Blogging from the ME State HR Convention

Okay, okay, it's true.... I should know better by now and these little things shouldn't bother me any more, but I have to just vent for one moment. Today, I'm spending my second day at the 13th Annual ME HR Convention in Rockport, ME. I rec'd a call from the manager of the gulf coast territory, and needed to send a file to him via email... Unfortunately, I had to VPN in to my office to get the file, then send it remotely from here. GREAT technology... when it works well. I had no problem getting in and finding the file, composing the email and hitting send... then I hit the wall. I had hit send/receive, and the first function that Outlook performs is to receive. I had 175 emails to receive totaling 10MB. It took 45 MINUTES to receive the files through the VPN connection!!! Ouch... As a result, I missed my morning session of the conference, which is why I have the time right now to write a quick note to the recruiting front lines.

If you are not familiar with the ME HR Convention, this is an annual professional development conference for human resources professionals, and it's done impeccably well. The event begins at noon on Tuesday, and runs into the afternoon on Friday, which may seem like a long professional conference. The reality, though, is that the content is so in-depth and dynamic that it provides hr professionals with a terrific opportunity to meet and network with others, learn great new practices and initiative to improve their workforce, stay up to date on legal issues, and bring great intellectual capital back to their place of employment. Sessions are given by professionals in all aspects of HR and cover all areas- from dealing with complainers in the workforce, to FMLA regulations, to new compensation strategies to increase productivity. I'll give a better recap shortly about this event, with some more detail about what I learned, as well as a summary of the presentation I gave. For now though, let me just say that this is one of the best weeks of my professional year. I usually participate in 3 days of the conference each year, and return to my work place with a greater perspective of our business, and energized, motivated, and prepared to bring positive change to our environment in some manner.

There was much talk from vendors about the slowdown, and a great deal of discussion about the generational workforce challenges. Overall, ME is less impacted by national economic factors than others (our highs aren't as high, and as a result our lows aren't as low), so business is still moving forward. In fact, I just checked on JobsInME.com, and there are now more than 10,000 current job openings posted, with more than 9,000 being regular and just over 1,000 being temp. These may be record highs for our business, and it's important to recognize that the permanent jobs postings are still strong.

Well.. almost time to go staff our booth, promote our service, meet incredible HR heroes, and reinforce relationships with the great people and businesses we serve.

So today, I'm sitting back just behind the recruiting front lines... today's report is coming from the war-room, and the view is of the strategies, competencies, and challenges facing HR professionals in Maine.

Unemployment Rate Rising, Job Growth Slowing, and other Ponderings

First, for those of you who had sent me some inquiries over the last month, thanks for noticing that the blog had not been updated... at least that means that some people were checking in! As it turned out, I did not put up a single post in April, which is a shame, I think, considering the frequency and quality of events that happened last month. Ah well... no sense in looking back...

As it turns out, the report from the recruiting front lines is good and bad right about now. What was shaping up to be an economic slowdown, has now become an official recession in Rhode Island, the first state to feel the pain. Also, the national unemployment rate stayed level from March at 5%, still a half a point higher than last year during the same month. However, in the regions I look at, the picture is different: check out these Year Over Year unemployment rates for March 07 v 08:

             State              |  March    |  March    | rate change(p)
                           |   2007    |  2008(p)  |          
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama ........................|     3.4   |    4.1    |       0.7   
Connecticut ....................|     4.4   |    5.3    |        .9          
Maine ..........................|     4.6   |    5.0    |        .4
Mississippi.....................|     6.4   |    6.0    |       -.4
Rhode Island ...................|     4.9   |    6.1    |       1.2
Vermont ........................|     4.0   |    4.6    |        .6     

Notice that on MS had a decline in unemployment, though it's still at 6%.

LA and NH don't appear on this chart because YOY they had less significant change. However, check out this rise in unemployment for LA from Feb 08 to Mar 08 - just one month:

            State              |  February |  March    | rate change(p)
                           |    2008   |  2008(p)  |          
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Louisiana ......................|     3.7   |     4.5   |        .8     

And of course, NH is maintaining a very different story from the rest. In March, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in NH was 3.9% up from 3.8% in Mar 07. While that number is still phenomenally low, it does match the highest jobless rate since June 2004.

Well, there's my data for the day. Not the brightest climate, but we all have to deal with things as they currently are, not as we wish them to be. And to that point, the changing labor market is having an impact on the world of job hunting and recruiting. Here's what I've been witnessing and/or hearing along the recruiting front lines in the northeast and along the gulf coast:

• Less jobs are being advertised
• More and more employers are holding off hiring or advertising based on uneasiness about the economy.
• Social service organizations are feeling the pressure of state budget tightening (see any days news in RI over the past two months for great supporting evidence), which may mean reduced state funding.
• With the slowdown, the A talent pool is less likely to change jobs, opting to take a conservative approach- a bird in hand, as it were.
• It's harder for the unemployed to find work, based on the increased number of unemployed competing for the same jobs coupled with the slowing of growth for new jobs.
• Supply of qualified candidates is not moving (maybe increasing, but just a little), while demand is also not moving (most likely decreasing just a bit).
• The key to a business's vitality is making sure they have the very best people on the bus, particularly when the number of seats may be shrinking, therefore the importance of attracting the right people is growing exponentially.
• In just a few more months, we'll be electing a new president, and regardless of people's politcal leanings, EVERYONE seems to be hopeful that the changing of the nameplate on the oval office door will lead to a stronger economy with new growth opportunities.

What do you think about those bullets? Agree? Disagree? Am I missing any major points regarding how the economy is impacting the acts of find jobs or finding candidates? I'd love to hear your feedback!

That's the report from the Recruiting Front Lines for this week. This week, our company will be at two business expos, two job fairs, one trade conference, and two annual state hr conferences across the northeast and gulf coast. We'll have plenty to report next week!

NH's Best Attended Job Fair of 2008

Just another tireless week on the Recruiting Front Lines...

This week, we hosted a job fair for the first time ever in New Hampshire. After partnering with a radio group for additional exposure, and capturing 10 second TV spots, we felt confident that we could attract a significant number of job seekers for this event. As it turned out, we hit our goal of 1,000 attendees (this is an actual number, within 10 or 15 plus or minus based on sign ins), during the 5 hour event. Since 2004, the job board I work for has been the number one resource in the state for employment advertising, and our local focus and connection with the labor market really supported a tremendous event.

