12 Things You Wish Youd Known Before Taking the Job [INFOGRAPHIC]

12 Things You Wish You’d Known Before Taking the Job [INFOGRAPHIC] Youve been offered a job, and you want to take it but what do you need to check before you take it? This infographic by Donna Svei  outlines 12 things you need to note before taking a position. Takeaways: How many of the employees are on LinkedIn with phone numbers? They might want out! Google the companys name and see what the media is saying under News. Ask how many people have held the position in the last five years maybe look for reasons for a quick turnover! RELATED:  How to Succeed at Todays  Job Search

The Unemployed Need Not Apply How to Work Around a Hiring Bias

The Unemployed Need Not Apply How to Work Around a Hiring Bias It’s an unfortunate fact but some hiring managers have what we call “hiring tendencies.” They might lean towards interviewing workers with at least three years of experience. Maybe they prefer candidates who are in their mid-30s. Orâ€"and this is surprisingly prevalentâ€"they might lean towards hiring candidates who are currently employed. In the minds of these managers, employees who currently have jobs are superior to those who don’t, presumably because:  Someone seems to want them. Borrowing from the culture of Victorian era marriage proposals, if a person has other offers, they must be more valuable. A currently employed candidate is more comfortable interviewing, and therefore will be less likely to hide his weaknesses or overstate his credentials. Of course, these managers are overlooking the fact that employed candidates may be more expensive (they have to be coaxed away from their current salaries), less flexible, less willing to accept new training, and less willing to compromise. As a result, managers with a “hiring bias” are overlooking a plethora of qualified, eager, enthusiastic (and yes, unemployed) candidates. From a job seeker’s point of view, this can be frustrating. A silly presumption might be standing between you and a job you’re qualified for and really want. The question is, how do you work around this bias? How do you reach hiring managers and prove to them that you’re the right person for the job? And lastly, how do you accomplish all of this while overcoming any unfair unemployment stigmas? Read on and find out. Find a Way Around Unemployment Bias Here are four ways to overcome a hiring manager who seems to think you’re “less talented” than candidates who currently have a job: Use a recruiter. Recruiters (and staffing firms) can win over hiring managers for you before you sit down and interview with them. These people have been hired by the company to source and screen an initial candidate pool and present the final contenders for consideration. They’ve already earned the company’s trust, so if they like you and think you’re a good match, an employer (even a biased employer) may be more open to the possibility. Play up the rarity of your skillsets. You’re good at the things you do, sure. But in this case, your proficiency level isn’t the strongest card you hold. No matter how great you are at a certain skill, there are always people around you who are better, and in this case, the manager is already concerned that you weren’t quite great enough to satisfy your last employer. So put proficiency to the side for now and focus on rarity. Play up the things you can do that nobody else can. You may be fluent with generic office software, but so is everyone else. So in this case, leave that skill alone and focus on your ability to sooth and win over angry customers. Focus on your credentials in progress. Instead of dwelling on the fact that you don’t have a full-time job, emphasize the courses you’re taking, the volunteer work you’re doing for a local non-profit group, the open source communities you contribute to, the publications you’ve recently completed, and all the things you’re learning from whatever you’re experiencing right now. Focus on your words and demeanor during your interview, and don’t confirm your interviewer’s negative expectations, whatever they may be. Keep your attitude positive, your backbone firm, and your explanations brief if you’re asked for details about your unemployed status. Whatever you say on this subject can and will be held against you, so don’t say much. Answer succinctly and then steer the conversation back toward your credentials, talents, and strengths.

