Tips on Getting the Career You Want

There are many reasons why we look for new careers – ready for a change, just graduating from college, dying industry forcing you to make a change – it does not matter if your reason is for a renewal or a new beginning, changing careers is an important step in your life.

Over the last several years, career choices and career paths have changed for many.  Bad economic times, less quality jobs available, and an abundance of educated candidates, make finding the perfect job and career harder to accomplish.  There is no exact science to finding the right career path for you, however, understanding what you want and how to get it will help you in your journey.  Here are a few tips to help you in getting the career you want:

• You MUST know exactly what you want.  How can you expect to get what you want, if you do not know what you want?  Determine what type of career you want and then visualize how you will get there, by setting goals to help you achieve the results you desire.  You then will be able to clearly tell potential employers exactly what you expect.  This will help you whether you are looking for a promotion or negotiating for a new job.
• Often when we are so focused on attaining the next step in our career, we forgot about others around us.  Remember, relationships will help you in getting the career you want.  Don’t forget to listen, continue to learn, collaborate with others, and build relationships.  You are not on an island by yourself, keep building those relationships.
• Approval is not needed!  So many times we focus on attaining the approval of others, that we forget our main reason for working so hard.  Remember why you wanted this career?  Do not become complacent.  It is important that you keep and continue your work ethic and drive.  Find ways to contribute or become active in the process – not because you need the approval of the others around you – but because you want results that move you closer to your overall goals.
• You must adapt to change.  Industries and careers are constantly changing, and you must be able to change with them.  As your career field changes, you need to adapt and grow with it.  This may cause your goals to change, or require you to make adjustments to your work plan.  Be open to these necessary changes.

A career is more than a title, a job, or something to fill your day – it is and should be something that you are passionate about and matters to you.  Only then will you find the perfect career and something that matters to you!  

Copyright: ximagination / 123RF Stock Photo

Be Aware! 3 Things that will Kill your Productivity

For decades, people have fought and struggled with ways to become more productive.  We have become a society that feels everything has to be shoved in as few hours as possible.  We have become the masters of time…  Or, have we?

Productivity is an area that is heavily scrutinized today, especially with so many trying to find the right work-life balance.  As both employers and employees search for the right balance, both often look for ways to increase productivity without upsetting the balance.  After years of research, the following things have been shown to be productivity killers, which you should be aware of.

• When is it ok to check email?  With technology advancing every day, we have found ourselves attached to our email 24/7.  The shift went from arriving at the office early to check our email, to checking email on our smart device all hours of the day and night.  Unfortunately, studies have shown that checking email constantly is actually very unproductive.  When you are constantly checking email, you will find that it is hard to concentrate and finish any task.  It has been recommended that you check email periodically throughout the day.  If you must check it first thing in the morning before even getting out of bed, then do so, but then leave it alone for a few hours while you get ready for your day.  Same is true during the day.  Do not leave your email open, instead check it in between tasks or every couple of hours.  The point is to not look at it constantly every time you hear the email notification, which takes your focus away from your current task, leaving you less productive.
• What is your best schedule?  Employers have realized over the last several years, that allowing their employees to work modified schedules boosts productivity substantially.  Why?  Because everyone works better at different times of the day.  As employees try to find that work-life balance, a piece of that is determining what is the best schedule.  Are you a morning person?  Then working during the morning hours will be more productive for you.  Night owls, do their best work at night.  Determine what time of day you work best and adjust your schedule around that so you are doing your best work during your most productive hours.
• Do you multitask often?  You must accept the fact that most people are not multi-taskers.  In fact, there are few who have the ability to multi-task effectively.  Your productivity will increase when you tackle tasks one at a time.  Concentrate on the task at hand, finish it, then move on to the next.  You will see your productivity increase by doing so.  

As you can see, these three simple things have the ability to kill your productivity, or if you are aware and change them, will boost your productivity.  Try one and see the difference it makes in your productivity.

Copyright: bowie15 / 123RF Stock Photo

How to Attract Top Engineers

So many companies feel like they are constantly fishing for top engineering talent from a pool that has limited fish.  Do you search for talent only when a need arises?  If so, you may feel panic trying to find the right fit in a short amount of time, or worse yet, settle for the wrong person because you are under project time constraints.