You can see a brief article on the event here: Greatest Job Fair Attendance in NH this year!

I was very proud to be part of this event, and am happy to report that many exhibitors considered this event to be among the best job fair they've ever attended. We prepared job seekers by asking them to register in advance, and then providing reminder emails and updates with articles and tips for making a good job fair impression. We believe this truly impacted the quality of the attendees, and provided the employers with good potential candidates.

It was great to see a room absolutely stuffed full of eager job seekers and well-prepared recruiters. On the other hand, I do have to question the motivating factor behind the turnout. While I'd like to believe that this was simply the power of the state's leading employment resource focusing all it's energy on bringing some of the best employers in NH together in one place for one day, even my hubris doesn't extend that far.

Is the market really causing an increase in the unemployed? OR, has the pervasive reporting of a potential recession stirred the fears of those who are working, inciting them to prepare for potential job change? I'd love to hear your opinion on the market in NH, if you have one. Please send in a comment!

MEMORABLE JOB SEEKER STORY OF THE DAY: Acting as the host for this event, I spent the greatest amount of time and energy ensuring the comfort and success of our employers. This gave me little time to talk with job seekers. I did have one conversation, though, with a job seeker who had been laid off from high tech software sales (project management) and was now looking to start over. Unlike many other stories, this was a highly technical, qualified, experienced hi-tec professional, who, due to losing a major account to a competitor, was laid off. It was interesting to hear about the process and obstacles that he now faces. In his previous career, he was selling 6 and 7 figure solutions to hi-tech companies, so a single account was worth a great deal of money. As you can imagine, there aren't too many jobs like that in New Hampshire. So, here he was, unemployed, but not in an urgent enough situation to take a big step backwards, walking through our job fair. I spoke with him briefly about transferring his skills and professionalism to a career in Volvo sales, thinking he would relate well to that market. I hope he had a successful day, and wish him all the best for a smooth transition into his next phase.


MEMORABLE EMPLOYER STORY OF THE DAY: Every event presents me with an opportunity to meet a great new business that is enjoying great success and growth in an industry that I'm not familiar with. This time around it was CNC manufacturer of Plastics, who was attending a job fair for the first time. Normally the rely on internet and word of mouth, but were hoping to reach a new audience through the face to face event. They were unsure what to expect, and I believe ended up with a decent number of good candidates. I was glad that they made the time to attend, and hope that they fill a few positions with us. I also spoke with a representative of another manufacturer who also never attended a job fair before. Prior to the start of the event, I was showing him where the lunch room was and walking him back to the exhibit hall when he mentioned that he wasn't even sure he should be there, because of all the work he had waiting for him. As is true of so many recruiters and personnel directors in mid size companies, he likely wears many hats, and finding 5 hours in work week isn't easy. I stopped by during the middle of the event, and he was very happy he made the decision to come. In fact, he said he found some candidates with potential for a few positions he hadn't even thought to hire for yet. Thanks for coming, if you are reading this, and I hope those resumes work out for you!

Well, that's all from the recruiting front lines in Bedford, NH. Happy Hiring, and Joyous Job Hunting everyone!

Jason

On the recruiting frtont lines in Augusta, ME

Wow. Some days really make you wonder about the future, and about the real employment adversity faced by many Americans.

I spent the better part of the day on Monday, March 10th, at the August Civic Center exhibiting at the Augusta Job Expo. The company I work for was there promoting our service to job seekers, and providing tips and advice to job seekers. These bits of wisdom (okay, so humility may not be my strongest personality trait) range from how to use our internet job board effectively to find the type of job they are looking for, to how to write a more effective cover letter, to how to approach an employer when you aren't sure what you're really looking for, to how to format a resume to be more searchable in a database.

During the event, I spoke with around 70 of the 200 or so job seekers that came through, and was a little saddened by some of the stories. I really felt for some people, like the former telephone line repairman who was out of work and looking to get in with Fairpoint Communications (they weren't actively hiring for those jobs, and now-a-days they want a 4 year degree for that position; so, I guess you go to the other telephone companies to find work right?... oh, yeah, how many phone companies are there?), while for others, I had little compassion. I can't tell you how many job seekers came in wearing tee-shirts or sweats, with no resumes, hair not brushed, and no real plan for finding a job.

I guess I've become a little jaded over the past few years. Back when I started working these events, I would have felt bad for those that don't prepare, assuming that they don't have the means to get a tie, or print out a resume, or look presentable. Now, after working at so many under utilized career centers and with so many social service and non-profit organizations that provide free assistance, I see just a lack of effort or desire. Am I the only one that feels this way? I'd love your thoughts on this matter, please add a comment if you'd be willing.

At any rate, there were also a goodly number of people who were well prepared, eager, and focused on finding a good job, and I tried to offer the support that I have available. For these folks, the obstacles may be technology shifts that render their skills useless, a geographical dilemma, confusion about how to DO a job search after dozens of year with a job, and fear or anxiety about starting over. Some of the tips I provide to these more experienced folks include approaching employers by stating the highlights of their experience first, and then mentioning that they are looking for a change or a new way to apply their skills, instead of walking up and saying "I don't know what I'm looking for, what kind of jobs do you have?". I also provided hands on training on how to find jobs using the internet, and how to use keywords. One of the most important pieces, though, is reviewing their resume and helping them to see the positives that they may have overlooked, and showing them how they often have more transferable skills than they realize. I do have to say, many of these conversations are VERY rewarding, and people feel that our company has provided them with assistance that they can use. I like those conversations.

Well, on the recruiting front lines of Maine, I can tell you that the present is uneasy for many out of work Mainers, and the future is foggy. I believe in economic development and good business growth, but in truth, it's my opinion that growth MUST be slow and natural to be good. One of the reasons that Maine is such a desirable place to retire or raise a family is that we aren't too business friendly and Maine residents are well taken care of. Yes, the median income is low, but amount of real true poverty is also very low. I've seen over the last few years on the road that the areas with very high wealth are always neighbored by areas of extreme poverty.

