http://blogs.skype.com/enterprise/2011/04/using_skype_for_your_job_inter.html

Half Off! That’s Right, 50% off!

Job Interview Coaching, Career Coaching and Resume Building services are all 50% off from March 13 – April 30, 2011.  We want to help job seekers get noticed and get hired.  What better time than now to get a job!  Sign up now and pay for any of the discounted services before the end of April to receive this FANTASTIC sale.

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To take advantage of this offer, click Job Interview Coaching, Career Coaching or Resume Building and get going!

360WorkForce is the newest and most innovative service provided by the creative minds of Jeff Garber, CEO, and Dan Fedrizzi, COO.  In an era plagued with a volatile job market and constantly evolving landscape, 360WorkForce is delivering what employers everywhere didn’t know they couldn’t live without.

As a client of 360WorkForce, Cathy Avallone, Vice-President of Human Resources for hhgregg was kind enough to allow me to interview her regarding her experience with this exciting new product.

Q.  Cathy, how would you compare your experience with 360WF to more traditional recruiting methods?

A. Like many companies working with very lean HR staffs, I don’t have a designated recruiter.  The people on my staff wear many hats and have more than they can get done in a day.  Once we were assigned an HR professional that met our needs, the process was very smooth.  We did not incur the typical costs that traditional recruiters charge and had all the information on our designated portal of the 360 website available 24/7.

Q.  What were the biggest challenges and what were the biggest advantages?

A. We are a unique retailer with very specific needs. Probably, the biggest challenge was getting on the same page regarding what we were actually looking for.  We are opening several new stores in new geographic regions, so this was a learning experience for all of us.  Once we were able to articulate what we wanted and our HR partner understood the criteria, it was like having an extension of the team, as opposed to just a vendor. I suppose that is the biggest advantage, along with being able to actually view a recorded screening interview.  So many times you bring people in having not met them and it is a total waste of time. That would not happen with this process.

Q.  As a service provider, was there transparency throughout the staffing process?

A. From the client side, I was able to log-in, review any or all resumes that were submitted, review notes and recommend who I wanted to be interviewed via a recorded Skype interview.  I was notified when the recorded screening interviews were available and was able to watch a 30 minute screening interview, which was very valuable.  Our HR resource also provided great notes and things she saw that were valuable to determining who to bring in for a face-to-face interview.

Q.  Did you find the quality of the candidates met your requirements?

A. Of the 5 we brought in for face-to-face interviews, 3 were made offers.

Q.  Would you recommend 360WorkForce to other companies?

Yes, I would recommend 360WF to other companies.  It is a great concept. I think it is especially beneficial when you are working with fewer resources than you need internally.  I loved being able to view the recorded screening interviews, which is a huge advantage.  I can’t stress enough the value and importance of the relationship between the employer and the HR resource.  I believe it is a cost effective way to enhance your staffing process.

So, there you have it – straight from the client.

There is a new web-based service that is quickly shifting the way we think about and approach staffing. In one fell swoop, the process is streamlined, efficient, effective and raising the bar regarding quality. This new product is the perfect mix of current technology and process efficiency leveraging the best of both. This is 360WorkForce.com.

In a world of constant shifting and re-invention, there are many tools that come and go. What was ‘hot’ twelve months ago is likely to have been replaced by the next generation and the third generation is well on its way. Rarely does something come along that is so unique and innovative, that you know it is going to change the way we work. The launch of 360 Workforce is going to revolutionize the staffing industry.

With talent acquisition fast becoming one of the primary focuses of businesses, large and small, there is a significant opportunity to innovate in such a way that the impact will be beyond our current line of sight. Staffing is an area that still maneuvers in much the way it always has…and not because it is without areas for improvement.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to be involved with 360 WorkForce during beta testing. I sat in the provider seat and experienced first-hand how the product works and what it has to offer. As an HR professional with over fifteen years experience managing staffing for global companies, this tool would not only have revolutionized the way we executed our staffing process, but would have saved us thousands of dollars per hire without compromising quality.