Many larger companies have discovered the secret on how to attract top engineers – you are constantly in hiring mode – always looking for top talent to join your team.  The key is utilizing inbound recruiting.  This type of recruiting focuses on building a relationship with your future candidates.  When you take the time to invest in them now, you have a better chance of attracting them when the time is right.

Here are a few inbound recruiting tips that have been shown to attract top engineering talent:

•        Invest a minimum of one hour per week to answering questions of outside talent.  This could be writing a blog article, answering questions on social media, hosting a breakfast for potential candidates, or even conducting a question and answer hour.  Invite others to get to know you and your company, this can be a game changer when it comes time to hire.

•        Learn from your potential candidates.  So much knowledge is available today, and new techniques are introduced daily.  Allow your potential candidates the opportunity to share with you and others.  You can do this by hosting a guest speaker once a month to a meeting of your current staff, or hold a training seminar.  This not only makes them feel like part of the team, before even being hired, but allows them the opportunity to see how you value your team members.

•        Culture is important to all of your staff, including potential hires.  When you portray a culture of not only professionalism, but one that is about the people, you will have talent beating down your door to join.  Simple things like how you celebrate a staff member’s birthday – such as creating a video and posting it only for all to see the celebration – goes a long way.  Creating friendly competitiveness is also a great way to show your culture.  Hold a content once a month, allowing current staff to create something unique to help with a project.  The winner – it is a big deal – so post it on social media, give them the credit they deserve.

As you can see, you want to create a company where top engineering talent will want to work for you.  When a project arises where you need to hire, you will have the best pool to pick from.  How can you start?  Recruiting firms are full of potential candidates.  Working with these firms will allow you to make relationships with some of the best talent around.

Copyright: dotshock / 123RF Stock Photo

Using the Shotgun approach

Whether you are a hunter or not, you probably know that the choice of a specific type of gun is critical and based on the game you hope to bag.  As an example, you wouldn’t use a rifle to go dove hunting.  There is a similar strategy in a job search as well, but most people don’t pay any attention to the concept.  They take the shotgun approach thinking that more is better.  I know this to be true because as a Professional Recruiter, I see, week-in and week-out, the same person applying for multiple jobs on our website, applying for jobs when they don’t have even the basic qualifications listed.

This sends a bad signal to every recruiter for two different reasons.  First, it screams out desperation that you have applied to multiple jobs.  Second, we know that you aren’t qualified for all the jobs (sometimes none) you applied for that we have posted.  It makes us wonder if you even read the job posting at all.

We understand that you are “trying to cover all the bases,” but when you do that on a company website, you can jeopardize any opportunity you might have had.  This shotgun approach does you much dis-service because you have applied to multiple jobs where you are not a good fit.  It screams that you are desperate for any job and probably means that you are not going to be called on any job.

We know that you are wanting to cut to the chase and get a new job, we get it.  But… you will be much better served to find the right opportunity where you are a good fit.  When you find that posting, take the time to make sure you convey to the reader that you are the perfect candidate for them.

David (Mac) McElhaney

Managing Partner
Global Recruiters of Huntsville

www.grnhuntsville.com 

Phone: 256-533-1444 Ext 201

Fax: 256-418-4485

Mobile: 407-341-4462

Catch my Attention with a Great Job Description

Article after article talks about the need for job descriptions that are written to catch the reader’s attention- to say what’s in it for them.  But what is put out there to catch the next great employee is nothing more than the same-ole-thing.  Job descriptions that were written fifteen years ago, dusted off and used again.  Job descriptions that were written by some HR intern because they didn’t have anything for them to do and “it will be good practice for them.”

We are in a Candidate driven marketplace.  Top level candidates are in short supply.  The Top Talent are being called weekly and daily by multiple recruiters.  The Best of the Best have lots of options and are moving fast into new positions and so they are on the market one day and off the next.

