SelectMinds Social Recruiting Tool
Peter Clayton interviews Annie Berkowitch, SelectMinds CEO.
Oracle just bought them.
Click here to hear it on YouTube.
It must have been hard to go through school with a name that contained the word "witch" in it. She might want to get rid of that T.
SelectMinds has its own video on YouTube. Unfortunately, it stinks.
Here's what the SelectMinds website sez (edited):
Our starting premise: Good people know good people.
We developed the first alumni networks in the early 2000s.
These let large corporations source talent and new business through the online connections of current and former employees.
In 2010, SelectMinds launched TalentVine.
It uses the online social connections of current and former employees to generate referrals.
In 2012, SelectMinds launched a new feature. It lets employers to handle all aspects of a social recruiting campaign through one dashboard.
A social recruiting campaign includes:
(1) job posts on Facebook and Twitter,
(2) talent community management
(3) social referral programs.
Closing words: remember Jobster? Click pic to enlarge
Oracle just bought them.
Click here to hear it on YouTube.
It must have been hard to go through school with a name that contained the word "witch" in it. She might want to get rid of that T.
SelectMinds has its own video on YouTube. Unfortunately, it stinks.
Here's what the SelectMinds website sez (edited):
Our starting premise: Good people know good people.
We developed the first alumni networks in the early 2000s.
These let large corporations source talent and new business through the online connections of current and former employees.
In 2010, SelectMinds launched TalentVine.
It uses the online social connections of current and former employees to generate referrals.
In 2012, SelectMinds launched a new feature. It lets employers to handle all aspects of a social recruiting campaign through one dashboard.
A social recruiting campaign includes:
(1) job posts on Facebook and Twitter,
(2) talent community management
(3) social referral programs.
Closing words: remember Jobster? Click pic to enlarge
The Magic Formula
From The Globe and Mail (edited)
The formula that Steve Jobs bet on in 2007 – refine and reimagine an existing product and then market it as a breakthrough – has transformed the company from niche player to a leader in consumer electronics and media.
The formula that Steve Jobs bet on in 2007 – refine and reimagine an existing product and then market it as a breakthrough – has transformed the company from niche player to a leader in consumer electronics and media.
Interview Questions For Culture
From: Culture Fanatics (edited)
The question I always start with:
“Without using the words ‘culture’ or ‘people’ tell me why you want to work here”?
I want an in-depth answer as to what attracted them to us.
Then I tell the candidate our 5 core values.
I ask them to tell me the one they relate to the most and a time that it was compromised.
Another favorite question:
“Tell me about a time that you helped someone although you didn’t necessarily think they deserved it”.
My Comment: Anyone who is looking for a job primarily because she needs a job is going to have to lie at these interviews.
The question I always start with:
“Without using the words ‘culture’ or ‘people’ tell me why you want to work here”?
I want an in-depth answer as to what attracted them to us.
Then I tell the candidate our 5 core values.
I ask them to tell me the one they relate to the most and a time that it was compromised.
Another favorite question:
“Tell me about a time that you helped someone although you didn’t necessarily think they deserved it”.
My Comment: Anyone who is looking for a job primarily because she needs a job is going to have to lie at these interviews.
Hiring Errors Wreck Company
@NichCarlson reports that Yahoo is suffering because it doesn't hire talented people.
Yahoo's B-players hire C-players who aren't fired up to go to work.
So, as soon as Melissa Mayer took over she fired the HR boss. And, now, she's personally reviewing every hire.
Yahoo's bonus package also stinks.
Read More
Yahoo's B-players hire C-players who aren't fired up to go to work.
So, as soon as Melissa Mayer took over she fired the HR boss. And, now, she's personally reviewing every hire.
Yahoo's bonus package also stinks.
Read More
Recruiters Are Not Transparent
I’ll often see a recruiter online bragging about how transparent she is with candidates.
So, I’ll ask her, “If the hiring manager rejected a candidate because he didn’t like her voice, would you tell her that?
"Imagine he said, ‘She’s very intelligent but if I had to listen to that all day, I’d shoot myself.’ Would you pass that on?”
Of course, the answer is always “No.”
Read the rest at JobMob.com
So, I’ll ask her, “If the hiring manager rejected a candidate because he didn’t like her voice, would you tell her that?
"Imagine he said, ‘She’s very intelligent but if I had to listen to that all day, I’d shoot myself.’ Would you pass that on?”
Of course, the answer is always “No.”
Read the rest at JobMob.com
Fresh Grad Job Hunter
A fresh grad job hunter got some powerful coaching on The Recruiting Animal Show.
