Competing recruiters try to fill job requirements from Fortune 500 firms. These firms send job requirements electronically to the recruiting firms. Electronic databases then convert the requirements into postings which are fed to other databases such as Monster.com. Search parameters set by job hunters then find these postings and e-mail them to the job hunters who respond to the "blind" ("company confidential" or recruiting firm) ads.
Because the recruiters are often not clear on the full detail of the job requirements and because the actual firms looking for contractors or employees make their requirements extremely detailed, excellent candidates are frequently missed due to "glitches" in the overall process.
To make matters worse, if one of the Fortune 500 firms receives two resumes for the same candidate, many automatically eliminate that candidate from consideration. This is a "lose-lose" situation.
What are the remedies? Let me get to the fish story first. Different kinds of tropical fish get their food in different ways. Some look for the food on the bottom of their tank . Their food is usually distributed in the form of pellets which the fish find in the sand. Others need food floating in the water. Their food is usually distributed in the form of flakes which float around the fish. These fish will starve if they are provided fish food in a form they are not looking for.
The Fortune 500 companies, the recruiting firms, and the job seekers are often starving as well, because the packaging is not effective in matching the best candidates with available jobs.
Showing posts with label job search. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job search. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Careers in the 24th Century--Support Tools and Reality Checks
In this 21st Century, research has indicated that people can expect to change careers 12 times and have many more jobs. Some of the same literature talks about the fact that jobs have not even been thought of yet while thousands are finishing bachelors and masters degrees to prepare them for jobs that are already obsolete. Shift Happens 2008 (Did You Know 2?) is an eye-opening sequel to Shift Happens (Did You Know) first released in 2007.
Not only are traditional job search and recruiting tools obsolete, so, too are many of the career preparation tools. One tool that I found useful in working with students in middle and high school is http://www.careercruising.com/. If you are interested to see what I did with it, visit the Footprints Project page of my wiki space for middle schools.
I completed the career skills questionnaire my students would be expected to complete (117 career-skill-related questions) and Career Cruising came up with a list of 40 careers (jobs) my choices matched to. I was doing this to test the validity of the software as a tool and was impressed that, of the 40 choices, in the course of my career I have worked in 14 of the jobs listed--and still I have always done the same thing (in a wide variety of ways).
What I do--I make a positive difference in the world by helping individuals and organizations learn to change to improve their quality of (business) life now and for the future.
It's amazing to me that I've done that in 14 jobs already, and sometimes more than once in any given job. What's even more amazing is that I haven't had more employers in the course of 40+ years of working.
Reality Check: The order of careers was based on my preferences and I was amazed by how my experience in these careers was reflected in the questionnaire.
Change is Upon Us
When I went back to graduate school in 1985, I wanted to get a doctorate that would let me work with adults and organizations who needed to learn how to change. My doctorate (which I completed in 1992) did prepare me to help adults and organizations learn to change and my post-doctoral Master of Arts in Teaching (completed in 2008) prepared me to extend this service to children as well.
I invested about $200,000 in my doctorate degree in terms of tuition, books, and loss of income while a full-time students. Much of what I learned was timeless. I know this because in my dissertation research I tracked the origins of reflection on learning concepts to the time of Confucius--about 300BC. (For a full-text copy of the dissertation [ATT9229831] visit this link.)
Since earning my doctorate, I have worked with thousands of people and more than 60 organizations in helping each learn how to improve their quality of life. My investment was worth every penny.
My goal now is to find ways to share what I do with more people. Can you help? If so, contact me through my Wiki Project page.
Not only are traditional job search and recruiting tools obsolete, so, too are many of the career preparation tools. One tool that I found useful in working with students in middle and high school is http://www.careercruising.com/. If you are interested to see what I did with it, visit the Footprints Project page of my wiki space for middle schools.
I completed the career skills questionnaire my students would be expected to complete (117 career-skill-related questions) and Career Cruising came up with a list of 40 careers (jobs) my choices matched to. I was doing this to test the validity of the software as a tool and was impressed that, of the 40 choices, in the course of my career I have worked in 14 of the jobs listed--and still I have always done the same thing (in a wide variety of ways).
What I do--I make a positive difference in the world by helping individuals and organizations learn to change to improve their quality of (business) life now and for the future.
It's amazing to me that I've done that in 14 jobs already, and sometimes more than once in any given job. What's even more amazing is that I haven't had more employers in the course of 40+ years of working.
Reality Check: The order of careers was based on my preferences and I was amazed by how my experience in these careers was reflected in the questionnaire.
