Job Boards Aren’t Dead. They’re Evolving.

Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads

Mark Mehler and Gerry Crispin of CareerXroads just released their Annual Sources of Hire (SOH) Study, which is one of the most referenced and authoritative snapshots of how large, highly-competitive, high-profile firms define and measure the talent supply chain.

The SOH report is a glimpse of where employees – actual hires – were found. This data is important to organizations as they look to find and hire new employees. It is equally important to job candidates as they seek the most effective channels to a new job.

Interesting findings from this year’s study include: Continue Reading

How to Flunk an Interview and Drive your Career Services Advisor Crazy

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How to Flunk an Interview and Drive your Career Services Advisor Crazy

Career Fair Do’s and Don’ts

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Career Fair Do’s and Don’ts

4 Tips for Making the Most out of a Career Fair

If you are in college or you’ve recently graduated, chances are that you have or will have the opportunity to attend a career fair. Of course, most job search methods include looking through positions in ads, networking, using social media, etc. In this sense, the career fair is a little bit old-fashioned. But it’s a great way to land a job. I know, because I used to host career fairs in my previous job, and we almost always ended up hiring students or recent graduates from career fairs rather than students who just submitted their applications. Here are a few tips for making the most out of career fairs. Continue Reading

Virtual Career Fairs Benefit Job Seekers and Employers

If you are a tech savvy job seeker or employer, you might benefit from participating in a virtual career fair.  Job seekers can learn about employment opportunities, while employers can find the candidates they need.

Virtual career fairs are similar to career fairs but take place on your computer.  You can meet with recruiters, conduct interviews, and watch live speeches online.

According to ON24, the global leader in webcasting and virtual event solutions, one of the fastest growing applications for virtual event technologies is the virtual career fair. The total number of virtual job fairs produced on the ON24 platform doubled in 2011 over 2010 totals. In addition, the virtual job fairs attracted the largest audiences. Continue Reading

5 Tips for College Recruiting

ERE.net just published another great article for those engaged in college recruiting. This article was written by Kevin Wheeler, President and Founder of Global Learning Resources, Inc.

Kevin’s article first made the point that college recruiting hasn’t been as easy for employers during this recession as one might expect for a variety of reasons. For example, instead of graduates looking for work like they would in a normal economy, many more have chosen to stay in school for a double major or to go to graduate school while still others have chosen to travel or work abroad.  Kevin then provided employers with the following five excellent suggestions:

1. Focus on brand building and on getting your best employees to engage with students in discussions, webinars, and in ongoing interactive conversations. This builds trust and starts to develop a relationship that can lead to high interest in a job offer.
2. Let managers do the recruiting. If HR is doing more than 50% of your college recruiting, you do not have an effective program. By using HR staff, you are adding expense and reducing the quality of the interaction that the candidate could have with a potential boss. Avoid the temptation of thinking that HR has some “magical” ability to psyche out candidates or do something a hiring manger couldn’t do. It isn’t true! No one knows the job better or can get a sense of whether a student might be a good candidate or not than a manager.
3. Don’t focus your attention so much on the school itself. Developing a relationship with a particular school usually means getting known to the placement office. This may have some limited value, but it is far better to get students to join your Facebook fan club or your Twitter stream.
4. Develop a longer-term approach to recruiting college students. Start your initial contact with a candidate when they are in their freshman year. Build an internship program and invite candidates in to work, even if only for short one- to two-week stints, so you can establish some face-to-face understanding. Follow up with email by offering them research help, mentoring via the Internet, or whatever makes sense and meets both of your needs and abilities. By the time they have entered their third or fourth year of school, both of you will know if there is any commitment in the relationship.
5. Use print, video, and even campus television to drive candidates to your social media and websites. Don’t waste time on campus-based job fairs. The best campus job fairs attract only a few candidates, most of whom have no interest in your firm at all. Create a virtual job fair that you advertise via the print media. Do this job fair every few weeks and keep up the advertising.

Source: 5 Tips for Getting Ready for College Recruiting in 2011 – ERE.net.

Resume Tips for Career Fairs and Online Job Banks

If you’re all set to attend a career fair – or are looking to post your resume on an online job bank – and are concerned about how to create a resume for companies you have yet to meet, you are not alone.
Fortunately, there are ways to create great resumes capable of catching the eyes of potential recruiters no matter what venue you’re working with. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Conduct Research to Gauge Recruiters
Whether you’re looking to leave your resumes with recruiters at a career fair, or post them on online job banks, it helps to research the companies you’re interested in working with so that you can better tailor your accomplishments.
Many career fairs spend a good amount of time advertising their arrival weeks in advance. This means that you have time to research all of the companies attending so that you can create one or more resumes for each one you’re interested in working for.
As for online job banks, while you won’t know who is out there recruiting, you can still gain a slight edge on your competition by researching job specifications at the companies in which you’re interested. This way, you can proactively tailor your resume to focus on skills and achievements that will appeal to those recruiters.
Make Your Career Fair Resume Brief and Scannable
At a career fair, it is likely that you will be the fifth, sixth, or even sixtieth person that recruiters have seen that day. Since they might be overwhelmed by the number of resumes they’ve received, it is a good idea to keep yours brief – one or two pages is fine.
Also, it is becoming a common practice for many companies to scan resumes into a computer after they leave the fair. So to be safe, try making yours scannable by using fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Tahoma and Courier in font sizes anywhere from 9 to 12 points.
Use Plenty of Keywords When Posting Online
As you have probably guessed, recruiters are busy people with tons of resumes to look through everyday – especially when searching through job banks where there may be thousands of resumes posted. So as a benefit to these recruiters, most job banks offer an on-site, customizable search engine. While this feature makes searching easier for the recruiter, if you don’t include specific keywords in your resume before posting it, it is likely that yours will never be found.
A good way to combat this issue is by saturating your resume with keywords related to your desired job. If you don’t know which words to use, try conducting your own keyword search on the Internet until you begin finding field-related information. It may seem like an unconventional way to create a resume, but it is actually a good strategy for ranking near the top of most keyword searches.
Anticipating the unknown when writing resumes can seem like a difficult task. But if you take the right steps, and have a good attitude along the way, you will encounter your career success sooner than you think.
Heather Eagar is a former professional resume writer and owner of http://www.ResumeLines.com who is now dedicated to providing job seekers with resources and products that promote job search success from beginning to end.