Imagine that you have an exclusive portal into a website designed to meet your staffing needs. Each candidate that applies arrives electronically into the portal and automatically becomes a part of the process. The service provider and the client document each touch point on the candidate with easy access for notes. You, as the client, have complete access to every step along the way and have the ability to move the process along at the pace you desire with access 24 hours per day.

The 360WF provider assigned to you is a seasoned HR professional with expertise and experience in your industry. This top-notch resource is screening your resumes, making comments for you to review and is at your fingertips for assistance. You have the option to get acquainted with your assigned 360WF staffing resource and your personal 360WF professional WANTs to understand what you want and what you don’t.

Once you determine which candidates are worthy of a screening interview, your 360WF staffing resource will facilitate a recorded video interview. This recorded interview is then uploaded into your portal for you to review at your convenience. You now have the ability to determine whom to bring in for face-to-face, possibly final, interviews at the click of a button.

The value and quality of recorded video interviews will provide in-depth information about candidates – how they present, if they are prepared, what motivates them, are they a strong fit, etc. What does this mean to you? You have a credible HR professional handling your staffing process. There is complete transparency regarding all documentation as the candidates move through the process. You will never, again, have to spend thousands of dollars bringing candidates in-house for face-to-face interviews without actually ‘seeing’ them in a screening interview. This will shorten your time-to-fill, decrease your cost-per-hire and allow you to reallocate the members of your staff who are dedicated to the staffing process. In a time when everyone is doing more with less, this is your opportunity to use them in areas where you need them more.

From first-hand experience, I was the staffing source for the beta testing and I was astounded at how easy the process was to use. The open position was a high-level management position, critical to the business. 360WF worked closely with the client to understand the needs and desires in order to get the best possible result.

The end results? 75% success rate for candidates submitted. Time-to-fill less than 45 days. Best-in-class metrics and a delighted client. This is the future.

Being unemployed might not make you think of the housing market, but maybe it should. After all, there are  plenty more connections between the two than just the payments. In fact, the modern history of the housing market can tell us a lot about getting a job and dealing with unemployment.

Determining an Asking Price

When selling a home, we examine the surrounding market, determine what other similar houses are selling for, and examine the one we’re selling. Then, we set the asking price as high as we think we can in the hopes of turning a decent profit.

Job hunting works much the same way. We assess and tally up our skills. Then, we look around to see what kind of salary others in our respective industries are getting before comparing our skills to theirs. This gives us the chance to set an expected salary that we’ll give to prospective employers. The idea of this is that we’ll make the most money per year possible. It’s not just our per hour rates either. Benefits, holidays, bonuses, commission — they all come into play here.

Dealing With Multiple Offers

Ideally, homeowners looking to sell their home want to bring in multiple offers fairly soon after putting it on the market. This could set off a bidding war and drive up the price until it climbs higher than the asking price. The sellers can then look at all the variables for each contract and choose the one that best suits their needs.

In a perfect world, we like our quest for a new job to end much the same way. We receive multiple job offers with various set salaries, holidays, and other stipulations. Then, we can play one against the other to get the best deal or simply leave it before choosing the deal that suits us best. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. Not even frequently, and particularly not in today’s market.

What Happens When We Don’t ‘Sell’

It’s no secret that the housing market has staled. Homes that would have sold in a matter of a couple months are now sitting for a year or more, and some aren’t even getting any interest. This has caused sellers to drop their asking prices in an effort to target a larger market and generate the increased attention necessary to sell.

The job market has experienced a similar problem. Millions of people have been forced out of work, lost hours, or taken pay cuts in the last few years. Follow that up by the fact that there are very few good paying jobs available, and you have the kind of job market employers salivate over.