Change is Upon Us
When I went back to graduate school in 1985, I wanted to get a doctorate that would let me work with adults and organizations who needed to learn how to change. My doctorate (which I completed in 1992) did prepare me to help adults and organizations learn to change and my post-doctoral Master of Arts in Teaching (completed in 2008) prepared me to extend this service to children as well.
I invested about $200,000 in my doctorate degree in terms of tuition, books, and loss of income while a full-time students. Much of what I learned was timeless. I know this because in my dissertation research I tracked the origins of reflection on learning concepts to the time of Confucius--about 300BC. (For a full-text copy of the dissertation [ATT9229831] visit this link.)
Since earning my doctorate, I have worked with thousands of people and more than 60 organizations in helping each learn how to improve their quality of life. My investment was worth every penny.
My goal now is to find ways to share what I do with more people. Can you help? If so, contact me through my Wiki Project page.
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Business of Getting Noticed by the Right People
In the 2009 economy in the USA, much time on the internet is invested in trying to get noticed by "the right people." Who are the "right people?" That depends on the goal. If I want a job, I want to be noticed by people who are hiring. If I am looking for contract work, I want to be noticed by the people who are looking for someone to fill the contract. If I want to find consulting work, I want to be noticed by organizations who would like to use me as a consultant. Sologig.com and Fulcrum Network both focus on identifying opportunities for contract or consulting work.
How do we go about getting noticed in this age of social networking? We post resumes to job boards, fill-out profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other locations. We create web sites, blogs, create podcasts, put out promotional pieces on YouTube--and hope for the best
Many people are in the business of helping people get noticed. In fact, there are almost more people trying to help others improve their resumes than there are people hiring for jobs.
We do need to get noticed by the right people--for the right reasons--and for the right "investment" of our time and energy.
How do we go about getting noticed in this age of social networking? We post resumes to job boards, fill-out profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other locations. We create web sites, blogs, create podcasts, put out promotional pieces on YouTube--and hope for the best
Many people are in the business of helping people get noticed. In fact, there are almost more people trying to help others improve their resumes than there are people hiring for jobs.
We do need to get noticed by the right people--for the right reasons--and for the right "investment" of our time and energy.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Representing Yourself to Businesses--in the AGR Age (After the Great Recession)
AGR--After the great recession--Perhaps resumes no longer had the value they had in earlier times in representing ourselves to businesses. (See my profiles on the Title link.)
Resumes today seem to be an awkward way to represent ourselves in and to businesses. More and more people have the job of filtering resumes--unless the job can be turned-over to a computer. One of the more creative ways to produce a resume or a profile is to have a multimedia Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. The challenge becomes more difficult as we add education, wisdom, and experience to our careers.
Who needs to see our background? Potential clients or customers, potential employers, potential mentors, colleagues, coaches, business partners, . . . . The list continues to grow. Some of the people who may want to see it will have different expectations from others who need the same information. How do we cover the bases in ways that are most effective?
For some, a functional resume may serve--Microsoft Word 2007 has a template for a functional resume. Many job search services offer professional advice and, for a fee, rewrites of resumes. These may not result in the kinds of resumes or background you want to share with clients or colleagues.
Social Networking sites like LinkedIn ask for a "profile" that includes former employers and educational institutions.
Some job boards available online and employer websites want information provided in a certain way they can use to filter and sort the data for multiple candidates for positions. Few of these sites can deal effectively with a functional resume.
I'm working on my multimedia resume for clients, customers, colleagues, mentors, and anyone else to use. I'll let you know when I have it available.
Resumes today seem to be an awkward way to represent ourselves in and to businesses. More and more people have the job of filtering resumes--unless the job can be turned-over to a computer. One of the more creative ways to produce a resume or a profile is to have a multimedia Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. The challenge becomes more difficult as we add education, wisdom, and experience to our careers.
Who needs to see our background? Potential clients or customers, potential employers, potential mentors, colleagues, coaches, business partners, . . . . The list continues to grow. Some of the people who may want to see it will have different expectations from others who need the same information. How do we cover the bases in ways that are most effective?
For some, a functional resume may serve--Microsoft Word 2007 has a template for a functional resume. Many job search services offer professional advice and, for a fee, rewrites of resumes. These may not result in the kinds of resumes or background you want to share with clients or colleagues.
Social Networking sites like LinkedIn ask for a "profile" that includes former employers and educational institutions.
Some job boards available online and employer websites want information provided in a certain way they can use to filter and sort the data for multiple candidates for positions. Few of these sites can deal effectively with a functional resume.
I'm working on my multimedia resume for clients, customers, colleagues, mentors, and anyone else to use. I'll let you know when I have it available.
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