ONE JOB SEEKER STORY THAT STOOD OUT TODAY: I met a gentleman who had been working for a print shop doing pre press and bindery room work for years. With the new technology his skills are no longer of any value and he had been laid off. Now he is faced with having years of experience in an extremely specialized capacity in an extinct field, and he lives in a sparcely populated region with little business opportunities. I don't know what he'll do, but I believe he was motivated to work, and hope that he is adaptable so that he can seize the opportunity in this change.

ONE RECRUITER STORY THAT STOOD OUT TODAY: I had a great conversation with a member of the Diversity Hiring Coalition for the ME state HR council. She was discussing all of the great businesses that work to help promote and exemplify good diversity hiring practices, and she was clearly enthusiastic about this work. She is also a recruiter or Northern New England for a cell phone company, and exhibits at many career fairs. I'm always happy to see younger professionals so engaged in their work, and looking to take on additional activities to help do good. Nice work!

Ideas, thoughts, or questions? Click on the Comments tab below and share!

Community College of RI Job Fair

On March 5th, the Community College of RI hosted a career fair for their students. I attended to speak with students about career opportunities in the state, and promote our website. The event was well run and organized, held in the cafeteria during mid-day. This allowed for good traffic, maybe 125 to 175 students came through, along with a small number of non-student job seekers. CCRI did a good job of preparing their students, and promoting the event, so the job fair was fairly beneficial to the companies involved.

Unfortunately, several employers came for the sole purpose of finding soon to be nursing grads, and none were seen at the fair. There was a rumor that the nursing students were testing that day. However, a number of CNA students were available to speak with. The community college fairs are always interesting for me because of the diverse body of students you meet.

My favorite story of the day: I met a lady in her late 30's or early 40's who recently graduated and was looking for work. She had gone back to school to get an Associates in Computer Science, and was now embarking on her new future. In my experience, people who complete their schooling later in life tend to be much more enthusiastic and focused on applying their education to their career. This woman was very excited to seek out internships, as she could afford to work for little or no pay for a little while. In speaking with her, I urged her to stay focused on internship opportunities.

Students offer undervalue the resource that an internship provides. For many, it's a way to get a foot in the door and then have access to a wide variety of projects and work duties. In many companies, everyone wants some help from "the intern" so that student ends up with more multi-departmental and cross-functional experience than the full time employees! What a great start to a career, and a great way to explore what direction is best.

Well, that's all for now. See you soon on the recruiting front lines!!!!

Recruiting and Managing an evolving workforce

Sitting idly on the recruiting front lines today, I was thinking back today to a state HR conference that I attended last year. One of the key note speakers was brought in from half way across the country to share her perspective on the human resource profession, and working with a diverse workforce in particular. This person was a humorist, whose dynamic and comically irreverent presentation style provided a great release to the HR professionals in attendance. During her speech, she covered all of the non-traditional diversity issues- the happy person, the curmudgeon, the martyr, the pleaser, the introverts, the extroverts, and everyone in between. I think it is very true to say that we are all diverse in our own ways.

At another HR meeting, I recently heard a speaker espousing the virtues of including people with disabilities into the diversity conversation, and the potential benefits of hiring said people. During her talk, she made a quip about how we are all disabled in some way, but for most of us, you just can't see the disability. Of course she was referring to all of our personal disabilities such as perpetual tardiness, short attention spans, closed-mindedness, fear of confrontation, hubris, need for acceptance, and all the other personality disabilities that impede our ability to act with grace and tact in all situations. I have to also agree with this speaker- everyone has their own special disabilities.

Having said that, I also feel that too many people seem too ready to put people into boxes based on their age, work experience, or any other personal trait. It's my feeling that all people are unique, but so rarely do we, as recruiters, employers, managers, co-workers, employees, friends, or relatives, take the time to get to know and work with those unique characteristics of our acquaintances.

I recall a workshop that discussed working in a multi-generational milieu. The presenter spoke about the work-related differences for people in different age groups - check out this article on age diversity in the workforce for a glimpse of what I'm talking about- and how we all fall into broad categories. Now, as an idealist, non-conformist, and believer in self-direction, my first reaction is to react negatively, with thoughts about why these categories are too general, and make too great of an assumption. However, as I listened to the speaker (and as I read further down the article attached), I find myself agreeing with the opinions put forth.

What I end up with is a great inner debate on how to deal with people, and particularly with first impressions and screening of candidates when I am hiring. There are only so many hours in a day, after all, so how can I be open to the potential greatness and uniqueness of seemingly unfit applicants, while using my experience and intuition to ferret out the best candidates quickly and efficiently? I have seen enough anomalies to know that you can't judge an employee's fit or performance by a resume. So... how do you weed through 75 resumes to find the right candidate?

Well, I hope you're not expecting an answer. That's not a hypothetical question. Can anyone tell me how you best narrow down all applicants, keeping into account all peoples uniqueness, casting aside personal preferences, to find the best candidate?

In the world that I live, work, and play (not necessarily in that order), I do see a workforce evolving dramatically from the one I entered 15 or so years ago. Different motivators, different rules, different expectations. HR professionals and managers at all levels, in my mind, have a more difficult job than they have ever had before.

MY (SECOND) QUESTION OF THE DAY: What is the best interview question that you use to uncover potential personality fit?

College Student focused job fair in NH

Another busy day on the recruiting front lines! My first stop this morning was to an event facility in New Hampshire, to meet with a potential partner and explore the capacity of the venue. As it looks now, we'll have 70 NH employers exhibiting their employment brand to potentially 1,000 job seekers looking for work in the state. While the new partnership isn't formalized in writing yet, it does look good, and should position this job fair to be the recruiting event of the year.

For our career fair, we're asking job seekers to pre-register. This makes them eligible for door prizes, and provides us with great information about the demography of people attending the event. While it's still more than 4 weeks away, we already have more than 100 job seekers pre-registered, and the profile is unique in the job fair world. The majority of the registrants so far, about 2/3, are currently employed, with just over half having 4 year degree or further education, and the average age of registrants right now is approximately 40 years old.