When a position opens, particularly a good paying one, employers receive hundreds of applications. They can afford to be extremely picky about who they hire and they can take their time doing it. And, if you don’t take the job or try fighting for a better deal, chances are pretty good the employer isn’t going to be worried. After all, there is an entire stack of applicants willing to take your place.

While this has done away with job security in many instances, it’s also done something to salaries.

You see, when a home doesn’t sell after a certain period of time, the seller will bring down the price in order to get new interest and hopefully sell it. Otherwise, the length of time a house has been on the market becomes a negative selling point. In fact, buyers will often skip these homes altogether, often with the thought that there are reasons the home has been on the market for such a long time.

Job seekers who have been out of work for a significant amount of time experience the same thing. Employers don’t like to see large gaps in employment history, nor does the thought of someone being unemployed for a long period of time seem appealing.

It’s sort of like a tray of desserts. If everyone leaves one certain kind of treat in favor of the others, eventually you’ll ask yourself what’s wrong with that one dessert that would cause everyone to avoid it. This doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. Not in the least. It could just be that the other kinds appear more appetizing at first.

So, if you’ve been unemployed for a long time and want to get back to work, you’ll want to consider accepting a smaller salary. Of course, you’d be making less than you want, but something is better than nothing. And, after you get the chance to prove yourself, you can use the opportunity to show your true worth and become an indispensable member of the team. You’ll see your salary increase and you might even be making more than you asked for initially.

Image Credits: 1, 2, 3

Job applicants beware! Recent studies show that at least 70% of hiring managers in the United States have rejected job applicants due to online profile information. This past Thursday, January 28, marked the 4th annual Data Privacy Day. Data Privacy Day, initiated by Microsoft, puts into perspective just how much of our private lives we expose via social networks, microblogging, photo sharing etc.

A simple entry of the applicants name into a search engine can result in loads of personal information which, while not professionally relevant, can have damaging effects. We can debate that our personal and professional lives should remain completely segregated; however, research proves that personal relationships do affect our professional potentials.

Fear not. Online reputation can be repaired and maintained if proactively managed. Microsoft suggests that rather than simply removing past — or omitting future — negative information, we utilize our online profiles as a tool to build the image we would want an employer to find.

Smartplanet.com suggests a number of ways to build your online reputation. For instance, social networks such as Facebook are great places to start because they’re anchored to your real identity. Just be sure to adjust your privacy settings. Additionally, create a profile on LinkedIn, a more professional social networking site where you can connect your profile to coworkers. An employer will be able to get a better sense of who you are, and where you have been. It also allows you to discover new opportunities. Lastly, create a Google public profile. Since Google is the most popular search engine, it’s a good idea to create a profile page. Your Google profile can also be linked to your Facebook and LinkedIn.

Most job-hunters who fail to find their dream job, fail not because they lack information about the job-market, but because they lack information about themselves.

—Richard N. Bolles

That’s quite a statement, and to borrow from Stephen Colbert, you can see the truthiness of it. Can’t you? How many times have you been in the market for a new job and told yourself that this time it would be different, this time you would find work you could love? And that’s the trick isn’t it? To get paid to do something you actually enjoy doing. Many people scoff at the idea, saying that work isn’t meant to be fun, it’s work.

Bolles disagrees, he feels that a person can find work they actually enjoy; call it your life’s mission, your purpose, your dream job, it doesn’t really matter what name it goes by, it’s your life and it’s time to start living it they way you want to live it.¹ The entire second part of Parachute is devoted to examining yourself, finding out what it is you really want from life and applying that knowledge in finding your next job, work that is exciting and enticing instead of numbing and boring.

Be warned, The Parachute Workbook is one of the more thorough personal inventories to be found in a mere job hunting book, and you should be prepared to do some serious soul searching. Various areas of the self are examined, including the tried and true, such as transferable skills and what kind of work you prefer. But Parachute goes a step or two further: what kind of people do you prefer working with, where would you really like to live, who are you and what skills do you really prefer to use and what are you really good at?  Even if the whole exercise doesn’t help you find your life’s work, the information you gain about yourself will be invaluable in the future, drawing you ever closer to that dream job you’ve envisioned.