If you are going to get their attention, you have to be creative.  It’s time to find those creative writing skills and tell a story.  Tell me why your company is so great that I need to beat a path to your door.  Tell me about your history, your mission, your code of ethics.  Tell me why you are different, why I want to work there (hint: why did you want to work there?).  What’s in it for them?  We tell candidates to write their resumes to tell you why you should hire them, now you tell the candidate why they should want to work for your company. Catch my attention with things like those, and you will keep my attention longer.  Tell me about the knowledge and skills needed, tell me about the duties and responsibilities and I’m outta here. 

David (Mac) McElhaney

Managing Partner
Global Recruiters of Huntsville

102 Clinton Ave, West

Suite 201

Huntsville, AL 35801

Phone: 256-533-1444 Ext 201

Fax: 256-418-4485

Mobile: 407-341-4462

STOP! Before You Pay for a Resume

Recently, I spoke with a candidate whose resume looked . . . (How shall I say this?) . . . cartoonish. Each level of his professional experience was contained within a text bubble that had something resembling an industry related emoticon in lieu of bullet points. His accomplishments and education were separated from the main body, yet followed the same disconcerting pattern. The background color was a blend of cobalt blue and black, and the fonts varied wildly. None of these factors, garish as they were, constituted the greatest crime of this resume. That indignity was revealed to me when the candidate proudly proclaimed to me that he had paid $800 to have it professionally rendered for him. He actually used the word "rendered." (Insert shock-face emoticon here).

There are plenty of services that will charge you far less than $800, with most being in the $80 to $200 range. However, I do not necessarily recommend these services at any price. A quick search online will produce more templates that you could ever sort through. Choose a simple layout, and plug in your information. Then, get with a professional recruiter (headhunter) who works in your industry. She or he sees untold numbers of resumes all day long and will guide you through any necessary adjustments. Additionally, a professional recruiter ("professional" being the operative word) will do far more than simply pass your resume along to a potential hiring manager or executive search committee. A recruiter who is doing the hands on, in-the-trenches work of a professional will be on the phone with the decision makers presenting you as the highly qualified candidate that you are. Of course, if you really want to pay me $800 to create your resume . . . just say the word!

Matthew Doss, Headhunter (I actually prefer that term :)

Global Recruiters of Huntsville

256.533.1444

mdoss@grnhuntsville.com 

Be Just a Little Bit Better

We have an opening in our firm and so I have been conducting interviews over the past several weeks and I have interviewed some very interesting people.  There are some really big gaps that have stood out in those interviews that I wanted to talk about today.

We often hear that it’s the little things that matter, that you don’t have to be miles ahead of the competition; you just have to be a little better in order to stand out.  It is to this point that I want to talk about those things that stand out, in this case it is the things that most candidates don’t do during an interview.

Most of the candidates I have interviewed in the past several weeks have walked into my office, empty handed, that is to say, they didn’t bring anything to take notes on, and they didn’t bring any written questions to ask.  These are both critical mistakes in the interview process and they can be the difference in getting a new position or being second-place.

So on your next interview, bring a notepad.  After your greeting and after you sit down, ask the interviewer if they mind if you take notes.  No one will ever say NO.  Then open your notepad and take out your pen.  Your notes should be just the key words that the interviewer uses.  These key words are your chance to shine later.

Second, have questions written out that you want to ask.  The worst possible outcome from an interview I am conducting is for the candidate to say, no, I don’t have any questions or no, you answered all my questions.  NOTE TO FILE- If you did this in my interview, you just lost!  Always have questions to ask.  Even if I answered all of your pre-determined questions, ask them anyway.  Simply say, one of the questions I wanted answered, you already covered but please expand on your answer, tell me more.  Back to those key words you wrote down, now turn them into questions; you mentioned _____ tell me more about that.

The horse that wins the Kentucky Derby but a nose makes $ millions more than the second place horse.  Is the winner a million times better?  No, it’s just a little bit better but worth a lot more.  A little more effort on your part will make a difference.  It just might set you on a new career path.

David (Mac) McElhaney

Managing Partner
Global Recruiters of Huntsville

Phone: 256-533-1444 Ext 201

Fax: 256-418-4485

Mobile: 407-341-4462

dmcelhaney@grnhuntsville.com

www.grnhuntsville.com