When I proposed this event a while back, I felt that the job fair market in this area really underserved this population- experienced passive job seekers. Many job fairs catered to the fully unemployed, and most in NH are focused on college students, as its the colleges who are hosting them. Through our data collection, we knew the make up of job seekers passively looking tended to be very different than that of the people we see at the career events we have exhibited at. So, thus far, the diversity of the job seekers we're attracting to our job fair in March looks to be dynamic and unique. I'm very glad to see things filling in nicely. Another thing that we do differently is sending up job fair tips to both the exhibitors and job seekers. We've seen that dispersing a few key tips to both groups really does help to better prepare both sides. Should be fun...
(If you're an experienced job fair exhibitor, do you agree with this assessment of the demography of job fairs? I'd appreciate your input by clicking here.)

Any way, that was just the start of the day...

The bulk of my day was spent at the NHCUC job fair in Manchester NH. I have attended this event for 4 years now, and find it to be a great resource for us to not only promote our service to job seekers and students, but also to engage and provide resume and interview tips to them. I was very impressed by the number of students who were prepared with updated resumes and confidence in their approach. Many however, were still very unsure exactly what type of work they wanted. I often suggest to them to post a resume online, and see who finds them, and I provide advice to the extent that I can. I can't help but leave any college student focused job fair feeling that all college seniors should be required to take a full semester course in career exploration/development in order to graduate. But I guess that's just my opinion, and I have to acknowledge that a course such as that would still only be as valuable as the effort put in by both the professors and the students. If they don't want to consider what job to get, they won't.

Students were from many area schools including Franklin Pierce, Plymouth State, Colby-Sawyer, Rivier College, Saint Anselm, Southern NH University and more. At this point, I do want to give praise to all the career development professionals and other college staff that helped to promote this event and prepare their students to find job opportunities. The vast majority had professional attire, copies of their resumes, and exhibited a strong approach with eye contact, handshakes, and introductions. While these may seem like obvious things to do at a job fair, I am sure that many recruiters will agree that it's not always the norm.

I fielded many questions about how to find work with an art degree, how to find internships, and how to get a career in marketing. I tried to review resumes, make suggestions regarding companies that I knew of personally, and provided tips on how to explore career options further. Most students were very engaged in the conversation, and seemed eager to really dig in to carving out their career path.

One job seeker story that stood out today: I met a young lady who had graduated college in 2005, and was recently laid off from a company that was closing it's doors. She received a 2 week severance package, was suddenly finding herself unemployed. She had worked with a local sports organization for a couple years in customer service, and was hoping to find another admin asst job or customer service job in the Manchester Area. Her question to me was this: When an employer writes NO PHONE INQUIRIES on their job postings, and does not provide a direct email address, how do I follow up when I haven't heard back about a resume I submitted.

Ouch. I didn't have a good answer to this one. This young lady had submitted her resume, which was well done, and seemed to have the transferable skills necessary for clerical work, for 80 job openings in the last month, and had only had a couple call backs, with only ONE interview scheduled. I spoke with her at length about this issue, and shared her frustration. It seems as though ATS systems and other HRIS services have really taken the humans out of human resources. If you are hiring people to work for you, but give them no way to follow up with you after they've submitted your resume, what is left for them to do. I know that there are times when it is difficult for me to reply to every resume I get, but at least on our website, we have a telephone number and generic email address that will get to me if someone is assertively trying to follow up to interview with our company.
Here's a quick poll question, and I'm open to feedback (you can share your thoughts by clicking on the Comments link and adding your ideas): If a company accepts resumes online, should they have any obligation to either reply to all applicants, or at least to provide some contact info, so that applicants can follow up?

One Recruiter story that stood out today: I spoke with a recruiter from a health care facility, who I see at many events in the area. I asked about attendance at other events this year, and how this event was panning out. Her reply was that attending career events has almost become simply an obligation and routine, rather than an active recruitment activity. Most of the events don't yield too many qualified candidates, but the fear of missing one, and the added benefit of exposure for the company, keeps people coming back. This recruiter also said that she felt that so many people are going online today, that fewer and fewer realize the value of these in-person events. Interesting... Anyway, it reminded me about our job fair coming up, and I am more resolved than ever to not only provide valuable tips for registered job seekers, but to also reinforce and underscore the impact of meeting with a recruiter face to face, and making a personal connection.

Well, that's the news from the recruiting front lines, this time in Manchester, New Hampshire. I'll be posting again soon with issues an updates from the recruiting front lines in Alabama and Louisiana.

Stay tuned!

We have been crazy preparing for a very busy period on the recruiting front lines. Between today, February 19th and the end of the month, my organization will be exhibiting at nearly a dozen events across the gulf coast and the northeast, meeting with job seekers and employers, and coming face to face with the fears, hopes, concerns, and issues surrounding finding a new job, and finding the perfect candidate.

I'll be updating this blog almost daily starting on Thursday, February 21st, after attending the New Hampshire College and University Council career fair in Manchester. One of the largest college student job focused career events in the northeast, this event will give us a great chance to speak with volumes of college students and soon-to-be grads.

Check back soon, or click on the subscribe button at left to set up email notifications, so updates will be emailed to you.

That's all for now from the recruiting front lines. Stay tuned for new updates coming soon.

When I meet a passive job seeker...

Over the past 4+ years, I have exhibited at more than 100 career events across new england. As a representative of an organization's whose purpose is to connect local job seekers with local jobs, I make great effort to provide insight, tips, or value to any job seeker I speak with. I have found that taking some time to speak with a job seeker outside of the context of the recruiter/job seeker dynamic, really gives me a unique opportunity to listen to the fears and concerns that they have. It also gives me a chance to hear and dispel myths or false preconceptions that they may have about finding a job.