How To Automate Your Job Search On LinkedIn

How To Automate Your Job Search On LinkedIn Yes, their stock price crashed by 40%, but LinkedIn still remains the most popular professional networking site.  Of all the global professional networking sites, it  is also the largest, with over 238 million users in over 200 countries and territories around the world. Its no surprise that LinkedIns most important revenue stream comes from Talent Solutions, used by companies to recruit employees, growing 45% to $535million.  Thats a lot of hiring companies.  But at the same time, you have to compete with a large number of users.  Not forgetting the number of outstanding Netflix series you have not started on. Job search really is such a chore! Automating Your Job Search Process Luckily for you, this article is going to teach you how to automate your job search on LinkedIn, so at the end of it, you will  get more profile views, which could  lead to (more) calls from headhunters. Rather than discussing  LinkedIn profile optimization, this article is just going to focus on automating your outreach on LinkedIn. Lets get started: 1) Craft a magnetic tagline Or professional headline as LinkedIn would call it. The headline is the part that comes right after your name. You probably have one that states your current job title and company such as this: Design Engineer at HP Customer Service Director at Apple According to MyMarketbility, there are two parts to a compelling LinkedIn  headline: the keywords, and the value proposition.  Keywords would be what recruiters would search for; the value proposition is what drives them to read more. So you might put down  Personal branding (keywords) strategist providing business leaders with techniques to maximize their brand value for career success (value proposition). In marketing terms, this is called a click bait. To make sure yours is good enough,  search for your competition on LinkedIn. Run through what they listed down on their professional headline and ensure that you have the best. 2) Have a Call-To-Action Right after the headhunters click into your profile, they would be scanning through before deciding if they should pick up their heavy mobile phone and give you a call.  And according to The Ladders, they do it in 6 seconds.  That might be an experiment  based on resumes, but I bet my money it is more or less the same for LinkedIn profiles, which are even more accessible. Your summary and experience must contain  bite-sized content that would entice the reader to extend their 6 seconds stop-watch. Your summary should resemble an elevator pitch or the answer to Tell me more about yourself.  The key difference is the Call-To-Action at the bottom. That is crucial to let the world know you welcome connections and contacts. 3) Automate forget Unless you have a highly optimized profile, you might land on page 10 of any search results.  That isnt going to get you many views from headhunters. So while you work on optimizing your profiles to improve inbound traffic, you need to put the foot on the pedal on outbound.  And this is where the automation part comes into play with Auto-Pilot for LinkedIn.  This  Chrome extension can be  used  when you use the  LinkedIn Advanced Search page and what it does is it automatically visits the profiles that you have searched.  In the trial version, you could visit up to 400 profiles automatically. The rationale is that active LinkedIn users (the headhunters) would see your visits as an alert. And they would click your profile to view yours. That obviously isnt going to happen on every visit but if you are visiting 400 profiles a day and 2,800 a week, I would say the probability would get much higher than before. My profiles view has more than doubled since I started on this tool. And did I mention the outbound views are automatic? Visiting profiles is a passive approach, which works better than chasing after the headhunters. It also makes for easier salary negotiation when it is them who come to you, and not the other way round. Now, where did I stop at Netflix? [Image Credit: Shutterstock]

