5 Questions to Help You Prepare for Your First Job Interview
Preparing for your first job interview can be a nerve-racking experience, but the best way to minimize your anxiety is to take the time to prepare before the interview. Research the company and the role, review your resume, and think about the questions you may be asked. In particular, you may want to practice your answers to the following five questions, as there is a very good chance...
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The Art of Bragging Appropriately (and Why It's Crucial for Today's Business Professional)
What does it mean to "brag appropriately" in the professional world? And why is this a critical skill for today's workers? Few professionals can answer these questions, regardless of their title or prestige. I know this from firsthand experience. Over the years, I've had the honor and privilege to provide career coaching and consulting services to many individuals. I've worked with people...
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Worried a Bankruptcy Could Affect Your Job Search? Take These 5 Steps
Will yesterday's bankruptcy filing come back to haunt you in today's job search? Some job seekers worry that a background check could unearth embarrassing details about the state of their finances, but is this a reasonable concern? If you've filed for bankruptcy, you definitely aren't alone. According to the National Bankruptcy Forum, a nationwide group of bankruptcy lawyers, almost...
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5 Ways to Let Your Company's Human Element Shine Through to Candidates and Employees
In the past few years, we've seen employees demanding better work/life balance, higher wages, valuable benefits, and employers who hold the same values as them. In response, employers have to ask what they can do to let their human elements shine through. That's really what company culture is, isn't it? It's your company's personality — its sense of humor, philanthropic efforts, vision,...
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There's No Stopping the Flexible Workforce of the Future
Organizations of all stripes — from corporate America to nonprofits and universities — have embraced flexible work policies and gig workers, but many entities within these fields are fighting the changes. Fifty-seven percent of organizations currently lack any sort of remote work policy, according to the 2018 "Future Workforce Report" from freelancing platform Upwork. While some...
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Blockchain Brings Trust Into the Recruitment Equation
Anyone who works in recruiting knows that candidates aren't always completely truthful in their resumes, references, or interviews. In a 2017 survey from HireRight, 85 percent of respondents said they had caught "a lie or misrepresentation on a candidate's resume or job application during the screening process." This is more than an inconvenience. As Dr. John Sullivan points out, 46...
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5 Critical Types of Feedback Every Interview Process Should Contain
Interviews are a crucial part of the hiring process, but if you're not getting feedback to your hiring managers, candidates, and team members, you're missing out. There are five basic types of feedback that should result from any interview. Here's how to make the most of each: 1. Decision-Making Feedback From: Interviewer To: Hiring Team or Hiring Manager The interviewer isn't...
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An Introduction to People Analytics: You Mine Data on Everything Else, So Why Not Your Workforce?
We live in an age of data. Companies target consumers based on what they watch on YouTube or what they click on Facebook. Businesses create incredibly accurate production forecasts based on mounds of data coming in from every angle. Hey, dating sites are even mining data to connect people for the perfect romantic relationships. So, it's no surprise that the HR/recruiting realm is also...
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How Road Warriors Manage Travel Burnout
Business travel is not as glamorous or enviable as marketers would have us believe. Of all employees in a company, none are more susceptible to burnout than road warriors. Their burnout rates are likely unsustainable. On top of that, conventional practices of business travel may fuel their exhaustion and hide the best solutions to the problem. A Grim Picture Burnout — physical or...
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14 Great HR Communities to Join on Social Media
In today's day and age, social media presents networking opportunities too good for HR pros to pass up. Not only does connecting on social media help you get to know others in the HR space, but it's also a great way to find helpful articles, infographics, and ideas. That's why we created this list of 14 social media communities to will help you advance your HR career every...
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Why Women Should Network to Overcome Gender Stereotypes in the Workplace and Boardroom
It's a terrible truth that in 2018, many women still struggle for equal treatment in the workplace and equal respect in the C-suite. Recently, we had the chance to speak with Cyndi Sax, senior vice president of professional services at talent development firm Caliper, about the challenges women face on the job. Check out the following (minimally edited) transcript of the email conversation...
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Priorities: The Stepping Stones to Achieving Your Goals
"Set a goal, make a plan, do the work." That's a phrase used often regarding physical fitness and working out, but it applies to everything. Figure out what your priorities are, outline the steps to get there, and then do it. Seems simple, right? It is actually surprisingly difficult for many people to set and meet goals. To improve your success ratio, it's important to make your...