For example, I often hear job seekers tell me that they needed to do whatever was necessary to get their resume to one page, because recruiters and HR personnel are too busy to read more than that, and won't bother with their resume. I hope this doesn't offend any career counselors out there, but in my experience as a hiring manager and working with HR professionals, NO ONE IS GOING TO THROW AWAY A QUALIFIED CANDIDATE'S RESUME BECAUSE ITS TWO PAGES. In fact, quite the opposite is true. This is a very generalized example of how the process often works:

A recruiter, hiring manager, staffing rep, HR generalist, etc, posts a job opening on the web. They then receive 30 resumes via email. As a ballpark number, out of those 30, only about 10 will actually get a call back. Then, out of the 10, maybe 4-6 will get an interview. Now, when I begin screening resumes to decide who to call, I start by looking for the people that I am SURE have the experience and/or relevant skill set that will transfer to my job opening. To that end, if a candidate has chopped their resume to fit a four, eight, or fifteen year work history into one page, it is very likely that they have not included ALL of the skills and experiences that they have accumulated over time. Thus, if the skill that I need is on the cutting room floor, then I may not choose to call this person. I would much rather get ALL the information at the beginning of the process, so that I can be sure that I'm using my time effectively to call the most likely qualified people. Maybe I'm lazy, but I do not want to spend time calling people to find out that they don't have the qualifications that I need. It is a fact that I would rather skim through twenty 4-page resumes to find 10 good people to call, then skim through forty 1-page resumes, and not knowing if any of them are truly qualified for the job that I have open.

Okay, okay.... so the title of this post is "When I meet a passive job seeker..." At many job fairs, I will meet the passive job seeker, whether that person is an early retiree looking for a part time job for ice-cream money, or someone fully employed looking for a career change or greener pastures. Often times, when they come up to me, I'll ask what kind of work they are looking for, and the answer is usually that they don't know, and that they're not seriously looking, just seeing what kind of options they have. Well, with that attitude, I will guess that they find that their options are extremely limited. As a hiring manager, I wouldn't get too engaged with a candidate who didn't really know what they wanted to do, as it may turn out that I hire them only to have them find out that my work is not what they want to do.

I have begun to suggest to the passive job seekers to change their approach. Instead of stating that they don't know what they want, they should open with a different position. I suggest starting by sharing a 2 sentence summary of your experience, and then stating that they are looking for new opportunities. This gives the recruiter an idea of your experience, and changes the dynamic so that THEY will tell YOU what opportunities they have that may work for you. This changes the conversation, and puts the recruiter in the position of "selling" their jobs to you, rather than the other way around.

If you're a passive job seeker, try this, and let me know how it works. If you're a recruiter, please let me know what you think about these pieces of advice.

See you all soon at the recruiting front lines!

From JobsInAL Newsletter: Formatting Online Resumes

Formatting Tips
Your resume will be displayed on JobsInAL.com in plain text, so you will need to remove any special formatting such as bold, italic, underlines, bullets, indents, and centering. If you have a resume created in Word, you can remove special formatting by saving it as a plain text file (with the extension .txt). You can open it up in Notepad (if you have Microsoft Windows) to view how it will look.

1. Manually remove any characters that are not readable and correct any spacing problems
2. If you had bullets, you will need to change them to asterisks (*)
3. Align everything to the left and use line breaks to separate headers from text.
4. Keep line width narrow (about 4.5 inches)
5. Preview your resume and check for any incorrect line breaks or special characters you might have missed before you send the message to a potential employer

Sample Online Resume

Remove unreadable characters Jane Doe 123 Park Street [ᡯ] Portland, Maine 04092 jdoe@yahoo.com 207-222-2222 Summary: I would like to work in an office where I can put my skills to best use. Add Keywords that relate to your industry and skills - making it easier for employers to find your resume in the database KEY STRENGTHS Experienced and professional administrative personnel/office manager, Excellent communication skills, Proficient in Microsoft Office EXPERIENCE June 1999 - Present ABC Company, Office Manager * Maintain office system equipment to include computer tech support and systems and office supplies * Track and maintain corporate charitable donations * Accounts payable support and petty cash reconciliation * Maintain and update property monthly reports Use Asterics & Line Breaks to separate lines of text June 1995 - June 1999 ABC Insurance, Administrative Assistant * Answered phones * Greeted visitors * Drafted correspondences November 1990 - May 1995 123 Health Insurance, Office Personnel * Attended meetings in order to record minutes * Compiled, transcribed, and distributed minutes of meetings * Coordinated and directed office services, such as records and budget preparation, personnel, and housekeeping, in order to aid executives * Greeted visitors and determined whether they should be given access to specific individuals * Made travel arrangements for executives COMPUTER SKILLS Microsoft Office including training in Excel and Access, Outlook, Lotus Notes, PowerPoint and Publisher

Keep in mind that most resumes sent via email or viewed online are viewed for only 5-8 seconds during the initial screening. So, when it comes to e-resume writing, the first half of the first page of your resume should contain a summary of major accomplishments or key skills that sells you to the recruiter.

Making Your Resume Searchable
When your resume is stored in an online database, hiring managers and recruiters will probably conduct a keyword and key phrase search, since using phrases often increases the relevance of the search results. For example, a separate keyword search on "database" and "marketing" would return a larger number of resumes than a search on "database marketing". Therefore, you want to think both in keyword and combinations of keywords that are likely search phrases and be sure to include both in the text of your e-resume.

These basic guidelines will get you started:

• The best source of words/phrases that a recruiter will use in a keyword search are his/her own - review job descriptions, job postings, and classified ads for positions in your field - most of the keywords and phrases that the hiring manager or recruiter will use are in there.
• Use industry "buzz words" and jargon - this is one time where that is encouraged - including commonly used acronyms in your field (e.g., MCSE when listing your certification for a network engineer in the IT industry).
• Other potential search words include the company names of your employers, cities where you have worked, and the college/university that you attended.

Don't completely discard your paper resume. Instead, bring it with you to the interview. Any fancy formatting stripped from the electronic version will still come in handy - perhaps to help separate you from all the other candidates being interviewed.

Finally, just as with the paper version, it's important to remember that your electronic resume is only active with a company for about six months. Resumes are then often deleted or put in an archival section of the company's database. And of course, an e-resume should always be kept up-to-date.

From JobsInRI Newsletter: RI FLOWER SHOW

Stop by and say hello to our Outreach Consultant, Steve Porter at the RI Flower Show!

February 21-24, 2008
Rhode Island Convention Center
Thursday - Saturday: 10am-9pm
Sunday: 10am-6pm

This year, we are exhibiting at the Flower Show because we have seen that ALL types of businesses can have success finding qualified employees, and ALL types of people can find good, local job opportunities, through online employment resources. Four or five years ago, the diversity of companies and job seekers going to the internet for hiring and job searching was relatively limited. However, in the past couple years with increased access to high-speed internet, installation of online resources at career centers and libraries, and the growth of the online employment adverting market as a whole, there has been a significant change in who goes online, and what they're looking for. Think you know all about the profile of the average online job seeker? You may be surprised. We have a free webinar later this month to find out who really is going online, and what they are doing.

