job & interview

3 Reasons 'Tis the Season to Get Hired

Between holiday vacations, company closures and snow days, hiring managers are still seeking qualified candidates to fill positions and looking to network with those on the job hunt. Even if you're already balancing shopping and entertaining, here are a few reasons why now is a terrific time to activate your job search. [See: The 10 Worst Times to Switch Jobs.] Qualified candidates stand out. Depending on the company and the amount of time job seekers have on their hands, there can be an influx or decrease in job openings and applications. Still, Christine Assaf, human resources professional and founder of the careers blog hrtact.com, says you shouldn't waste available time. "Gaining experience in networking and interviewing is always a plus when job seeking, so therefore don't quit the search during the season because you may miss an opportunity," she says. According to Nancy H. Segal, owner of career coaching and HR consulting firm Solutions for the Workplace, LLC, "holiday hires are not just limited to seasonal hires. For some employers, there are less distractions during the holiday period so that they are more able to focus on assessing candidates," she wrote in an email. However, Assaf says there's usually a decrease in hiring during the holiday season. "Businesses are trying to hit their final budget at the end of the year and sometimes hold off on hiring until after the new year," she explains. As Segal points out, continuing the job search during the holidays shows that you're interested, and hiring managers have time to focus on you. "You may get to see people who normally would not have time to talk to you," she writes. Keep in mind that because the season is filled with events, vacations and company holidays, a hiring process that would usually take a few weeks might take longer. Segal advises job searchers to regularly check their emails and voicemails for communication from potential employers. "Respond in a timely manner," she writes. "You do not want a potential employer to think you are ignoring their efforts to contact you." Another tip: Abstain from using holiday music on your outgoing voicemail message. Doing so may sound unprofessional, Segal writes. [Read: Jump Out of the No-Pile and Onto the Call-Back List.] You can add value to a potential employer's bottom line. Hiring managers can be too distracted by holiday events, vacation time and personal obligations to even look at applications and résumés during the holidays, but they could be planning to hire in 2014. Many companies have goals for the new year that can't be fulfilled without new hires. Even if you're also busy with seasonal activities, you should make yourself available. "It is still a buyer's market, and there will be plenty of applicants who will be available. If a job seeker is out of town, they could offer a phone interview or, even better, a Skype or FaceTime interview," Segal writes. Assaf adds that applicants should be truthful and upfront about holiday needs and respectful of potential employers' schedules. However, according to Segal, the holidays are "also a great time for informational interviewing – you can take people out for coffee, etc. – and since things tend to be quiet during this period, they may be able to give you more time and attention than normal." [Read: 6 Ways to Expand Your Network This Holiday Season.] Holiday networking can get your foot in a door that's not open yet. Use holiday schmoozing to your advantage. Holiday events are prime networking territory for applicants to meet people capable of hiring and in search of viable leads. Events may be held in your area by local and national professional organizations, private employers and even friends who can introduce and connect you. "Holiday networking events are a great way for job seekers to mix and mingle to find good contacts for potential jobs," Assaf says. Sending out holiday cards can add a special touch. "A holiday card with a short handwritten note can be useful – the card should be of the 'happy holidays' variety rather than one that has pictures of the candidate's children or pets; nor should the card have religious overtones," Segal writes. She adds not to forget the do's of successful job seekers for the rest of the year: Present yourself professionally, consider what you say and to whom and don't become a nuisance. <a href="http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2013/12/13/3-reasons-tis-the-season-to-get-hired" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">View the original article here</a>

3 Reasons 'Tis the Season to Get Hired

Between holiday vacations, company closures and snow days, hiring managers are still seeking qualified candidates to fill positions and loo...