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Looking for a Diverse Workplace? Employer Review Sites Are Key
Diversity is a key issue for many companies today, with LinkedIn reporting that more than half of organizations are "very" or "extremely" focused on diversity. This is good news, especially when you consider the World Economic Forum's recent estimate that it will take 217 years for women to reach complete equality in pay and employment opportunities. One of the key tools available to...
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Diversity, Fresh Interview Techniques, Data, and AI Rank Among Latest Recruiting Trends
The world of recruiting has advanced way beyond handshakes, phone calls, and haggling over salaries. Today's candidates want an end-to-end experience that carries into the onboarding process and beyond. As recruiters find themselves spending more time with each candidate, new technologies are springing up to handle the more mundane parts of the process. Meanwhile, employers demand...
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3 Hiring Tactics That Will Propel Growth Without Robbing You Blind
Rapidly growing companies are done — and you should be, too. They're done waiting around for extra money to drop into their hiring budgets. In fact, 77 percent of these companies plan on growing by 25 percent this year, but only 16 percent say they'll grow because of extra money from corporate tax cuts. That's according to "2018 Growth Hiring Trends in the United States," a report by...
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With Unemployment at Record Lows, Layoffs Are Apparently Still a Thing
Nobody expects mass layoffs when the economy looks decent and unemployment is low — but they happen anyway. Companies restructure, target markets don't perform as expected, and sometimes corporate leaders just fail to, well, lead. Unfortunately, the effects of these decisions trickle down to the workforce, where those in the trenches feel the problems most keenly. Despite huge tax...
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Why Diversity-Driven Recruiting Has Become a Catalyst for Success in the Banking Industry
Workplace diversity is becoming an emerging indicator of company success, and those organizations that prioritize it gain a competitive advantage in their industries. In fact, companies investing in diversity and inclusion initiatives can see significant boosts in financial profitability, brand reputation, company culture, and employee satisfaction. In banking and capital markets, it's...
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How to Find a Recruiter With Integrity
The practice of recruiting, too often, gets a bad name. Many candidates cringe and act as if they are trying to avoid the plague when they hear from a recruiter. Prospective and even current clients will duck calls and avoid emails. Why? Because many recruiters simply lack integrity. They try to push candidates into jobs that are not a good fit just to land a commission. This is no way...
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Overcoming the Fear of Failure as a Senior Executive
In any executive's career, there will be a series of both wins and losses. The key to longevity is to figure out a strategy for accepting and dealing with those losses quickly so you can move rapidly to the next milestone. Overcoming the Fear of Failure I have seen corporate executives become crippled by the fear of failure. When they face a big obstacle or a tenacious competitor, all...
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3 Leadership Lessons I Learned in a Difficult Season of Life
Article by Michael Manning I was in college and six months pregnant with my first son when my younger brother passed away from cancer. He was 18 years old and barely out of high school, and losing him left us immersed in the grief cycle. This wasn't the first time I had to deal with a catastrophic life event, but this was the first time I had to do so with so much personal responsibility...
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Thoughts on Building a Proof-of-Concept Blockchain for Your Business
By now, you've probably heard more than you want to hear about blockchain. Aside from the exhaustion, however, you may be thinking to yourself, "Will this nascent technology disrupt my business one day? Could it in some way add considerable value to my company today?" Perhaps you've seen the early fruits of proof-of-concept (PoC) blockchain initiatives from some major corporations, such as...
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Skype Interview Tips All Job Seekers Should Heed
The future of job interviews may very well include many more Skype interviews. If you're a job seeker and haven't had a Skype interview yet, chances are you'll have one soon. Here are a few important facts about and tips concerning this increasingly common form of interview: Why Do Companies Conduct Skype Interviews? One reason companies use Skype is because it saves time and money....
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Is Your CEO Executive Resume Missing These Three Must-Haves?
Executive resumes for CEOs are held to a higher standard on multiple levels. An effective CEO resume must deliver metrics-driven accomplishments while having visual appeal, an organized message, and a clear focus. A CEO resume needs to deliver its message with an "I know who I am and where I am going" type of spirit. The executive resume must show respect to the reader by clearly...
