Sirona Says

Arrgghh! Why are candidates still being muppets at interviews?

This a mini-rant is born out of frustration and disbelief! Yesterday I spent the day with a client during one of their interview events. What I witnessed at the actual interview stages, was both unforgivable and unbelievable - from the candidates being interviewed -  in this current climate of large amounts of unemployment.
As a 'recruitment dinosaur' (someone who has been in the industry for 20+ years!) I have briefed more candidates than I care to remember on interview techniques and expectation - you could say, I tend to overbrief candidates - although you can never give a candidate too much information! So when I sat there yesterday listening to the responses to some standard 'every interview has them' questions, I was completely stunned with the answers given....or rather lack of answers!! And bear in mind here, that 99% of the candidates interviewed all had 2:1 degrees and above, and all really wanted it as their dream job!

There were three questions that nearly every interview asks, and yesterday was no different:

1. What are your strengths and/or weaknesses?
2. What motivates you? (or What gets you out of bed in the morning?)
3. Why do you want this job?

The answers varied from bad to awful to zero (Yes! One graduate couldn't even unbelievably answer the second question!!)

So my message is a simple one - if you are attending interviews for a new job, make sure you PREPARE FOR THE INTERVIEW otherwise you are completely wasting both yours and the company's time by even attending in the first place. You might as well just go and sit on a park bench and talk to the ducks, for all the good it is going to do!

Don't be a muppet - you know these questions (and other obvious ones) will be asked of you, so make sure that have thought about it, and what you are going to say in reply. These are basic, bog-standard interview questions, they are not exactly a curve ball question - but many many people sitting in an interview screw them up time and time again!  If you are really stuck (or being really thick) then Google it - many others have written the perfect answers for these questions.

Answer them well, and it will impress the interviewer;  answer them badly and you can go back to talking to the ducks - again, again and again!!

Nice idea Monster, but a dangerous 'promise' to job seekers!

Yesterday an email arrived from Monster, promoting their new Monster Virtual Jobs Fair later this year on the 1st October. Great idea, and certainly a good way to go to try and innovate the job board market place.

That is until I saw the 'promise' message that it gives you (as a job seeker) when the page is loading......

Is this just Monster stupidity or negligence (or both)?  Access more that 120 job offers? Maybe they thought that people wouldn't watch the 'loading page' ?
There must be a better way to convey that message - maybe they have a trainee copywriter that they recruited from their own job board?

Essential tips for job seekers using LinkedIn to find a job

With jobless totals still rising, there is seemingly less advice (of the quality variety anyway) being given to job seekers. One thing that is surprising for me, is that many more people still don't use -and even worse- don't even know about the business networking site LinkedIn.
It is a great site to project yourself in the working environment, and while it may well be populated by large numbers of recruiters (a big criticism in the US I hear), is that such a bad thin when you are trying to find a job?

I have already written a LinkedIn beginners guide( Download LinkedIn for beginners here)  that will help all the LinkedIn newbies get started, but I just wanted to highlight a few tips that I find myself sharing with job seeking friends on a regular basis at the moment.

So here are my key tips for using LinkedIn to help job seekers looking for a job:

1. Don't sign up with LinkedIn unless you are committed to spend some time making it work. Networking is about investing your time, and if that is something that doesn't interest you, or you can't be bothered, then stop now, buy a book and sit on the beach all summer waiting for a job to come your way! (You will have a long wait!)
2. Profile. This is absolutely essential and something that you shouldn't take lightly. It should effectively be your online CV, and with this - unlike a paper cv - make sure you upload a decent looking photo  (headshot) of yourself. Make sure you have all the correct dates for your work history, and that it reads well with NO TYPO's! Don't forget, many employers check for online profiles before they interview people (whether they should, is a different conversation!), so you don't want any glaring mistakes making their decision for them.
3. You need to expand your LinkedIn network with as many people that know as possible. Get all you business cards out, go through your email contacts and spend some time writing down all the people you have interacted with, directly and indirectly. Then search for them on LinkedIn and invite them to your network. Size matters with LinkedIn - the bigger your network, then the bigger you 2nd and 3rd level search network will be. For example I have 872 connections which makes my overall search network 15,500,000 - quite a powerful tool isn't it?
4. HOT TIP! Make sure you join a number of the groups (that are relevant to your sector), as these will become part fo your search zone as well. Many groups can be joined simple by requesting to join. Once accepted (usually very quickly) the people in that group will become part of your search network!
5. Make sure you tell people that you are actually looking for a new job. You have two opportunities to do this on LinkedIn -in your personal profile, where you can explain what you are (by red line in example), and then in the status section (by green line) where you can update you statuses as often as you like. It may sound obvious, but if people don't know you are available, then they won't talk to you about opportunities!
   