3 Types of Recruiters and How to Impress Them

Have you been contacted by an outside recruiter about a potential job opportunity? You're not alone. More jobs were filled by third-party recruiters last year than in each of the past eight years, according the CareerXroads Source of Hire report, released last week. Incorporating recruiters in your job search strategy yields another source to hear about opportunities that you may not have learned about otherwise. Another way to get sourced for opportunities is by having the right online reputation.Many job seekers are confused about how recruiters work, or they have unrealistic expectations of what a recruiter is supposed to do. Learn about the different types of recruiters and review how their roles are slightly different. While the role may vary from recruiter to recruiter, these general guidelines offer a place to start: Recruiters   This term applies to people whose primary responsibility is to find and hire the best candidate for job openings. There are two types of recruiters: inside recruiters and external or third-party recruiters. While their mission is the same, how they are compensated is different. Inside recruiters are salaried employees with a full load of positions to fill. External recruiters are usually paid commission based on jobs filled. Inside RecruitersThey are often called "in-house recruiters" or "corporate recruiters." Companies with numerous positions to fill often have internal recruiters who are solely responsible for hiring, whereas smaller companies have human resources teams that oversee all aspects of talent management. Inside recruiters are typically employees of the company, but sometimes they can be contracted employees. The pros and cons: What's nice about inside recruiters is that they know the culture and overall needs of the organization or company. However, inside recruiters may not know the true nature of the job if they don’t have a close relationship with the hiring manager or haven’t previously placed people within that department. Also, inside recruiters often serve as filters that screen candidates who don’t fit the criteria.External or Third-Party Recruiters External or third-party recruiters are hired by a company to fill positions. Almost 6 percent of new hires were attributed to using third-party recruiters in 2013, according to CareerXroads. A company may decide to use these types of recruiters for a number of reasons: There's been an increase in the number of jobs to be filled; the position is very specific and difficult to fill; or the company wants to keep the opening quiet. The main responsibilities for both external and internal recruiters is to find and present the most qualified candidate. External recruiters fall into two camps: retained or contingent. Retained means that that the recruiter or agency has a contract relationship with the company (either exclusive or not) to help find the right talent. Contingent means contingent on placement. In other words: If a recruiter provides the candidate who gets hired, he or she gets paid. If the candidate presented is not hired, the recruiter is not compensated. You may even notice several recruiters competing to fill the same job. You should only partner with one recruiter in this case.The pros and cons: An external recruiter serves as a middleman between you and the company. If one job doesn’t work out, he or she may have other opportunities for you. Plus, if you meet the qualifications of the job the recruiter is trying to fill, he or she will be extremely interested in you. But keep in mind that not all recruiters are created equal. Some have less than scrupulous reputations and recruiting practices. Also, if a recruiter doesn’t place many people with jobs like yours, you may not hear from him or her again.Sourcers In some cases, companies have specialists known as sourcers. These professionals do the digging to find the very best candidates and then pass the candidate information to the recruiter. Sourcers are known for their masterful sleuthing and research abilities. More than 60 percent of the companies surveyed in the CareerXroads report said they have a separate division or group that only does sourcing. Imagine the difference in workload if you were a recruiter who didn’t have to find candidates. The decline in resume database searching gives candidates one more reason to enrich their LinkedIn presences. CareerXroads reported that when hiring from a job board, 50 percent of companies hired from job postings rather than resume searches. Spend time refining your LinkedIn profile, which almost 60 percent ?of companies said has a critical impact on sourcing and recruiting candidates. The number of new hires sourced from referrals, job boards and career sites decreased last year, but it's still significant. One of the few sources of hire expected to increase is direct sourcing, which grew by 5 percentage points between 2012 and 2013?,? according to CareerXroads. So what does this mean for you? To be a sourced candidate, you want to be recognized or well-known within your industry or role, connected to the right people or have optimized keywords in your LinkedIn profile and other places online. Hannah Morgan writes and speaks on career topics and job search trends on her blog Career Sherpa. She co-authored “Social Networking for Business Success,” and has developed and delivered programs to help job seekers understand how to look for work better.  <a href="http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2014/07/30/3-types-of-recruiters-and-how-to-impress-them" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">View the original article here</a>

3 Types of Recruiters and How to Impress Them

Have you been contacted by an outside recruiter about a potential job opportunity? You're not alone. More jobs were filled by third-par...