Leading the way was Recruiter / Career Coach Peggy McKee
Find the recording here --- Download mp3
Leading the way was Recruiter / Career Coach Peggy McKee
Find the recording here --- Download mp3
A Question for The Hiring Manager
Based on: Arnie Fertig
Interviewer: "Do you have any questions for me?"
Don't ask:
How did I do?
Will I be invited back for another interview?
What happens next?
When do you expect to make a decision?
When do I start?
How much will you pay me?
What are the benefits?
How much vacation?
Spend the time selling yourself. Say:
Let's assume that I've been working for you for a year -- and you have just given me a great performance review.
What would I have accomplished to earn that kind of review?
When you know what's important you know if you have any strengths that wd help reach these goals and you can mention them.
If you don't, don't pretend you do.
Interviewer: "Do you have any questions for me?"
Don't ask:
How did I do?
Will I be invited back for another interview?
What happens next?
When do you expect to make a decision?
When do I start?
How much will you pay me?
What are the benefits?
How much vacation?
Spend the time selling yourself. Say:
Let's assume that I've been working for you for a year -- and you have just given me a great performance review.
What would I have accomplished to earn that kind of review?
When you know what's important you know if you have any strengths that wd help reach these goals and you can mention them.
If you don't, don't pretend you do.
Multi-Generational Charity in Toronto
The Toronto Star features a family that has depended on its Christmas charity boxes for three generations.
The grandfather, though earning only a security guard's wages, decided to have seven children.
So, his daughter, Ivy Chrysler, now 50, starting receiving the boxes since when she was five years old.
Her eldest daughter started receiving the boxes when she was two and now her children get them -- as do the grandchildren of Ivy's twin sister, Sydney Mead.
What has gone wrong in this family? Obviously Ivy's father and mother, either unaware of or unwilling to use birth control had more children than they could afford to provide for.
Ivy is now a widow without the income a husband would normally provide and she says that after she was married her husband went back to school so that they were short of funds during that time. But she still went ahead and had a child when she couldn't afford to do so. And now her children are are in the same boat.
Ivy and her sister are not immigrants nor are they members of a visible minority. So it would seem safe to say that their families' financial problems are clearly due to a problem of family culture. Also, perhaps, it is a problem of community culture since she grew up and still lives in a part of Toronto that is traditionally the home of poor people.
How to Learn New Skills
Source: How To Be A Programmer (edited)
Learning new skills is the greatest fun. Most companies would have better morale if they understood how much this motivates people.
1. Books and classes are good but humans learn by doing.
2. A good mentor is better than a book.
What can you offer a potential mentor in exchange for their knowledge? At a minimum, you should offer to study hard so their time won't be wasted.
3. Formal training is good but usually not better than the same amount of time spent playing with the skill you want to learn.
But it is easier to ask for training than playtime.
4. You have to do a small project before you can do a large one.
If you lead people, assign them projects that are the right size and offer to exercise the skills they want to develop.
Learning new skills is the greatest fun. Most companies would have better morale if they understood how much this motivates people.
1. Books and classes are good but humans learn by doing.
2. A good mentor is better than a book.
What can you offer a potential mentor in exchange for their knowledge? At a minimum, you should offer to study hard so their time won't be wasted.
3. Formal training is good but usually not better than the same amount of time spent playing with the skill you want to learn.
But it is easier to ask for training than playtime.
4. You have to do a small project before you can do a large one.
If you lead people, assign them projects that are the right size and offer to exercise the skills they want to develop.
Predicting Performance From Personality
Reference: New York Times
- Paul Wolfowitz doesn't seem like a zealot
- he is patient, logical, respectful and soft-spoken
- but he has a missionary's optimism about America's
ability to build a better world
- has an activist bent
- he sees trouble coming before others do
- doesn't want to stand by while bad things happen
- and thinks about the cost of not acting
- Wolfowitz was sympathetic to the war in Vietnam
- later, he accepted that it was a case of overreaching
- for Colin Powell, Vietnam is the prime example of good
intentions gone wrong
- Wolfy was an architect of the Iraq War.
- could we predict from his activist orientation and optimistic
perspective the likelihood of over-reaching?
- Paul Wolfowitz doesn't seem like a zealot
- he is patient, logical, respectful and soft-spoken
- but he has a missionary's optimism about America's
ability to build a better world
- has an activist bent
- he sees trouble coming before others do
- doesn't want to stand by while bad things happen
- and thinks about the cost of not acting
- Wolfowitz was sympathetic to the war in Vietnam
- later, he accepted that it was a case of overreaching
- for Colin Powell, Vietnam is the prime example of good
intentions gone wrong
- Wolfy was an architect of the Iraq War.