We know that seasonal businesses often have a hard time finding the right people for their work, particularly when they are competing against all the other local seasonal businesses also in full hiring mode. JobsInRI will be promoting our service to job seekers and employers at the Flower Show, and will be available to answer questions about advertising effectively, or creating effective online resumes. Whether you are attending as a seasonal agri-business, or a hobby gardener, JobsInRI has the tools you'll need to nurture your business or cultivate your career. So, stop by and say hello to Steve. He'll be available for most of the show to answer any questions about finding a job or attracting the best candidates.

JobsInNH/NHLRA Partnership Announcement

JobsInNH.com Partners with New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association to Increase Networking Opportunities and Exposure for Members and Subscribers

WESTBROOK, ME January 25, 2008 – JobsInNH.com today announced a new partnership with the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association as part of their newly launched JiUS Connect initiative. The agreement provides benefits to the NHLRA membership through discounted services, increased exposure, and industry specific recruitment content provided by JobsInNH, and provides JobsInNH increased brand awareness and interaction with one of the largest professional associations in the state- currently, nearly 1 in 10 NH employees works in the Hospitality and Leisure sector.

"We believe that this is one of those few situations where a partnership has been agreed upon that truly offers both organizations tremendous value and benefits," said Jason C. Blais, the Field Operations Manager for JobsInTheUS.com, the family of state specific websites that operates JobsInNH.com. " With the job growth in this sector projected to outpace the state average by 30% over this decade, employers will need to utilize more dynamic resources to promote their company and build an employment brand that attracts the best talent."

JiUS Connect supports the two primary objectives of JobsInNH.com: To be the most effective resource for local job seekers to find real local jobs; To be the most effective resource for local employers to find qualified local candidates. The JiUS Connect program strengthens JobsInNH.com's efforts to provide the premier local employment resource in the state. Through the program, JobsInNH will also provide educational and outreach programs to both job seeker and employer groups within their partner associations.

* For more information on JiUS Connects partnership opportunities, please contact Jason C. Blais, Field Operations Manager at (877) 374-1088, extension 2069.

JobsInNH Key Stats * JobsInNH averages more than 348,000 unique visits per month during 2007, and more than 370,000 through the last 3 quarters. * During 2007, more than 33,000 NH-based job openings were posted on JobsInNH. * More than 12,000 local resumes were added during 2007.

Bringing the Human Resources Back to Louisiana

Bringing the Human Resources Back to Louisiana

Working at JobsInTheUS as a Recruiting Consultant, Manager of Outreach and Education, and now as the Field Operations Manager, I have presented workshops on how to create more attractive and effective job postings to dozens of employer groups over the past few years. However, after all these presentations, and all the positive feedback and testimonials of success from employers, I never realized the true potential of employment advertising and the internet. That potential hit me like an awakening when I least expected it.

I was at the gym on Saturday morning, just settling in to my 60 minutes on the elliptical trainer, when this realization struck. Now, one of the reasons I picked this particular gym to join was that every aerobic machine has it’s own flat screen TV with a remote control and headphone jack propped up in front of it. This idea of giving me something to distract myself, as I worked out has been great. As is my custom, I try to find an engaging program to tune in to as I sweat away the 60 minute workout. As so often I do, I landed on CNN, which is mostly attractive for it’s lack of commercials, keeping my attention longer.

This day happened to be Saturday, February 9^th, and the presidential campaign was in full swing. Caucuses were underway in Kansas, Nebraska, the Virgin Islands, and Washington, while votes were being cast at the Louisiana Primary. CNN was airing a show entitled Ballot Bowl ’08, and was covering the top candidates as they rallied support for their nominations. CNN aired lengthy clips of each of the candidates speaking to crowds at town halls, diners, senior citizens homes, and various arenas.

Barack Obama was speaking in Lafayette, LA, regarding the tens of thousands of displaced residents who have not been able to return after Katrina. Obama spoke passionately about increasing federal support and speeding up the reconstruction, conjuring up visions of a mass migration back to LA to restore the communities and economy. It was then that the power of recruitment advertising and the internet occurred to me.

At JobsInTheUS, we have been providing informational seminars to help companies use the internet to position themselves as the employer of choice in their area and industry. We talk about what makes them a great place to work, the unique qualities that make them special, and we share what job seekers are looking for. We have seen that businesses who promote themselves with descriptive profiles, including colors, logos, and images, are much more successful in their recruiting efforts, while those who put in little effort, tend to get a return in kind. The internet broadcasts your business and your employment opportunities across the globe. Through the web, a person living in Idaho can find out all about the job openings in Baton Rouge or Houma. That is, they can find out as much as your company tells them. We spend a great deal of effort on search engine optimization, so when a person searches for a “job in Louisiana” in a search engine, we show up to promote the real in-state jobs that are available.

Tens of thousands of displaced Louisiana residents are still living outside the state, awaiting an opportunity to return. Most of the people that we work with wear many hats in their companies. I urge all HR professionals, business owners, office managers, and personnel staff to don one more cap, that of the lighthouse keeper. But instead of shining your light to keep boats from crashing into the coast, your light should serve as a beacon to all who are looking to return to Louisiana. A beacon of light that shines on the great opportunities you can provide and illuminates your unique culture and qualities. A light that will attract people to your company and to the region. Take the time to show what makes you special, and remember, as you write you company profile or fill in your job description online, that you are doing more than merely posting a help-wanted ad. You are broadcasting to the world that there is opportunity in Louisiana, and there is something great to come home to.

Job Fairs

Well, it was a productive day for a Friday. Our company is launching a job fair of it's own in NH in March. We had carefully selected the date, location, time, and focus, and we're off to a great start. It's amazing how few good career events there are in NH, compared with ME. This is a great event to showcase how much we can motivate people to get up and out. We are partnering with NHWorks and the Nashua Chamber to promote the event, and I'm pretty sure we'll get 1,000 job seekers in, averaging 40 years of age, and almost all currently employed.