There are many books on the market that claim they’ll help you find your next job, and they may work swimmingly for you or someone you know, but if you’ve found the plethora of job hunting titles somewhat lacking and impersonal, you owe it to yourself to check out Richard Bolles’ What Color is Your Parachute; used in conjunction with the vast job hunting resources of the web, like 360jobinterview.com, you just might stumble upon the work you’ve always dreamed of.

Pace University COOP and Career Services Partners with myWorkster to Produce a Multi-school MBA Career Fair

Back in January, 2009 the economic downturn was in full blast. Many of the alumni and graduate students that I had been seeing were losing their jobs and many financial firms large and small were significantly downsizing or going out of business. Doug Baruchin the Director of Operations of myWorkster a vendor that listed jobs from their organizational clients and had university students create profiles had asked to have a meeting with me to discuss some upgrades to their web site. I bluntly exclaimed to Doug that I had very little interest in his web site upgrades, but that I noticed that he had a number of schools listed on their web site that did business with myWorkster. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get normally competitive schools to cooperate for the benefit of their collective alumni by doing a multi-school job fair. Doug responded enthusiastically.

Doug and I got to work. He canvassed the schools that had affiliated with myWorkster and I pitch the proposal to the members of a group I belong to the Alumni Career Services Network. Essentially for the privilege of participating in the fair they would be required to ask employers who recruit at their school to participate. The result was our first Multischool Job Fair for Alumni at Baruch College, in June 2009. 25 schools, including Pace, Fordham, Baruch, NYU, NYIT and Hofstra locally and Notre Dame, Miami and University of Southern California nationally. 76 companies and over 2000 alumni attended. Other fairs planned and implemented were in Chicago and at St. John’s University successfully.

During a staff meeting of COOP and Career Services last spring we discussed how difficult the job market was going to be for our MBA graduates. I suggested as a response, maybe we could be a collaborative MBA fair similar to our alumni fairs for current MBAs looking for internships through those looking for experienced professionals. We pitched this fair to schools that offer MBAs and received a strong response. We again got a strong response from local schools, but also added such nationally recognized schools as DePaul, Indiana, Virginia Tech, Dartmouth and Cornell to our impressive list of schools.

I definitely believe that collaborate job fairs is a way of helping employers meet candidates from targeted schools in an efficient and cost effective way. It is a win-win situation for everybody concerned. Better candidates for employers and more opportunities for students and alumni to get a face to face with employers.

To find out more about this event whether you are an employer or job search candidate go to www.myworkster.com/jobfair. You can also look for 360JobInterview to be in attendance. Stop by and say hello. We’d love to meet you!

In 2008, unemployment rates for IT managers and other professionals sat at only 2.5%. But in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this number jumped to a staggering 5.2%. This is the highest the industry’s seen since 2003.

However, David Foote–of Foote Research Group–says the situation is starting to improve, with computer system designers and other similar professions leading the way. In his December report (PDF), he noted these jobs accounted for 6,900 new employment positions in November alone.

Back in 2003, the burst of the dot-com bubble caused massive layoffs, leaving a large number of professionals out of work. In 2009, the culprit was the recession and tighter budgets. To save money, employers are hiring individuals with specific skill sets rather than increasing the number of employees.

This means those seeking a new job will need to focus on their specific skill sets rather than just demonstrating the general skills needed to land the job. Stand out and be prepared to back up those skills. Also, take time to research the companies out there and target the ones most likely looking for your specific skills.

Look at it like the difference between general and niche medicine. If you have a serious earache and only have one chance to treat it, you’re more likely to pay an ear specialist than a general physician. The same is true of employers. Learn how to be the ‘ear specialist.’

On the bright side, specialists make more income and are in higher demand, and that’s never a bad thing!

(Image Source: superpuppy)