Applicant or Antique? 5 Ways you Look Out-of-Date in Your Job Search

For many, looking for a job is something that isn’t practiced often enough for them to be considered an expert on the subject. It could be years or even decades before you find yourself needing to update your résumé and hit the job search path again. If you’re just starting out in your career, you may not know where to begin on the latest trends in the constantly changing job market.

Hiring trends have changed drastically in the past few years and it can be hard to tell what parts of your job search are still effective or what should be left in the dust. It’s important to stay current on the latest trends in the job market. If you can’t appear current, informed, and on top of what’s going on, an employer might not think you’ll be able to stay updated on their business to help it grow in the future.

Before you feel like you’re in over your head, here are some ways you could be labeling yourself as outdated to potential employers, how to avoid them, and how to stay ahead of the game.

Universal Résumé

A decade ago, a job seeker could whip up a résumé, send it off to prospective employers, job boards, and websites like Monster, sit on the couch, and wait for the phone to ring with potential employers. Those hiring crunch days have passed. Employers are looking for the right candidates with specific skills and certain experiences. While the economy is improving, a business could receive hundreds of applications for an open position and will have to find ways of narrowing down that pool of prospects. Today, many employers use document-reading software that will pick applications and résumés based on key words described in the job description. That’s why it’s important to customize your résumé to specifically match the requirements, language, and wording from the job description.

LinkedIn That’s LackIn’

LinkedIn is a wonderful business-focused site that allows job seekers to network with professionals from all over the world. Employers and experts use LinkedIn to learn new information from their peers, increase their visibility, and search for new talent. Recruiters frequently look through LinkedIn to find potential employees who have certain skills and training that is right for them. This gives job seekers a great opportunity to be found, if their information is complete and frequently updated. If you left a previous employer on good terms, ask a few former co-workers or managers to write a recommendation for you and offer to write one for those who influenced you the most.

Going Missing on Google

A lot of people are proud of the fact that they are “off the radar.” If you try to Google their names, you won’t find anything about them. They may be claiming that they’re protecting their privacy, but to some employers, a missing profile is a nobody. In 2009, Microsoft released a survey saying 79% of U.S. employers check out applicants using a search engine before considering them for a job. Even if they find unpleasant information about someone with the same name, it can reflect poorly and the application could get rejected. It’s important to have a professional image online so potential employers can see that you are up to date and savvy, or else they just might keep looking.

Omitted Interview Investigation

Before the days of the internet, you had to go out of your way to research a potential employer. It was risky, but still somewhat acceptable to go into an interview with little to no knowledge of the company they were interviewing with. If you walk into an interview asking basic questions that can be answered on the employer’s website, you won’t be seen as somebody who really wants the position and will take it seriously. Take an hour or two to look through an employer’s website, blog, and social media profiles to get an idea of who they are and what they do. If you can’t find answers there, then you can ask more detailed questions during the interview. It shows you’ve taken initiative to really understand the job and the company.

Limited Network Connection

The vast majority of hiring is made through people employers already know or who are connected to someone they know. Hiring is expensive and they want an employee they can trust. By missing out on the tremendous networking opportunities social media sites can provide, you are immensely limiting yourself from some influential people in your community, profession, or industry. Social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ are great ways to start conversations and network with old friends, industry peers, and classmates who can help you find a job.

Using the internet to update your job search has its dangers, but you run a bigger risk appearing outdated and uninformed if you don’t stay current with today’s changing trends. With these helpful hints, you’ll be a savvy seeker in no time.

This article was written By Jared Cole

Part-Time Administrative Assistant – Construction

Position Duties:
o Coordinate and maintain working project and bid files.
o Type work orders
o Answer telephones and take messages
o Prepare proposal letters and input measurements into excel preset bid sheets.
o Process incoming and outgoing mail.
o Schedule appointments and meetings for project operations team.
o Perform other administrative duties as requested by operations team

Minimum Qualifications
o 1-3 years experience as an Administrative Assistant experience in the construction industry.
o Experience with MS Word, Excel and Outlook; strong computer and typing skills
o Ability to prioritize work load
o Excellent customer service skills, including the ability to interface with all levels of management, customers and subcontractor personnel
o Ability to prioritize work load and to work independently with minimal supervision
o Excellent oral and written communication skills
o Excellent time management and organizational skills
o Ability to work well in a team environment
Hours: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Monday – Friday
Pay $12 per hour

Accounting Specialist

This is a contract position that could go to hire.  My client is looking for an Accounting Specialist to work in their Travel Department.  You will calculate, prepare, verify, reconcile, and record financial data – mainly travel expenses.  You will review records for accuracy, verify and analyze data, and make adjustments and corrections as required.  Will help prepare, process and generate checks for the payables department.  Will provide explanations and assistance to employees, vendors, and other customers regarding policies and procedures.  Will research and resolve problems relating to job duties.  Will assist in preparation or compilation of financial information in decision support to management.

