Is the BLUE bird driving you nuts?

A single tweet -- or a few each day -- could change your career path. This is the emphatic advice of several finance career coaches, some even say 30 strategic tweets per day, will get you noticed.

At a time when social media has become the online branding for any company, its crucial to be a part of the hub, to know what it’s all about, and to take an active part in one of the easiest, free marketing tools available.

BELOW A FEW TIPS ON HOW TO ... “market yourself / company” on Twitter.

You have to have a Twitter account to start off with...
Put a star on your forehead, if you already have one!, but take it off if you do not use your Twitter account regularly.

FIRST STEP:  Find and follow up to 500 targeted prospects/customers.

HOW:

When on LinkedIn, you will notice some of your contacts already using Twitter... follow them.

Go onto the Search option within Twitter - put in a key word related to your business, and up pops hundreds of possible people/organizations to follow.

THE TWEETING PROCESS:

You only have 140 characters to work with... that is not much.

Being a talkative person like me... it was difficult in the beginning.

BE CREATIVE:

Start using Hash Tags(#) in front of key word... this will get you noticed.

Remember to keep it real... Include a link to follow up on your Tweets.

RT (Re-Tweet) regularly = interaction with the people in you network.
This shows that you are interested in them.
They will take notice, and start Re-Tweeting your Tweets, therefore passing your message on to their followers.
It’s called sharing.

A good example of a Hash Tag Tweet...

I want to advertise a position for a  Transformer Design Engineer who will be based in New Zealand.

Remember (only 140 Characters).

Hash Tags / Hash Tags / Has Tags.

IT WILL LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

#Jobs #Transformer Design #Engineer #NZ – (my link) = send

By suing TweetDeck (And I strongly recommend it): http://www.tweetdeck.com/

You will be able to see your Birdie, Tweeting in all the right places. This tweet will not only reach your followers.  (But also Job seekers / People interested in Transformers / Engineers / People in New Zealand), and all,   because of good use of Hash Tags in front of key word.

I do hope this will help you in your next Tweet Experience.

TIME: Where am I going to get the time to Tweet?

I must admit... firstly I did not know anything about Tweeting. It seemed like a useless thing to do, and a time- waster, watching a few Tweeters sending their birdies out on a successful spree... and an always-up-for-a- challenge attitude... I just could not get a thing as simple as Twitter stand in my way

I now have drawn up a time schedule:
Before I start with my formal day to day job activities – I Tweet at least 10 interesting Tweets, after lunch, a another 10, and just before packing up for the day (or even at night) I Tweet a further 10 Tweets.
Interesting things that happened within the Engineering Industry, New Jobs, or anything worth reading.

Doing it this way, is fun... and that’s what it’s supposed... FUN.
Seeing people taking notice of your Tweets, reacting to your Tweets, RT on your Tweets, and to see your followers grow... that’s the most fun.

Did it cost me anything ... NO... and that’s rich!

LASTLY:  Always remember your manners.

Thank the people who start following you, by sending them a direct message (right hand side).

And before I forget: Make your Twitter page interesting...
Looks are important.

Do not forget to write your Bio.
People visiting your Twitter Page for the first time would like to know what you do, before following.

Give them the information.
Don’t waste a potential followers time... you don’t want your time to be wasted either.

Happy Tweeting.

Stefanie Kruyswijk

Should Unemployed Job Seekers be Ruled Out?

Traditionally, recruiters have sought out job seekers who are already employed, as opposed to those who are not.


Apparently, they are even more prone to doing so in the current economic climate.

According to a recent CNNMoney.com article ("Looking for Work? Unemployed Need Not Apply"), companies and recruiters are increasingly letting unemployed job seekers know that they shouldn't even bother applying for their open positions.

What's startling are the lengths to which companies and recruiters are going to communicate this, such as including the phrase "Unemployed candidates will not be considered" right in the job posting. It doesn't get any more direct than that.

After all, they don't need to include such verbiage in a job posting in order to rule unemployed applicants out. So what does that mean? It means that companies and recruiters are simply being overrun with applications, and the easiest way to address that is to convince unemployed job seekers to not even bother applying.

Is it against the law to rule out an unemployed job seeker? Absolutely not. Recruiters and companies can do it all day long. However, can it be considered a good business practice? That would depend upon who you ask.

The fact of the matter is that it takes a considerable amount of time and effort to find a "diamond in the rough," so to speak, to uncover an unemployed job seeker who lost their job due to reasons beyond their control and who could add significantly to a company's bottom line if given the opportunity.

Considering the current state of the economy and the job market, companies and recruiters don't appear willing to make that investment of time and effort. They're willing to gamble that there aren't any hidden gems among the unemployed, instead taking the time they save by not looking for those gems to lure the currently employed superstar candidates away from their present employers.

Here's the harsh reality. Do companies think that everybody who's currently unemployed lost their job because of performance reasons? Basically, the answer is that companies don't care. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't.