The Job Search Maze Approaching the Centre

The Job Search Maze Approaching the Centre In this second part of the hiring process through the eyes of a corporate recruitment leader, you’ll be taken through the more intricate part of the maze; towards the centre. You’ve made the long-list. Congratulations. Based on the phone screen (which you’ve nailed by being assertive with your time and preparation), you’ve made it through to the hallowed inbox of the hiring manager, or in some situations a hardcopy folder along with 2-3 other suitably qualified candidates. What happens next is not an exact science. Your resume’ will be scrutinized by the eyes of your potential leader, which will be staring out from a vast cosmos of personal and professional life experience and biases. Apart from the interview, lack of feedback at this stage can be quite irksome to candidates, after all, if you’ve made it this far and does a year or two difference in experience really matter? The trouble I’ve found is that hiring managers are often quite incapable of quantifying reasons for rejecting a candidate at this stage. They apparently simply ‘’know’’.  A good recruiter will of course challenge this and assert their expertise; in reality however, most bow and scurry away to arrange the interview and reject those candidates not deemed suitable to progress further.   The Interview This quirky phase in proceedings has filled journals and books. Some folk make their living teaching others on how to do it successfully, therefore for the purposes of this particular article I’m going to offer my corporate experience and on the ground, face to face perspective on this climactic piece of the process. This is what we’ve been working towards; meeting the right potential candidate and doing everything we can to appear professional, positive and important. Hot tips for beginners on what actually matters: The greeting  Get it right. Whether you bow, wave your hand, smile, or provide the western styled hand-shake, make sure its polite and that you adhere to the local customs. Too often candidates dribble their hand into mine and offer a wan smile.   Your clothing  Quirky hats, excessiveness. I’ve seen candidates rapidly remove jackets or slip off ties after walking in to reception. They assess the situation and make the changes. Small talk Often unpleasant, but necessary nevertheless. Particularly if the journey to the interview room is arduous. So many interviews fail before they start because the gentle silence that settles in the air becomes intolerable for some and personal details erupt from their mouths before they are able to stop it. Sit in the right chair Ideally get your back to a wall.   Micro-expressions Learn to control them.   Practise Always prepare.  Always. From a corporate perspective, this is the main show. Regardless of the fact that studies have proven interviewing to have marginal success in determining suitability for a role, this is how do we do it. Yes, its awkward. Ive had a candidate lean over and vomit in a bin from nerves;  another in tears as she related an unrelated part of her life to us. Others have stormed out in a rage and my all time favourite was the fellow that refused to leave and followed me back to my office to prove how much he wanted the job and to think that his phone screen was the most promising. The format is usually simple. We talk about ourselves, reiterate the details of the job and then hand over to the candidate to talk about themself. We then interject and asking probing questions, with the hiring manager focussing on technical items and the recruiter (or local HR rep) digging into exciting items such as curiosity, engagement, resilience etc. The smirks that cross director level candidates faces at this point are usually noted, but if youre dealing with an experienced recruiter expect them to keep ploughing; even in these modern times corporations the world over hire based on technical skills and fire based on behaviours. How to actually field the myriad of questions is an article on its own, but for what its worth, if your prep is good, youll be okay; after all, you know yourself better than anyone so its fair to assume that if the content is there, it comes down to how you relate this. Your words, your speech and your body language. Dont underestimate what your limbs, hands and face are doing. Seem like a lot to consider? It is. The stakes are high. Of course all of this is the first round. You’ve met, fed back the right sorts of answers and proven to be worth inviting back in again. Its true that many companies offer after the first round, however as your role and responsibilities increase over the course of your career you’ll likely be asked to return multiple times to meet higher ranked individuals and further afield from your actual work. For the rookies, be wary of accepting any more than 3 invitations to come back, as the process eventually becomes self-perpetuating whilst the organisation struggles to make a decision. I’ve always appreciated candidates being assertive about their time. Also, it screams lack of process and lack of understanding of what they want so tread warily. The Offer Whilst there are a multitude of hoops you may need to leap through including testing, medical assessments etc â€" They all lead to the final and most crucial step in the process, the verbal offer. Whilst a contract may materialise in your inbox without prior discussion, most offers are presented verbally before being put on paper to save everyone time. What happens in the background is often a laborious process involving approvals, checks and a high five once a figure pops out. Smart operators will have already discovered your ball-park figure, if not, and you’ve played your cards carefully, the conversation with your friendly Talent Acquisition  Specialist could be awkward particularly if they miss your expectations. Usually, the line goes dead as candidates struggle to come to grips with their disappointment.   The lesson here is to push the topic of salary during interview if the organisation is not forthcoming. Its admittedly touchy, but if you consider the potentially wasted hours spent painting a picture of success of you in the new role, its worth tabling it. For the purposes of this text however, lets assume that the discussion has been had and the figure you’ve heard is of interest; your next words should likely be a request to see it on paper.  Many executives respond at this point with an uncommitted ‘…Its a good start’, however expect an attempt to back you into a corner. This usually comes in the form of ‘…If we offer figure x in a contract with the clauses we’ve just discussed, will this meet your expectations and how soon can we expect to have a signed contract returned…’.  I’m not in the habit of forcing others down a particular path, however it is my solemn duty to my company to get you onboard, and this role closed so expect companies to be pushy.   Its worth mentioning at this point that the contract you receive is a legal document. I’m routinely surprised by the lack of attention and disregard shown to Letters of Offer by companies and candidates alike. Consider for a moment, that you were purchasing a house. You’d likely involve a lawyer, because its important and the contract forms the epicentre of this process, yet for many of us its our jobs that are worth more, after all, without a job one cannot support the mortgage repayments.  Therefore its worth your time to read your obligations and to understand what you are signing before you commit.   Before we journey on to the internal manoeuvres in preparation for your arrival in future articles, I do propose that you reflect on the journey and take stock of the fact that if you made it to the centre of the labyrinth, you’ve done well.  Recruiting approaches vary, but ultimately are aimed at securing the right person. Conversely, you’ll be spending many a day there so its worth watching how you are treated as it offers glimpses of what you’ll face once on the inside. This is the travel brochure, so if cracks appear now, they’ll likely widen. A joyous recruiting year ahead for all those that celebrated the recent New Years! Author: The ‘Acquirer’ â€"  No small dose of healthy HR skepticism. A career in Talent Acquisition leadership in global companies from the heat of the Asia Pacific to the crisp air of Europe.   Pragmatic, strategic, and every now and again… serious.