Drop Out, Dive In, Start Up: Are Journalists Missing The Main Point?

By Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads

A few recruiters, thinking out of the box, might benefit by looking for prospects who delayed traditional education for learning of a different kind.

Peter H. Thiel, the PayPal billionaire has garnered some serious ink for his initiative in offering some of the best and brightest young minds $100k and a mentor for a two year stint at a start-up. All the recipients of Thiel’s largesse are 20 and under and so missing what would ordinarily be viewed as the ideal time to attend MIT, Harvard, IIT Bombay etc. His plan has come under serious criticism and a bit of fanfare. The latest testament to this controversial initiative was recently featured in the NY Times. Continue Reading

B-School Applicants Decline: Damn Shame or About Time?

By Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads

The B-school numbers are in and they aren’t pretty according to this recent WSJ article by Melissa Korn. 69% of the F/T, two-year MBA degree programs in the US experienced significant declines in 2012 while 79-80% of the schools in Asia (Pacific Rim and Central Asia respectively) experienced gains. Globally the drop-off is 22% after a decline of 10% last year.

While some of this can be attributed to a return to normalcy after significant gains by B-schools during the financial crisis, you also have to wonder about the continuing value of the product exiting the many hundreds of schools granting these degrees. Continue Reading

Are You a Mobile Enabler or a Mobile Laggard?

By Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads

September marks the start of the 2012 fall frenzy of conferences, niche conferences, un-conferences, expos, seminars, webinars, (and yes, a Colloquium or two). Not every session at every event offers deep dives but the mobile discussion has been noted everywhere this year. One conference, held in mid-September, the second mRecruitingCamp, was totally devoted to the subject. (Michael Marlatt did an excellent job on this one-day niche event.)

Practitioners offering solid case study insights on mobile technology and recruiting included Matt Lavery [UPS], Chris Hoyt [PepsiCo] and Heather Tinguely [Microsoft]. We encourage you to look for their videos. Bottom line, a rapidly increasing percentage of prospects in their pipelines (prospects who are eventually hired) are engaged and in more and more cases applying through mobile devices. Continue Reading

10 Recommendations for Job Seekers With Criminal Records

Prisoner behind chain link fence courtesy of Shutterstock

While having a run-in with the law can have long-term repercussions for job hunting, a new study from CareerBuilder shows organizations are open to giving people second chances. Fifty-one percent of human resource managers reported that their organizations have hired someone with a criminal record.

The study, which was conducted by Harris Interactive^© and included more than 2,000 hiring managers nationwide, also looked at what job seekers with criminal records can do to help their chances of getting hired.

“The number one recommendation hiring managers have is to own your past and focus on what you learned from it to grow professionally and personally,” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources at CareerBuilder. “You also want to stay active. Taking classes, volunteering and tapping into social networks can be good ways to help overcome obstacles associated with job hunting with a criminal past.” Continue Reading

Judge Strikes Down Social Media Restrictions Imposed by Many Employers

By Wade Davis

On Tuesday, just weeks after the National Labor Relations Board issued its first decision on an employer’s social media policy in Costco Wholesale Corp., an administrative law judge joined in the Board’s efforts to scrutinize employment policies under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, the section that protects employees’ rights to engage in concerted activities. In EchoStar Technologies, 27-CA-066726 (Sept. 25, 2012), the judge invalidated and addressed several social media and employment policies that are commonly used by employers, including: Continue Reading

$300 Cash Contest for Best Short Video on Voter ID Law

The Coalition for Voting MN (CoVM) is seeking videos to educate, move, engage, enrage, and motivate voters to oppose the proposed amendment of Minnesota’s constitution to require voters to present government-issued photo identification to a Minnesota election official.

CoVM is looking for videos that contain a strong emotional appeal and/or fact based messages to counter the overblown/false anxieties about voter fraud. Don’t tell us who may be disenfranchised by Voter ID – show us. Funny is good. Reference to the cost to implement voter ID is good. Information on the integrity of current voting system is good (why fix something that isn’t broken?). Submissions outside of Twin Cities metro are especially sought so send this to your friends who live outstate. Continue Reading

How to Approach Hiring the Right People and Avoid Hiring the Wrong Ones

Mark Debinski, President of Bluewater Advisory

The simple reality for many business owners is that, in many ways, the company can only be as good as the people who represent it. That’s why hiring managers everywhere want to make sure they do everything possible to bring in the right talent when it comes to recruiting. While there is no tried and true formula to doing so, there are a few things a recruiter can do to make sure the talent matches the company’s needs. So let’s see what some of those things are by looking at mistakes that are commonly made, as well as steps that should be taken to ensure recruitment goes as smoothly as possible. Continue Reading

Hiring of Class of 2013 Projected to Increase by 13%

Hiring will be up for new college graduates, according to a new report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). NACE’s Job Outlook 2013 survey shows that employers anticipate hiring 13 percent more Class of 2013 college graduates than they hired from the Class of 2012.

“While employers are seeking graduates from a broad range of disciplines, this fall they expressed particular interest in hiring new graduates with business, computer science, and engineering-related degrees and are looking to college campuses to supply their hiring needs,” says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director.  Continue Reading

5 Deadly Sins of Job Seeking

Ken Sundheim, CEO of KAS Placement Recruitment

The American job seeker works very hard to get a great position, however sometimes it’s the little things that prevent one from getting the job offer that they want.  While not making these mistakes tend to be common sense, it never hurts to get a refresher. Continue Reading

College Students Using ID Cards for Financial Transactions

I didn’t know this before, but apparently college students are using student IDs to make financial transactions on and off campus.  This is due to partnerships between colleges and financial institutions.  Find out the pros and cons of this concept in the following infographic. Continue Reading