6. Ask current/previous colleagues for recommendations. Fortunately, LinkedIn makes this easy, and takes you through this process well by prompting you. This is a great way of adding to your credibility, and your online profile by showing your strengths, and the fact you were a valued employee (well hopefully anyway!). Also if you are/were a manager, recommendations from your staff is as equally powerful.
7. Use the power of LinkedIn to help you find the people you need to speak to. Hopefully you will have highlighted a number of companies that you want to work for (if not, don't worry, I will cover this aspect soon in this blog). These may be entirely new companies to you, and you will have no names to start with. There are three things to do next:
   
   • Look at the 'company profiles' of the companies you want to work for. Find out what the background are of the people who work there. Have you got similar skills?
   • Find out where current employees have previously worked - check their profiles - have you worked for a similar company?
   • Find the names of hiring managers, or HR staff that work there. You probably will have to contact them offline, but having the contact name will be a great start.
8. Do it now! If you are currently working, don't wait for you to become unemployed to start using LinkedIn, start now! Build your network before you need it, then when you need it, it will be one less area to get started.

LinkedIn is a brilliant tool, and combined with other social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, it then becomes a very powerful tool to help find a job.
Don't forget to link up with me, if you haven't already done so - I will happily accept!

Generation Y One year On

Human Capital Contracts (HCC) - innovative talent management or just talent prostitution?

Have you ever heard of Human Capital Contracts (HCC)? If like me you hadn't before reading this, then let me explain first briefly what it is.
HCC is where an individual 'sells' a percentage of their future income to an investor, in exchange for an immediate sum of money up front. The individual then pays and agreed amount  - say 10% of their income for eight years. That way the investor realises their investment.

When I first read this, I naturally started to examine all the wrong this that this represents, in human nature - effectively living off the earnings of others (isn't that a form of prostitution?), even though the individuals have stumped up cash as a pre-cursor.
But then I started to look at it from a talent management point of view, and a recruitment perspective, and it then starts to become an intriguing question.

Why would individuals want to 'sell their soul' before they have even started their career?

A good question for which there are, I am sure, a number of answers. But for me there is really only one answer that 'allows' me to accept this model - the enablement of the correct level of education, to achieve the desired education.
Getting a degree, Masters or Phd is now a very expensive career path, when you consider it has to be funded with grants, loans, family savings and paid work during the study time. Some students are lucky enough to have a special talent or skill, that would gain them entry into some of the world's top colleges and universities. But for many the stumbling block is funding - they simply cannot raise the money to fund these studies.
Yes, they could of course go to colleges and universities closer to home, and no doubt do well and have a good career path in front of them. But, what if they could get to the best sources and reputations of education? Where would that take their career path? Wouldn't that opportunity produce more financially  lucrative careers?

Would it be worth selling a stake in your career, just to have the opportunity to get that place in one of the top colleges or universities?

Who is investing in these Human Capital Contracts?

Well it seems, from reading about it, that the range of investors is wide. It goes from individuals who are seeing this as a longer term investment model, to companies and corporations.
For me the interesting part of this are the companies and corporations. Do they use this method as a way of identifying and securing the cream of the talent in their industry? Do they do this to try and preclude their competitors from getting hold of the talent?
Does investing, say £10k, into a student during their education, to secure their future services, represent a good investment? How many would a corporation invest in at that stage - after all, they wouldn't all succeed would they? There will be drop-outs, right? What happens then with the contract?