- could we predict from his activist orientation and optimistic
perspective the likelihood of over-reaching?
Selling Your Personality
The Lessons of David Axelrod
- David Axelrod is Obama's campaign manager
- his campaigns don't focus on issues but on the candidate’s life
- he wants to portray the candidate as having a leader's personality
- a job hunter can do the same in an interview
- she should have clear ideas about how her job is done
- but she can also tell a story about her life and focus on moments
in her history that define her as the person she wants to be
- while the image you project may be edited,
to be convincing it has to be based in reality
- Axelrod's campaigns are upbeat
- they contain a message of idealism and optimism moderated by pragmatism
- he believes that the promise of the future, where you're going,
trumps a focus on the past
- he also believes that a candidate should focus on strategic issues,
not just the needs of the moment
- he fends off critics by stressing the flip side of Obama's alleged flaws.
- lack of a rigid ideological position is seen as independence
- a lack of combativenes becomes bipartisanship
Reference: New York Times.
- David Axelrod is Obama's campaign manager
- his campaigns don't focus on issues but on the candidate’s life
- he wants to portray the candidate as having a leader's personality
- a job hunter can do the same in an interview
- she should have clear ideas about how her job is done
- but she can also tell a story about her life and focus on moments
in her history that define her as the person she wants to be
- while the image you project may be edited,
to be convincing it has to be based in reality
- Axelrod's campaigns are upbeat
- they contain a message of idealism and optimism moderated by pragmatism
- he believes that the promise of the future, where you're going,
trumps a focus on the past
- he also believes that a candidate should focus on strategic issues,
not just the needs of the moment
- he fends off critics by stressing the flip side of Obama's alleged flaws.
- lack of a rigid ideological position is seen as independence
- a lack of combativenes becomes bipartisanship
Reference: New York Times.
Leaders Are Flexible
Reference: George Jonas.
Jonas says that politics make strange bedfellows and that leaders have to be willing to praise and partner with whomever they must to get to their goals.
But is Powell as opposed to Obama's positions as Jonas suggests? He was a dove in the Bush Administration. He is cautious about going to war and sees Iraq as an mistake.
Everyone also respects his commitment to his country and his personal character even if they do not agree with all of his political positions.
So there is reason to be impressed when a man like that crosses party lines to endorse you.
So, to prove a point, Jonas has exaggerated their opposition.
Recruiter, Toronto, Canada
It’s definitely not for nothing that Obama -- who, in theory, stands against everything Powell has stood for, from party affiliation to policy -- responded to the endorsement of Bush’s former secretary of state by saying that he was feeling honoured and humbled.
Presidential? Pragmatic? Practical? Unprincipled?
All of the above, I’d say. The first adjective sounds like a compliment; the last one certainly doesn’t. Yet they’re not incompatible and may even be complementary.
Jonas says that politics make strange bedfellows and that leaders have to be willing to praise and partner with whomever they must to get to their goals.
But is Powell as opposed to Obama's positions as Jonas suggests? He was a dove in the Bush Administration. He is cautious about going to war and sees Iraq as an mistake.
Everyone also respects his commitment to his country and his personal character even if they do not agree with all of his political positions.
So there is reason to be impressed when a man like that crosses party lines to endorse you.
So, to prove a point, Jonas has exaggerated their opposition.
Recruiter, Toronto, Canada
Send Out Cards.com
Matt Mancino, a construction industry recruiter in Phoenix called to tell me about Send Out Cards.com.
You can create your own thank you or greeting cards online - in your own handwriting, if you choose -- and they print them and snail mail them for you.
Because everything is electronic today, these snail mailed cards stand out and differentiate you from the pack.
Recruiter, Toronto, Canada
You can create your own thank you or greeting cards online - in your own handwriting, if you choose -- and they print them and snail mail them for you.
Because everything is electronic today, these snail mailed cards stand out and differentiate you from the pack.
Recruiter, Toronto, Canada
Free Online ATS
SmartRecruiters.com is a free, online applicant tracking system.
Key Points: Launches Oct 28, 2008. Set up in 2 minutes. Easy to use. Personalize your own Career Site. Includes a "vibrant" recruiter community. Includes "integrated pay-per-use recruiting services" (sounds like they will do your recruiting for you).
Recruiter, Toronto, Canada
Key Points: Launches Oct 28, 2008. Set up in 2 minutes. Easy to use. Personalize your own Career Site. Includes a "vibrant" recruiter community. Includes "integrated pay-per-use recruiting services" (sounds like they will do your recruiting for you).