Must have at least a HS Diploma with 5 years related experience, though prefer an AS or BS degree with less experience.  Must have very good Excel and Word skills.  Salary DOE.  Thorough Background, Credit and Drug Screen required.  32-35K

Please send your resume to barb.fossett@expresspros.com

Title Clerk

Our client is an entreprenurial based company that is rapidly growing. The Title Clerk position is open to a person who is able to grow with the company. Processing Vehicle: title clerks process documents for state registration, filling out the proper paperwork and ensuring that tax and title documents are also filled out. The title clerk processes bills, contracts, warranties and service contracts that must be sent to the appropriate agency, such as the Department of Motor Vehicles. Accuracy: Vehicle title clerks check for accuracy in all documents and ensure that all required parts of forms are filled out and signed. Additionally, vehicle title clerks may check for accuracy of vehicle sale and purchase prices. Organization and Filing: The title clerk maintains a file of sales, prices, payment, warranties, service contracts and other pertinent information related to the sale or transfer of a vehicle. Education Requirements: A high school diploma is a must a 2-4 year degree is preferred. Continuous Training: State regulations may change periodically, so vehicle title clerks need to know when changes are in effect. Vehicle title clerks must constantly keep abreast of changing regulatory information by monitoring DMV websites and ensuring that their practices are in alignment with updated regulations. This is a temp to hire positon. The pay for this position is $15.00 per hour. Our Client provides health care benefits.

This Position is in Delray Beach

Please send your resume to barb.fossett@expresspros.com

Are you or someone you know looking for part-time weekend work?

Our client is an upscale condominium community on Palm Beach Island.

On their behalf we are seeking a very professional part time door person. The successful candidate will have hospitality concierge in their background and will be very people oriented. The tenants of our client are also board members and will be on property at all times. The right candidate for this person will have the ability to communicate clearly, concisely and effectively in English.

The hourly wage for the successful candidate will be $11.00 – $12.00 per hour
Hours: 3 p.m. until 11:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The required dress code for this position:  Grey pants, white collared shirt and a tie in good taste.

Please apply on line at www.expresspros.com or email your resume to barb.fossett@expresspros.com

 

Why Recruiting Looks So Easy

There is an absolutely wonderful children’s book called 20 Heartbeats about a painter who paints a horse for a very wealthy man. I hate to ruin it for you, but I have to say what happens.

The rich man pays this famous painter to paint his favorite horse. But years go by and the painter won’t finish the painting. The rich man finally shows up at the painter’s house and demands the painting. The painter obligingly whips out a piece of parchment, dashes off a horse in black ink with his brush, and then hands the painting to the rich man. All this takes less than the time of 20 heartbeats.

The rich man is, of course, aghast. He storms after the painter to demand his money back. However, as he walks after the painter, he sees what has been taking so long.

All along the walls are hundreds and hundreds of painted horses. The painter wasn’t procrastinating, he was practicing. The rich man then finally takes a look at the painting that he purchased so long ago, now in his hands. It’s a perfect horse, a horse so real that he whistles to it.

As every art form takes discipline and practice to look easy, every kind of work takes years of diligence to perfect. Recruiting is no different, but few professions look so simple. It’s really hard to pass along a piece of paper, right? You can almost hear hiring managers thinking to themselves, “Yeah, I’ll bet your fingers are really tired from dragging all those resumes from a folder into an email. Real hard work.” Few jobs seem so easy to duplicate.

The end product of recruiting, for one thing, is someone’s else’s work – it is someone else’s talent, ability to interview, and everything else they have that gets them hired that is the end product of the recruiter’s process. It’s hard to pinpoint the recruiter’s exact role in this pseudo-science. Did they identify the talent? Spot them? Find them? Assess them? Understand the job? The culture? Have the right database? The right connections? The right insight into the department or hiring manager psychology? Did they make a lot of calls or know some secret strings to search for in Google? It’s hard to say what it is exactly that the recruiter does and so it’s easy to discount the recruiter’s role entirely.

However, we might be looking at it wrong. A recruiter’s value can’t be found within the process of a single hire. It can’t be found in that space that sometimes spans twenty heartbeats between talking to a manager about a job to the identification of a possible talent.

You have to look at everything that comes before that identification to see the value of a good recruiter. A great recruiter creates the conditions for that magic luck to strike. They don’t talk to a lot of different people. They talk to everyone. They don’t want to know their clients or their company’s competitors. They want to know everything that’s happening at every company in their area. It’s a massive amount of work that requires constant rejection, failure, stress, and is compounded by the minutiae of job offers and the uncertainty of human emotion.