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Draw Inspiration From the Classroom to Build Your Company Culture
As a tenured professor before starting Digital-Tutors, I taught classes of various sizes. One common denominator, though, was that each class had a variety of students with different backgrounds. They were all in the same room, but each person had unique motivation for being there. The same is true for a company. Employees might walk through the same door each morning, but the reasons...
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Benefits on the Fringe: The Inequality of Benefits
Welcome to Benefits on the Fringe, the monthly Recruiter.com column where Jason McDowell covers the most unique benefits today's employers are using to woo talent, as well as advances and innovations in the employee benefits realm. This month's column will be a bit different from the usual. Instead of exploring a weird, funny, or innovative perk, we're going to explore the opposite....
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Building Technical Human Skills for an Automated Future
The latest on the human vs. robot showdown of the century reveals that, by the end of the 2020s, automation may eliminate 20-25 percent of current jobs. Interestingly, employees aren't all that worried about being replaced by robots. According to a new survey by The Workforce Institute, the majority of workers (64 percent) would welcome artificial intelligence (AI) if it simplified or...
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Leveraging Your Personality Type for Stress Management During the Job Interview Process
As I sit down to write this story on how the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tool can help us deal with stress during the interview process, I can't help but feel a bit stressed myself. I need to get ready for a workshop later this week. Each time I've attempted to sit down and prepare this morning, my brain has filled up with a litany of other things to which I need to attend. My...
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How to Ace Your Next Job Interview
If you manage to get through the application process and reach the interview table, it can be tempting to rest on your laurels. The company invited you to interview. That must mean the hiring manager likes you, right? Yes, but you're not in the clear just yet. The last thing you want to do is fail the interview because you failed to prepare. Recently, I had the chance to speak with...
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20+ Ways to Boost Employee Engagement Immediately
Given that 85 percent of employees worldwide are not engaged at work, it stands to reason that many employers will be looking for ways to tackle this challenge in their own organizations. Below are some easy ways you can start improving employee engagement right now: 1. Support Employee Health One study found employees who ate healthy and exercised regularly performed 11...
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How to Create a Better Job Description in 3 Easy Steps
At the risk of giving away one of my well-kept secrets, I want to discuss the best ways to improve your results when it comes to posting ads for open jobs. As a third-party recruiter, I am often amazed by the candidates who apply for senior-level IT roles that have absolutely nothing to do with their actual backgrounds. Over the years, I have gotten resumes from sales clerks,...
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How — and When — to Ask for More Money
If you've read my column before, you probably know that I'm generally an advocate of changing companies every 3-5 years. On top of giving you extra experience, switching employers has the potential to bump your pay up considerably. Sometimes, however, you'll need to get a raise by sticking with your current employer. If you want the best chance of landing a raise of more than 2-3...
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3 Ways the Gig Economy Can Improve in 2018
The gig economy has come under constant fire in the past year, and rightfully so. Giants like Uber have been exposed for abysmal treatment of their workers and their toxic cultures. However, these aren't the only factors giving gig companies a bad rap. With low pay and no opportunities for advancement, these on-demand positions are viewed by many workers as "jobs between jobs." People tend...
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Closing With Integrity: 3 Tools of Influence for Recruiters
Your candidate is getting an offer from your best employer. You've done a great job conducting this recruiting effort — but you could still lose if your candidate does not accept the offer. The old closing methods of intellectually weighing pros and cons have limited effectiveness. The decision to accept an offer is emotional and stressful for candidates, financially significant for...
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Empowering Your Employees to Succeed in Today's Analytics Economy
We are rapidly entering the next wave of business transformation in an increasingly data-centric world, yet many employers and job seekers are unprepared to navigate this new analytics economy. The growth and acceleration of data analytics calls for an updated workforce strategy, one that addresses the widening skills gap preventing employees from making strategic, data-driven decisions....
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4 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Ignore Your LinkedIn Background Image
The director of the career center for which I work recently sat in on one of my LinkedIn workshops in which I talked about how to use your whole LinkedIn profile to brand yourself. I thought I did well, and afterward I asked the director for her thoughts. She was happy with my performance, but she said I forgot one thing. I never mentioned how your LinkedIn background image — the...
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Recruiters Spell Out the Biggest Deal-Breakers Costing You the Job
When you face tough competition for the job, even the smallest mistake can eliminate you from the hiring manager's pile. TopResume recently asked 379 former and current recruiters, hiring managers, and human resources professionals, "What are your biggest resume deal-breakers that can cost a candidate the job?" They revealed the following top 10 resume faux pas: Spelling and/or...