I'll also be attending a summer camp career fair in Maine on SUNDAY. I'll let you know how that one turned out after it's done.

VABIR Recognizes Vermont Employers

raytheon



fidelity



osram sylvania



liberty mutual careertv spotlight


LibertyMutual Recruiter


AFLAC!


ARAMARK:


ENTERPRISE RENT A CAR






Today, the recruiting front lines were located in Burlington VT... for me anyhow. VABIR, the Vermont Association of Business Industry and Rehabilitation held an employer recognition breakfast to thank the local businesses who are actively providing employment opportunities and support to VABIR's clients. Beverly Manitsky, an Education and Outreach Consultant who works with JobsInVT was recognized for her work presenting a workshop on internet job hunting. This presentation included how to find and use relevant key words, how to search by specific industry or location, how to identify legitimate job opportunities, how to set up career agents, and how to create effective e-resumes that can be found in resume databases. Beverly has worked with JobsInVT for a couple years now, and has been providing outreach to job seekers and employers across northern VT, and I am very glad to call her an associate. She represents JobsInVT and JobsInTheUS very well, and her presence on the ground goes a long way to building long term relationships.

For JiVT, the educational seminars are a great way to provide outreach into the community, and help qualified local job seekers better understand how internet job hunting works, and how they can use web-based resources more effectively. You may or may not be surprised by the number of people who are still not comfortable or confident using the web to find jobs. We find this to be common among all types of groups: from professionals in transition who haven't searched for a job in more than 10 years to college seniors preparing to graduate, blue collar, white collar, no collar- virtually all demographics have some population that still are hesitant to utilize the internet for business or job related activities. With the decline in page counts and increase in costs for newspaper advertising, the recruiting market has made a shift to the internet for advertising, starting in 1996 and outspending print for the first time in 2007. I am glad to work for an organization that understands that with this dramatic and extremely fast transition, comes a need to better prepare both job seekers and employers on how to leverage the power of the web for employment purposes.

Anyhow, I'll get off my soap box now, and get back to VABIR. This was a very nice breakfast and despite an unexpected blizzard, had a very good turnout. The guest speaker provided a very moving and honest story about how he first got involved with VABIR, and the transformation that he has undergone as a result. I will post more on the speaker soon. Keep your eyes peeled. Below is some info on VABIR, and their mission.

IF you have a positive story about employing people with disabilities through a VABIR program, please add a comment and share your experience.

VABIR's Business Advisory Council

The VABIR Business Advisory Council (BAC) is a group of businesses which help support the rehabilitation process. The Council provides access to training and jobs that are compatible with the skills and abilities of people with disabilities. The Council works to improve opportunities for people with disabilities by: Developing working partnerships between the rehabilitation and business communities. Encouraging greater understanding and awareness of disability issues. Assisting VABIR to educate the employing community about the benefits of hiring people with disabilities. Developing strategies to increase employment outcomes for people with disabilities. Exchanging ideas and information. VABIR’s Board of Directors sets policy for the organization and is held accountable to VABIR’s various funding sources.

Using HR Policies to INCREASE Revenue!

Happy Fat Super Tuesday everyone! This morning I attended a presentation by Merritt Carey, founder of Graffam Solutions, at the Human Resource Association of Southern Maine. The title of the meeting was Disability as Diveristy & How to Use HR as a Marketing Tool. Casey spoke about the benefits to companies of promoting their social responsibility policies to increase consumer loyalty. Corporate Social Responsibility is a very hot topic right now, as can be seen in the January 17 issue of the Economist. Carey asserted that central to social responsibility issues are HR Policies that display a high regard for employee's benefits and appreciation. She expressed that many companies can see increased market share by doing a better job of promoting the good internal HR policies and external social responsibility initiatives that they may already be doing.

Her position is that consumers have more access now to the culture and policies of big businesses, and therefore are more likely to make buying decisions based on how they feel a company's ideals align with their own.

She also discussed how promoting social responsibility initiatives and positive internal HR policies can affect recruiting and retention, thereby affecting bottom lines from the inside out. On this issue, the word from the recruiting front lines is simply this: THAT'S ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! We have seen first hand for years that promoting strong employee benefits and appreciation is a key to building a strong employment brand. Employment Brand is a term used to identify the marketing efforts geared toward recruiting and employee retention. This is a must-do for any business that relies on it's talent pool to maintain market share and grow their business. The war for talent is becoming more expensive and difficult to win every day, and as the baby-boomers leave the traditional workforce and the job growth continues to rise, the ability to be viewed as the employer of choice will be the key to winning the best talent.

Carey also discussed how it is important, particularly in a state as ethnically homogeneous as Maine to include people with disabilities in the diversity discussion. She cited how disabled Americans control a trillion dollars in expendable income, and that this is a group very likely to want to do business with businesses that have disability initiatives in place.

It was a good meeting, and left me thinking about how the business I work for can help HR professionals build their employment brand, and embed it into their consumer marketing....

Any thoughts on this?

From the front lines: RI Municipalities and University of Maine graduates

Thanks for taking a look at the first post from the front lines of the recruiting market. This week, I visited the University of Maine, Orono campus to exhibit and promote our state-specific employment resource to juniors and seniors seeking higher education in this school, probably best known for it's engineering program and division I hockey team. I also traveled to Warwick, RI to exhibit and network to support our RI-based job board at the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns 8th Annual Convention. When our field reps attend events, we always have two missions- promote the job board to job seekers to build brand awareness and site traffic; and build relationships with local employers who may have a need to advertise local jobs. [As a quick disclaimer, I'd like to note that the consultants, trainers, and professionals that work in our field operations, including myself, are not sales reps, and are never responsible for closing sales.] Our primary role includes a little of each of the following: Public Relations, Relationship Building, Education and Training, Marketing, and Promotion.

RI LEAGUE OF CITIES AND TOWNS
8TH ANNUAL CONVENTION
The 8th Annual Convention for the RILCT is an event devoted to providing programming updates, and resources to the municipalities in Rhode Island. They also allow companies to pay to exhibit at this event, which was held this year at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick. About 80 companies paid for the privilege of promoting their goods and services to municipal employees who attended workshops throughout the day. The attendees included town planners and engineers, city clerks, tax assessors, strategic planners and other city government titles, while the exhibitors ranged in services from health insurance providers to financing institutions, from traffic congestions solutions to engineering firms, and from storage centers to environmental systems.... oh, and of course there was one company there promoting cost effective recruiting resources :) Sorry, but I just can't pass up a shameless plug.