Companies are taking the stance that whether or not job seekers lost their job for performance reasons doesn't matter to them; they're not going to expend the energy to find out one way or another. Simply put, it's not worth their time and it's not worth the risk. More than ever, time is money . . . and companies (and by extension, recruiters) are safeguarding both as closely as ever.

Should unemployed job seekers be ruled out automatically? Is it worth the time and effort to find a potential "diamond in the rough"? What are your thoughts?

Writtern by:  Matt Deutsch

Welcome to Samantha Sferas

Samantha Sferas, our latest Search Partner in the USA and principal of Ingénieur Executive Search Consulting...  draws from over 15 years of executive leadership experience in strategic team development and retention, successful small business start-ups from concept to execution, lucrative revenue growth for large corporations, and as an advisor on corporate mergers/acquisitions.

Read more about Samantha Sferas on our website...

Welcome to Stevena McDonnell and Alexandra Cline

Welcome to our latest Canadian Search Partners...
Stevena McDonnell (Managing Director) and Alexandra Cline (Recruitment Manager) of the GSI International Consulting Group.

With offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary, GSI Group has a reputation for providing high quality resources that exceed client expectations across Canada.

 
Read more about this dynamic group on our website...

Top 10 mistakes when recruiting recruiters

Found this great blog post written by Roy / RIPPER ON RECRUITMENT

Recruitment companies are recruiting again. The ‘war for talent’ has started once more (did it ever stop?) and thousands of recruitment consultant jobs are being advertised on the job boards and recruitment-to-recruitment specialist agencies are getting steadily busier.



It’s a sad and ironic indictment of our recruiting industry that the one universal role that we struggle to recruit for is the one of recruitment consultants for ourselves. Even recruitment-to-recruitment companies find it easier to locate and place recruiters at their client companies than to fill their own internal gaps – you work it out??!!

For a start, let’s tell people realistically how hard they need to work in their first year including what hours they need to work to be considered doing the job. If the culture in your business is that no-one leaves before 8pm at night it seems only fair to point that out during the interview and not reveal it to them in week 3 of their probation period. Likewise if there is an office bitch (most often a bloke) that makes rookies life hell for the first three months Warn them! If you as the boss only come in after 10am and frequently leave before 5pm (why??) tell them that’s the way it is. If you’re embarrassed to, then maybe you need shut up and change your hours to reflect how hard your team work. If their first three weeks are going to be spent cold calling to build up your client vacancy list then tell them to expect the worst, i.e., lots of rejection, low morale, wanting to give up, etc.

The way I see it is if you paint the job as the worst they could ever imagine but talk about the rewards once you get past the initial boot camp feel then you are getting someone whose job expectation is based in reality which ultimately will lead to job satisfaction. If you bullshit the job up, their expectation is artificially high and unreal and will definitely lead to job dissatisfaction and the churn and burn we have come to expect in our recruitment industry just keeps on rolling on. Tell it how it is and remember to keep it real!

It is imperative that we don’t make the same mistakes we made previously when re-staffing our teams. Forget about ‘double dip’ if you want to send your recruitment company or team down the swanee, then follow the ten most common mistakes we make when recruiting recruiters:

1. Hiring ‘experienced’ recruiters

They are on the market for a GOOD reason. Proceed with caution – you may just end up with someone else’s problem recruitment consultant.

2. Recruiting low energy people because we like them

If they’re low energy in the interview process how do you think they’ll be after 6-12 months with you? Do you really want to have to light a fire under people?

3. Not checking references

You may as well give them the keys to your house and car whilst you’re at it.

4. Making compromises when we take someone on (settling)

If you settle for second best, they will always be second best. Don’t you deserve ‘FIRST BEST’?

5. Hiring to ‘fill a desk’

Far better to keep it empty until the ‘best’ presents themselves

6. Hiring friends

A recipe for disaster

7. Paying no attention to what the team says

8. Paying too much attention to what the team says

9. Selling too much to the candidate

10. Taking too long (time kills all deals)

I think one of the biggest reasons we get it so wrong is reason no.9 in our list – ‘selling too much to the candidate’. I see it time and time again in recruitment companies I go out to train. Often I am asked to be involved in the selection process of new consultants coming in to some of my clients. They figure if they can get me to endorse them and they don’t work out maybe I’ll give them some money back – yeah right!

The mistake I see the client make is telling the prospective recruiter what a fabulous company they are to work for, how they’re about to float on AIM in 2 years, how they will be financially independent within 3 years, how they don’t believe in ‘office politics, how they have an ‘open door’ policy to management and ‘we have never had a staff member leave the company EVER’! Now some of this may undoubtedly be true and of course you have to play up the positive aspects of any job. However I reckon we could dramatically increase our chances of recruiting the right people and retaining them if we were just a bit more truthful during the interview and selection process.


RIPPER ON RECRUITMENT

Thanks to Erma Davenport / SMART Recruiting - for your contribution.