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The Recruiting Reel: Why You Need to Default to 'No' in Your Recruiting Process
Everyone in the recruiting world has heard the saying, "When in doubt, send them out." The idea here is simple: If you are not fully convinced that a candidate matches the role and the culture of the company, they probably don't. Unfortunately, many recruiting professionals don't follow this maxim, choosing instead to entertain candidates about whom they have doubts. This is a...
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Improve Your Job Prospects During Spring Break
Spring break is around the corner — or already here! — for many college students. You can either use this time to lounge around doing nothing, or to improve your job prospects. I recommend you do the latter. Show hiring managers and employers the value you can provide — as well as your manners — by improving your online presence. Regularly in the news, we read about someone who was...
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Who Owns the Crisis?
"They spit at us," General Robert Van Antwerp says, reflecting back on his and his team's experience reaching out to devastated neighborhoods in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Those saliva projectiles were clearly directed at the wrong person. Why would New Orleans' finest spit at an army general? Why would they spit at the person who was there to rebuild their city, the chief...
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4 Steps to Successful Career-Mapping
Article by Elise Mitchell If there's one truth in life, it's that you can't map out everything. No matter how carefully you plan, you'll find yourself on some detours. This is especially true when it comes to your professional journey. With so much unexpected — and, many times, unwanted — change, it can be tempting to toss out the road map and simply go wherever the wind blows...
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5 Easy Ways to Blow Off Daily Steam in a High-Stress Job
Who hasn't, in a moment of stress, had an impulse to hit a printer a là the infamous scene in the 1999 flick Office Space? On-the-job stress has been known to make people do much worse things, after all — things that are more dangerous and unaccompanied by a Geto Boys soundtrack. The reality is work stress is more the norm than not. A 2013 survey found that 83 percent of Americans...
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Why You Need to Have a Succession Plan in Place
In a perfect world, managers could handle day-to-day activities, plan for the week's meetings, take care of personnel issues, and create a compelling succession plan without a problem. Predictably, however, present-day issues often win out over planning for the future. Things come up that take precedence over preparing for the departure of a key employee. Still, personnel transitions...
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The 3-Step Formula for Performance Management Success
Performance management can be tricky, but it's not impossible. You just have to follow the right formula: 1. Define Goals According to a 2016 Gallup report, only 40 percent of millennial employees feel strongly connected to their company's mission. This disconnect is sure to cause disengagement and a lack of motivation. The first step of successful performance management is to...
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Follow These 10 Techniques and You'll Never Miss Another Deadline
Do you have trouble meeting deadlines? You're not alone — nor is your chronic lateness entirely your fault. Research has shown time and time again that we human beings are pretty bad at planning things. As the following infographic from personal lenders CashNetUSA explains, one 1977 study found that we estimate timelines based not on reality, but on optimistic predictions. Another study...
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How to Negotiate Relocation With Your Employees
Let's start by establishing some important facts: Businesses are seeing increasing demands for internal overseas mobility. Ninety-two percent of global companies expect to see a rise in, or to at least maintain, international mobility levels in 2018. Convincing employees to relocate is not easy. Two-thirds of corporations find employees will decline relocation. The failure rate for...
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45 Great Employee Benefits You Can Offer Today
Recently, I wrote about how to attract candidates to less-than-stellar job opportunities. One of the keys I mentioned was promoting your great employee benefits. If you're like many of the small business owners I meet, you may be thinking: We can't afford fancy benefits! That's not entirely true, and the following list proves it. Instead of expensive benefits packages, this list...
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Why Companies Seeking Diversity Should Start at the Top
2017 pulled the curtain back on how far we still have to go in the US to embrace gender and ethnic diversity in the workplace. At the same time, there is a growing mountain of evidence that teams composed of diverse individuals outperform homogenous teams by wide margins across multiple spheres of human endeavor, including business. Furthermore, a McKinsey Company study estimates that...
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3 Tips to Help You Re-Enter the Workforce After an Extended Leave of Absence
Anyone who has taken an extended period of time off from work for any reason understands just how terrifying it is to jump back into the professional world. Taking time away from your role also means taking a break from developing your skills. As a result, it can be easy to lose confidence in yourself. Given that 54 percent of employees surveyed by Pew Research Center said training and...
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