsels. “They want that raw response.”

Give maximum content, minimum bloviation: Remember, video isn’t like a face-to-face interview, where you might try to establish rapport by spending 10 minutes discussing your prospective boss’s favorite NASCAR drivers or collection of vintage troll dolls. Your video responses may be watched over and over and analyzed for substance, so stay relentlessly focused and succinct.

Aylward recommends keeping your answers to two minutes maximum, and suggests concentrating on getting the main point into the first 15 seconds. “Be sure to read or hear the entire question and answer it fully,” adds Newman. “When you give an example, always organize it the same way — situation-task-action-results.” And be passionate. But not too passionate. That is, unless you want to come off like that “Leave Britney Alone” guy on YouTube.

Get Our Referral Bonus Offerings Through SMS

January 16, 2010

Filed under: News, Referral Rewards — admin @ 11:20 pm Comments (0)

Referral Bonus Updates Through SMS

The Supporting Cast offers referral bonuses for finding talent. In addition to our standard referral program, special recruiting needs can offer even higher bonuses. Text join referral to 292929 and be the first to refer-and-earn by getting instant updates to our talent needs and bonus pay-outs.

Companies Get Talent Lesson from NBC Late-Night Mess (On What Not to Do)

January 15, 2010

Filed under: Employers, News — admin @ 9:46 am Comments (0)

conan vs leno

What does the recent Leno vs. Conan NBC disaster have to offer other than great material for David Letterman? It provides a great case study for companies who want to maintain their top talent. According to a recent Fistful of Talent article, here are the three major don’ts of superstar talent rentention that NBC ignored:

  • Never guarantee a promotion. Never. Even to your very best A-players. Folks have argued whether you should tell your A-players, as a part of succession planning, about plans to groom them into leadership roles for the future. Telling people they are being groomed for roles? That’s actually fine by me especially if such a move will help with retention. You can then help them plan for the future and grow the necessary skills to take things to the next level. Promise them a role though? That’s a different story. So, please. Don’t do it. You create a sense of entitlement, and that ain’t right.
  • Never put someone into a promised role, then rescind, then offer something that’s second best. If your senior rockstar decides to step aside and go on to something else, and you then move your up and coming rockstar to fill their shoes… but the senior rockstar wants back in? Think about the demoralizing impact you’ll have when offering a second best option to your up and comer. Rockstars don’t want second best. They may be gracious and patient to wait for their turn for their big shot – but give them a taste then take it away? Not so fast, buddy! And it’s why you shouldn’t have made any promises to begin with. Don’t offer someone a role that you know is their dream job only to take it away from them seven months in and offer something else that is second best. No one is going to be happy with that.
  • There will be a trickle down effect in screwing over a rockstar. Rockstars have groupies. And groupies are loyal. Burn a rockstar in a bad way? Deal with the issue of the groupies ganging up against you too. Conan isn’t alone in this situation. He has a team of people who all are working towards the same mission – of getting to the Tonight Show and making it as great as it can be while building upon the legacy and history of the franchise. Mess with Conan and, I guarantee, you deal with the backlash of his groupies and staff too. Not to mention… now look at the potential of this situation sending him to a competitor. Already, there are talks of FOX wanting to offer Conan a gig. Don’t drive your A-talent elsewhere because you’ve over promised and then under delivered. Manage expectations and be fair from the get go.

Donation Sites for Haiti Relief Work

January 14, 2010

Filed under: News — admin @ 9:58 pm Comments (0)

The following organizations are accepting donations for relief work in Haiti, with several making donations as simple as sending a text message (donation will be deducted from your cell phone bill).

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
http://www.pih.org/home.html
http://www.yele.org/donation/
http://www.redcross.org/

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