How to Toughen Up at Work

These tips will help you resolve workplace conflicts like a champ.It's natural to feel bruised when you trip over a bump in the road. A bad performance review stings. A botched project bulldozes your confidence. Micromanagement makes you feel microscopic on the corporate ladder.But conflict is guaranteed in the working world (and life). And if your emotional response – getting defensive, depressed, angry – distracts you from your work, you'll both derail your performance and potentially taint your image. "Successful people aren't perfect, but they know how to manage their emotions," says Andrea Kay, career consultant and author of “Work’s a Bitch and then You Make it Work: 6 Steps to Go From Pissed Off to Powerful.”As David Reiss, a psychiatrist based in San Diego, puts it: "The most valued employees are the ones that can handle conflict and resolve it." [Read: The 5 Things You Must Know About Yourself as an Employee.]To help you resolve conflict like a champ – sans passive aggressiveness or tears – follow the expert tips below:Know thyself. You're innovative in brainstorming meetings, and you're enthusiastic as a team player. Good to know. Equally important to understand: You get defensive when peppered with questions about your project's status, and you tend to perceive critiques as personal attacks. Whew. Glad we got that out there.Being conscious of both your strengths and your Achilles' heel – "that button that gets pushed that makes you crumble and feel bad about yourself," as Kay puts it – will help you control your emotions in and outside the workplace.Ask yourself, "What gets under my skin and why?" to strengthen your "awareness muscle," Kay says. You could even keep a journal to track the times your panic button has been pushed and how you reacted. Or if you're really brave, ask a close friend or colleague to point out these situations. Maybe you don't realize how passive aggressive (or flat-out aggressive) you get in meetings when given constructive feedback.When you identify these blind spots, you're more likely to react out of logic rather than emotion next time. (Think: I know I get stressed when my colleagues ask me so many questions about my project's progress because they make me feel like I'm not good at my job. But really, they're probably just asking questions because they care about the project.) If you never step back and you only see a narrow interpretation of the situation – they're asking questions because they think I'm an idiot! – you react out of emotion. Cue the eye rolls, defensiveness, anger, tears. But whatever the case, "if your emotion is running you, you've lost control," Kay says.Prepare and practice. Now that you're aware of what gets to you, practice how you'll react to it. Maybe deep breathing calms you, or perhaps it's a five-minute walk, a cup of tea, a scroll through Instagram, some seated yoga, a text to your sibling or a little Kenny G. Everyone is different, so choose what works for you to get grounded.Don't wait until you're upset to find an effective stress neutralizer, says Beverly Flaxington, author of "Self-Talk for a Calmer You" and adjunct professor of leadership and social responsibility at Suffolk University in Boston. That's like waiting until the Olympics to learn your sport. Try a few de-stressing exercises when the pressure is off, and practice them. So next time you start to feel yourself getting overly emotional or stressed, you know to start taking deep breaths or cue the smooth jazz.[Read: The Best Cures for Workplace Stress.]Expect mistakes and criticism. Some tough love from Kay: "In the workplace, you're going to be criticized, you're going to be judged and your performance will be rated," she says. "There will be lots of challenging moments, and you're going to make mistakes." Sound bleak? Here's how to get by: "Make peace with the notion that you can't control anything besides your own reaction to others and to your mistakes," she says. Speaking of reactions ... Don't beat yourself up. "Reasonably self-criticize, but avoid self-punishment," Reiss says. Say you made a mistake – not a screw-up big enough to get you fired – but a mistake nonetheless. "If you catch yourself really putting yourself down as a person or in terms of your abilities, step back and see it as a learning experience," he says. No, you're not an idiot for letting that typo slip into the big report. (And your boss isn't a monster for pointing it out.) But next time you'll proofread the report a few more times, right? <a href="http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2014/09/16/how-to-toughen-up-at-work/*" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">View the original article here</a>

How to Toughen Up at Work

These tips will help you resolve workplace conflicts like a champ. It's natural to feel bruised when you trip over a bump in the road. ...

job & interview

3 Reasons 'Tis the Season to Get Hired

3 Types of Recruiters and How to Impress Them

How to Toughen Up at Work

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