Recruiter, Toronto, Canada
Immigrants Dislike Preference For Skilled People
TheStar.com warns that:
1. Immigrants with skills do not get a chance to use them in Canada.
2. So the government's increased preference for immigrants with job skills discriminates against the unskilled people the country actually needs.
Recruiter, Toronto, Canada
1. Immigrants with skills do not get a chance to use them in Canada.
2. So the government's increased preference for immigrants with job skills discriminates against the unskilled people the country actually needs.
When Chakraborti joined her husband, Sailen, in Canada, it took her just two months to parlay a master's degree in philosophy into a job as a bank teller.
"Many immigrant communities are already being discriminated left, right and centre..."
His parents have a university education and worked for Ontario Hydro as clerks...
Recruiter, Toronto, Canada
People Can Surprise You
Source: Wall Street Journal. (edited)
Harry Truman was a small town man whose career had been sponsored by a corrupt political boss. Then he was carelessly elevated to a senior role by Frank Roosevelt. And, yet as the sponsor of the Marshall Plan and the policy of containment, he had done great things.
From this example, Peggy Noonan concludes that:
Recruiter, Canada, Toronto
Harry Truman was a small town man whose career had been sponsored by a corrupt political boss. Then he was carelessly elevated to a senior role by Frank Roosevelt. And, yet as the sponsor of the Marshall Plan and the policy of containment, he had done great things.
From this example, Peggy Noonan concludes that:
People can come from nowhere, with modest backgrounds and short résumés, and yet be individuals of real gifts... that are suddenly revealed
You have to give people time to show what they have. Because maybe they have magic too.
Recruiter, Canada, Toronto
Your Company Needs A Consistent Tone
Reference: Commune Media via One Degree
A large company will usually have strict rules about the presentation of its image. For instance, it will only use specific colours, photos and fonts . The reason? Once these signals become familiar to the viewer, it becomes easy to relate to the firm as a known quantity.
The same restrictions and clear definition are required for any appearance of the company's voice. But this is where firms often err.
When they are trying to reel you in as a customer or an employee, they are very personable and friendly. But once you are sold, they become very task-oriented. You're no longer a pal. The only thing that matters is business.
People don't like that sudden about-face from caring about them to caring exclusively about yourself. It makes you seem untrustworthy and dishonest.
So, if you have a friendly voice in your marketing vehicles, including your recruiting communications (on your blog, for instance), you should maintain it in all of your ongoing communications as a basic element of your firm's culture.
Note: The same is true of individuals. Most of us don't feel comfortable around people who are really nice -- until they get angry. Then all concern about other people is thrown out the window.
The person who throws the tantrum might excuse it as his way of getting rid of an upset as quickly as possible. But those who are on the receiving end become wary of him.
Homepage: The Canadian Headhunter.com
A large company will usually have strict rules about the presentation of its image. For instance, it will only use specific colours, photos and fonts . The reason? Once these signals become familiar to the viewer, it becomes easy to relate to the firm as a known quantity.
The same restrictions and clear definition are required for any appearance of the company's voice. But this is where firms often err.
When they are trying to reel you in as a customer or an employee, they are very personable and friendly. But once you are sold, they become very task-oriented. You're no longer a pal. The only thing that matters is business.
People don't like that sudden about-face from caring about them to caring exclusively about yourself. It makes you seem untrustworthy and dishonest.
So, if you have a friendly voice in your marketing vehicles, including your recruiting communications (on your blog, for instance), you should maintain it in all of your ongoing communications as a basic element of your firm's culture.
Note: The same is true of individuals. Most of us don't feel comfortable around people who are really nice -- until they get angry. Then all concern about other people is thrown out the window.
The person who throws the tantrum might excuse it as his way of getting rid of an upset as quickly as possible. But those who are on the receiving end become wary of him.
Homepage: The Canadian Headhunter.com
Do Interviewers Disagree?
Take a look at the judgements of the third presidential debate.
Presumably both writers are well-informed, politically. Liddle, who supports Obama, was a speechwriter for the Labour party in England. And, yet, they disagree.
What could possibly account for it? And does this disagreement reflect something that might happen when a candidate meets a number of stakeholders within the same firm?
Homepage: The Canadian Headhunter.com
McCain looked and sounded like a man who is floundering and doesn't know what to do about it.
-- Editorial, The Age (Australia)
In my mind McCain won the last debate by some margin
-- Ron Liddle, TimesOnline (England)
Presumably both writers are well-informed, politically. Liddle, who supports Obama, was a speechwriter for the Labour party in England. And, yet, they disagree.
What could possibly account for it? And does this disagreement reflect something that might happen when a candidate meets a number of stakeholders within the same firm?
Homepage: The Canadian Headhunter.com
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