And anyway, doesn't this actually take place now with bursaries, sponsorships and 'promises'?

HCC's have been around for years, and no doubt many, many students have benefited from the investments they have been given. So in that sense they must work, otherwise investors would stop, investing the money.
But wouldn't an alternative just be a financial establishment loan?
The credit crunch may well have made that decision for many people! Top colleges and universities are no longer financially viable for many people.
So, if you have a special skill or a special talent that could really be accentuated by going to a renowned college or university, what is wrong with trading your future income with that opportunity?

Will Human Capital Contracts soon become part of corporate talent management, or is it just a form of talent prostitution? I guess, only time will tell!

Is The Apprentice good or bad for Gen Y'ers ?

The Apprentice is now back in full flow on UK television, and whether you love it or hate it (like me) one thing is for definite - high TV ratings means the public like watching it!

But is The Apprentice actually causing some issues for the gen Y job seekers out in the marketplace?

Yes I know that it is reality television, and yes I know that many people like the escapism and drama that it creates. But are the subliminal messages that it gives out with the succeed or 'your fired' approach helping or damaging the gen Y'ers viewpoint of getting work?

Remember, this is the generation that have had everything their way, have been given awards just for turning up to school and told they can achieve anything they want. They also have a lack of interactional social skills, and of course many have little or no solid work experience.
Also bear in mind that the gen Y'ers have been brought up on reality television shows like Big Brother and Pop Idol, and they associate closely with 'stars' of these shows and become engulfed in the hype of these programmes.

• So what if they actually start to believe that what they see in The Apprentice is a true reflection of the real business world?

• What if they start to absorb the portrayal of the way people are managed in the programme, and how they are also ridiculed for failure?

After all, you can see why some people may believe it as real life -  Sir Alan Sugar (and Donald Trump in the US) is a tremendous business figurehead, who has been very successful and therefore exudes instant credibility.

Maybe The Apprentice is actually beneficial and we should encourage the gen Y'ers to watch it? Maybe it actually shows them that you need to work hard and achieve to be successful? Maybe that isn't a bad thing!!

But, while I do realise that The Apprentice is just a reality show, I strongly believe that society will look back in a few years time, and blame the programme for a generation of managers that really do believe that the words 'Your Fired' are normal part of their vocabulary!! I think we will see a generation of our workforce strongly influenced by reality televison.

What do you think - is The Apprentice messing with the gen Y'ers minds or am I just over thinking this?

The 'Slippery Shoulder' advice given by Job Centres and Outplacement Companies

I have had many phone calls over the last few weeks from my local Yellow Pages, from job seekers looking for work. Now I don't have a big spread in the directory, just a one line entry, so to be getting these calls is unusual. What is even more disturbing to me is why they are calling, and then more importantly what they say when they call.

Bad advice from the Outplacement Companies and Job Centres

The common theme for many of my calls is the source of their advice - outplacement firms or outplacement consultants.
I would like to start by saying, that I have absolutely no problem with the fact that job seekers are calling me looking for work. The fact is they are probably in the minority by actually being proactive, but it is great that they have called in the first place.
Obviously, one of the first things I ask is why are they calling me. All of them have found themselves out of work and they had been 'told' to call every agency in the (local) Yellow Pages and register with them for work!
The answer to who told them to call, has been the same - a couple of outplacement firms and the job centre.

The problem is that both parties - the outplacement firms and the Job Centre, probably believe that they have done their job well in advising these job seekers to do this - the Job Centre can tick another box on their 'helped a job seeker form', while the outplacement firm can invoice for 'another' person they have 'helped'. The trouble is with this form of slippery shoulder advice is that it is totally rubbish, meaningless and a waste of time.

Why do you like using social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter?