That’s why very few succeed at recruiting. It’s not like there is anything special about that one placement. There is nothing about identifying a candidate and getting them a job offer that requires any particular kind of magic, or even a college degree for that matter. Unlike a beautiful painting, anyone or any recruiter can luck out and make a placement or two. But the background required for long-term recruiting success is much different. It involves the deep study of companies, products, markets, assessment, and professions coupled with a kind of brute force stamina to doggedly pursue the talents of other people. This is the process that forges the recruiter’s talent. This talent, when functioning at its best, is impossible to find.

A great article from Recruitier Today.

Women’s Work Attire That Never Goes Out of Style

Women’s Work Attire That Never Goes Out of Style.

Honda Classic 5K Run

The Honda Classic 5K’s race course will treat runners and walkers to an exclusive experience within the picturesque grounds of the historic Champion golf course, home of The Honda Classic. Non-golfers now have the opportunity to take on the famed Bear Trap (holes 15, 16 & 17) — no golf clubs necessary.

All net proceeds from the race benefit Seagull Industries for the Disabled. Seagull Industries enhances the quality of life of developmentally challenged individuals through advocacy and educational, social, vocational and residential programs designed to encourage achievement, self-reliance and economic independence.

For More Information on this exciting 5K run… Please follow the link http://www.hondaclassic.com/pages/5K#

We hope to see you there!!

 

 

What Are Your Leadership Resolutions for the New Year?

We’re only a few days into the new year, and by now you should be taking your first steps toward achieving your goals for 2012. While some of the most common resolutions involve shedding a few pounds, quitting a bad habit, or spending more time with family, it’s also important to consider goals that will help you develop in your role as a leader. Every workplace is different and therefore every leader’s resolutions will be different, but here are a few ideas to help guide your goal-setting efforts.

Focus on employees
A company’s greatest asset is its employees, so it’s in a leader’s best interest to ensure their talent sticks around. Studies have shown that employees who are engaged in their companies are as much as 80% less likely to leave than disengaged employees. An investment in ensuring your business is positioned as a preferred employer in your market means you will be better prepared to not only keep your best and brightest, but also attract other top performers. From special perks to performance incentives, there are a multitude of strategies to consider to reward your workforce for a job well done and to maintain their commitment to the success of the company.

Eliminate unnecessary time wasters
In a recent survey, business leaders cited email, meetings, and constant interruptions as the biggest drain on their time. And, another 51% said they lose up to nine hours a week due to office clutter. In 2012 make a point to do away with unnecessary time wasters. Cut the amount of meetings you have each week or combine several shorter meetings into one. Set aside an hour here and there throughout your week to close yourself off in your office and hang a do-not-disturb sign on the door. You should also get into the habit of only checking email at specified times to help reduce the risk of being distracted from your tasks at hand. Basically, commit to taking back your wasted minutes and start applying them to more productive endeavors.

Focus on self-improvement
According to the American Society for Training and Development, 50% of organizations feel their executives have a gap in leadership-level skills. Your employees want to follow a leader they respect and trust to make the best decisions for the company and the workforce. Whether it’s through leadership workshops or self-guided training, investing the time and energy to self-improvement shows your commitment to being a better leader. Your employees will respond if they believe your intentions are genuine and it may even encourage them to follow your example and seek out training and development opportunities for themselves.

Take a risk
Poet T.S. Eliot wrote, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.” This is an especially apt statement for business leaders today because it’s the companies that take the biggest risks that typically end up defining their industry. Obviously, that doesn’t mean business leaders should blindly chase every rabbit trail they come across, but rather be open minded and courageous enough to take calculated, make-or-break risks to set themselves apart from the competition. If you make it a policy to always stick with what works and never deviate from “business as usual,” your company’s forward progress could stagnate and leave you vulnerable to competitors who are already seeking out the next big idea.

Make time to celebrate
It’s a fresh new year with new opportunities to let your hard work and determination shine. As the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success.” So, take some time to celebrate your accomplishments this year. While determination, hard work, competency, and drive are all important factors in success, taking time to bask in the glory of a job well done is just as vital to maintaining a high-performing team. A little celebration here and there can do wonders for employee morale and engagement.

While there are many methods to help ensure new year resolution success, ultimately it is up to you to stay focused and to keep yourself – and your employees – committed to making a change in 2012. What are some of your New Year’s leadership resolutions? Let us know in the comments section below.

well written By Jared Brox · January 3rd, 2012

Tis The Season For – Celebration, Speculation and Evaluation….Is Your Company Prepared?

Please email angela.milco@expresspros.com to confirm your joining us. Look forward to seeing you!!