I attended this event with one of our outreach consultants, and we spoke with dozens of municipal employees from various cities and towns across the state, and spent a great deal of time also talking with other businesses vying for budget dollars of those municipalities. Overall, there was a great deal of interest about the recruiting industry in RI, and people seemed very interested in the price savings available through our service. Now, that may sound like an obvious statement, but truly it's a little surprising, and perhaps indicative of the reaction to recent stories about local economic slow downs, and the national dialogue of the dreaded R word. The reason I say it's surprising is that price hasn't been the hot button issue in recruiting in RI over the past few years. Most organizations, including the public sector, were very happy to pay the rising costs for employment advertising, to stay with what has long been the cornerstone of job posting- print media. While most of the country has made the turn to the internet, and realized the increased flexibility, reach, and cost savings, RI-based employers have held tight to the state's pre-eminent newspaper. Price was not the most important issue; for many it was simply the maintenance of the status quo which drove the recruitment advertising decision-making, particularly in those businesses that have long bureaucratic lineages.

SO, this development of price, value, and return on investment as a key analytical metric in the Ocean State is a new story. Here are some quick bullets on some of the other recurring issues we heard from the front lines of the recruiting market in RI:

• Budgets are expected to be very tight this year
• Not much job growth is expected, though most understood that turnover would continue to be a reality. This year's question will be how do they stay fully staffed and find good, qualified candidates, while operating with a lower budget for recruiting
• A significant number of mature workers are facing the prospect of a transitional work period. Those close to retirement age feel that the budget cuts may include them, so are facing he prospect of finding a new job for a few years to bridge the gap to social security, and even fill in the household budget holes left by insufficient retirement savings.
• Employers are very concerned about the Brain Drain. Keeping the young professionals in the state is a concern of every region of the country, but in RI, with the borders so close, and the chatter of the economic outlook being bleak, people are very conscious of this issue.
• Engineering continues to be a very competitive field, and while recent college grads can be found, many firms are continuing to have difficulty finding those 3-5 year experience candidates.

UNIVERSITY OF MAINE CAREER FAIR
The University of Maine is the largest post-secondary school in the state, and offers a wide variety of programs, with their engineering school being one of the most respected. On January 30th, they hosted more than 160 employers to the career event to meet their students. Indeed, there were engineering firms from as far away as Texas exhibiting to attract these fresh faced soon to be graduates to their companies. Our business is currently recruiting for Software developers, Database administrators, and sales, so we were collecting resumes and meeting students as well. I have attended career fairs at nearly all the colleges and universities in ME, NH, VT, and RI, over the past 4 years, private and public, so it's always fun to compare the preparedness and quality of students at these events to the rest.

I have to say, in all honesty, that the overwhelming majority of students that we saw and spoke with were well dressed, prepared to ask and answer questions, armed with updated resumes, and actively looking to impress. For those of you reading this blog, I'm sure you'll find it to be no surprise that despite graduating in just a few months, many many students still are not sure what they want to do. The engineering program at UMaine is strong, and the students graduating from that program were very focused on their potential jobs, while many other majors, such as New Media Studies, English, Business Administration, to name a few, were only vaguely aware of what real-world opportunities would satisfy their dreams and desires.

(I always have to laugh when I meet with students, and ask them what kind of work they are looking for, and they look me square in the eyes with their power-business-woman-makeup or their almost-a-beard-facial-hair covering their young and naive faces, and say simply, "management". I normally respond to this question by asking, what type of management are they interested in, to which I usually get a blank look followed by "well, any kind of management really." Please know that I say this with the greatest humility and humor, as almost all of us were in their shoes at some time)

In speaking with some of the other exhibitors close to us, we heard a great deal of optimism at the front lines of the recruiting market. Local businesses felt that these graduates were very strong candidates, and that the business climate in ME would be mildly insulated from any potential R word, as we have such a unique economic profile and entrepreneurial spirit. Most organizations had a great deal of respect for the education that UMaine provided, and felt that while students will always lack real-world skills, the career services and department heads have done a great job of readying the student body for the labor market.

Students, on the other hand, always seem filled with an almost manic bipolarism of unbridled confidence and optimism, combined with an underlying concern of the lack of time that they have to find the right job, and the fear of making the wrong career decision. We spent a great deal talking with students in the business administration program who were interested in our business, a Maine based business which has had tremendous growth over 8 years. Many of the students were keenly interested in becoming a manager, but were not sure about the process to get from college grad to mid-level manager to senior manager. I really enjoy providing resume tips, career exploration advice, and ideas for resources that can help students find out what kind of work will really make them happy.

IF anyone knows of good resources to help kids assess their options, I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

Letter from the Front Lines of the Recruiting Market

Hi everyone. Wow, what a week from the front lines of the recruiting market. Starting today, I will be recording the pulse of the recruiting market as I see it. When I refer to the front lines of the recruiting market, I am alluding to both sides of the market- job seekers and employers- and the goings on in employment and recruiting trends at the street level across new england and the gulf coast. (New England and the Gulf Coast? That's right. Those are two regions that I cover as the Field Operations Manager for JobsInTheUS.com, so while they may be a drastically different in geography, culture, personality, and industry profile, I am acutely focused on the front lines of the recruiting markets in these two regions)

As the Field Operations Manager for JobsInTheUS, I have a unique opportunity to spend my working life talking with employers, mostly recruiters, and job seekers from all walks of life, in all industries, from all sizes of companies, with the discussion focused on finding work and finding qualified employees. While our company does an excellent job of providing quantitative analysis of the labor market through the JobsInTheUS Employment Indexes, published monthly, I felt a lack of any qualitative information about the look and feel of the recruiting market- the pulse of the employment sector if you will. This is why I decided to start this blog- to provide a street level perspective of the issues, concerns, assumptions, and hopes from both sides of the recruiting coin. I hope this information provides interested parties with a better view of the market, based on real conversations with the people who deal with these issues every day.