Social networks are no longer the preserve of generation Y'ers, or the younger generation Z'ers. While they may have started with that in mind, now the demographics of the social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are changing, and they are changing fast.
There was a time when if you mentioned social networks to people of a certain age (anyone over 30!), their eyes would roll and glaze over. This would be combined with a response of something like,"don't talk to me about those things, they are no good to me".
Well it seems that the 30+ age groups now think differently:

The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is the 35-44 year olds, closely followed by the 55+ year olds


The fastest growing demographic on Twitter is the 35-49 year olds

So if you are a generation X'er  like me, you fit inside one of these demographics, then (like me) you are probably using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter more than you ever have done. But why? And why is there also many people within these age groups flocking to the sites in a similar way?

Well, before you get excited and think I can give you the magic answer I can't (although I wish I could!!) All I can suggest some of the reasons why I use them more. Everyone will have their own ideas and reasons and I would like to hear yours, but just to get started, here are some of my reasons why I love the social media networking sites:

1. It started as a curiosity - a sort of 'what is all the hype about' approach. I started with LinkedIn two years ago, using it as a tool for my consulting business. Then Facebook and Twitter followed last year - and as a person that likes to build relationships for business etc I became an evangeliser very quickly when I saw how great these sites are for that.
2. They are all great for business. I find that I use LinkedIn, Facebook and particularly Twitter for building new business relationships and identifying new opportunities. I have met some fantastic contacts on these sites, that I would never have got access to otherwise.
3. Fonts of knowledge. They really are a tremendous source of mind blowing amounts of information. The recruitment /HR/ consulting space is well catered fro on all the networks, and the links, websites, ebooks, interviews, product knowledge etc etc that people post on these sites is just brilliant.
4. Sharing. It gives me the chance to really share information tips, experiences, contacts etc with a whole diversity of people around the globe. This blog is read worldwide, and I love being able to share my opinions and advice with many people - and the social networks just help me do that. Getting 'thank you's' from job seekers in America, Canada and New Zealand, really does make me feel good, and just drives me on further to share more.
5. Access to people you wouldn't normally get anywhere close to. Social media has broken down many barriers within the business world (and the celebrity world of course), and it allows 'normal' individuals to enter dialogue with high profile individuals that previously would have been out of bounds. Of course you still have to go about it in the right way, and make contact in a correct and respectful way, but at least you have a chance to engage with them. They may of course choose to ignore you, but hey, they did that before didn't they??
6. Engaging. Contrary to what people think about social networking - they are very engaging, and it both allows and facilitates conversation, relationships and opportunity.
7. It is fun!!

So as a generation X'er  who sits firmly in the 35-44 year old demographic ( I will let you guess which end!) I am thoroughly enjoying using social networking sites, and I am always open to exploring new ones.

What about you?

What do you like about social media?

Is this what happens with Twitter, Facebook and Blogging?

A great new Twitter tool for job seekers - TwitterJobSearch

I came across this a couple of days ago, and it seems to have taken the Twittersphere by storm with its interest and simplicity!
It is a web site called TwitterJobSearch and it is a fantastcially simple, yet brilliant, website for searching all the jobs placed on Twitter by companies and recruitment agencies alike.
The screen shot above shows how simple it is - you search for job title or location etc, hit search and bingo all the jobs that meet the criteria materialise, instantly.
What I like is that the integrity of the individual tweets are maintained, so you can go off and follow those companies or agencies that seem to be posting jobs on Twitter that suit your needs.

TwitterJobSearch is clever in that it draws in every vacancy posted on Twitter, and the new web-based service analyses and restructures the data, extending each job’s reach and visibility to everyone online. Developed by Workhound, the UK’s leading job search engine, TwitterJobSearch will be joined by a whole suite of smart, semantic search services for recruitment in other social media channels over the coming months.

(Although they may have some fun with Facebook!!)

Also, there is an RSS feed created for any search you might want to do, which is very useful if you want to track certain job titles, locations etc. This will immediately become an important tool for anyone looking for a new job!

I know it is very new, but already I think it is just brilliant - well the simple ideas always are aren't they?