So, for all readers out there that have ever hired anyone, here is a great question for you: How many interviews have you done (Percentage wise) where what was on the resume did not actually match up to what the person had done on the job? Well, I'm sure you are thinking carefully about this...right? I can tell you in 14 years of hiring internal sales member, plus the 5000+ interviews I have completed for my placement at customers, more than 60% of all resumes I have seen do not match 100% with the truth of what someone has accomplished.
Hence my creation of the following: "There are 2 times in someone's life when they are perfect. 1) When they are born and 2) When they write their resume!"
So, 2 quick lesson's need to be learned here for both the hiring manager (interviewer) and the job seeker (interviewee): 1) Don’t lie! It will all come out in the end and you will certainly lose credibility with anyone you’re interviewing with immediately. 2) Managers, dig and dig deep! Be a master at getting to the truth. I don’t think people are liars by nature, but remember, this is their personal commercial and embellishment happens all the time. It is your job to not just look at the fit of the person to your team, but look at the ethics of how they present themselves. If they embellish on the resume, what will they do in your workplace?
For more tips, follow the blog here and/or contact a SkillStorm representative.
Read more!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
SkillStorm Lends a Hand!
This week our Dallas office lent a helping hand to the Mi Escuelita preschool. Mi Escuelita is an inner city preschool where many families are below the poverty level. The school needed to be cleaned, organized and rearranged in order to shut down until the students return in the fall. Our SkillStorm team assisted with the clean up and shut down of the school for the summer. SkillStorm learned about Mi Escuelita through a local connection with the Salvation Army.
After supporting the Salvation Army Angel Tree program every year, the office decided as a team to look into other community service programs offered throughout the year and not just at Christmas. Mi Escuelita served as a great way for SkillStorm to support the school, the staff and most of all the children.
“We thought it was a great experience. It was the least we could do for the teachers and other staff that work so hard throughout the year,” said Ted Stout, Managing Partner of SkillStorm. “Now that the school’s summer vacation has been shortened due to a new schedule, the last thing they want to do is spend that time cleaning the school. That’s where we come in! We were able to assist with sweeping, mopping and washing all of the various toys, puzzle pieces, letters & numbers, chairs etc. Basically, anything that the children use on a day to day basis.”
While the Dallas team was there, the staff and many teachers made a video to show at their Teacher Appreciation Dinner this week. They made a music video to the Nickelback song, “Rockstar. “It was great to see them all unwind and have fun together after the stresses of the school year.” said Stout. “We will be looking for the video on YouTube soon!
About Mi Escuelita Preschool :
Mi Escuelita serves children ages 2-5 and is located at St Matthews in Dallas. Mi Escuelita Head Start locations admit children ages 3-4, while Mi Escuelita Private locations admit children ages 2½-4. With over 80% of language skills developed by age 5, early childhood education is imperative to reduce dropout rates in later years. In Dallas, the dropout rate among Hispanic children with limited English proficiency is estimated to be 64%. Over 80% of Hispanic dropouts claim that their inability to effectively communicate in English significantly impacted their decision to leave school. Mi Escuelita works with at-risk children to ensure that they receive a quality education as well as preventative health, dental, vision, nutritional, speech, and behavioral care.
To learn more about Mi Escuelita and how you can get involved visit their website at www.miescuelita.org
Read more!
After supporting the Salvation Army Angel Tree program every year, the office decided as a team to look into other community service programs offered throughout the year and not just at Christmas. Mi Escuelita served as a great way for SkillStorm to support the school, the staff and most of all the children.
“We thought it was a great experience. It was the least we could do for the teachers and other staff that work so hard throughout the year,” said Ted Stout, Managing Partner of SkillStorm. “Now that the school’s summer vacation has been shortened due to a new schedule, the last thing they want to do is spend that time cleaning the school. That’s where we come in! We were able to assist with sweeping, mopping and washing all of the various toys, puzzle pieces, letters & numbers, chairs etc. Basically, anything that the children use on a day to day basis.”
While the Dallas team was there, the staff and many teachers made a video to show at their Teacher Appreciation Dinner this week. They made a music video to the Nickelback song, “Rockstar. “It was great to see them all unwind and have fun together after the stresses of the school year.” said Stout. “We will be looking for the video on YouTube soon!
About Mi Escuelita Preschool :
Mi Escuelita serves children ages 2-5 and is located at St Matthews in Dallas. Mi Escuelita Head Start locations admit children ages 3-4, while Mi Escuelita Private locations admit children ages 2½-4. With over 80% of language skills developed by age 5, early childhood education is imperative to reduce dropout rates in later years. In Dallas, the dropout rate among Hispanic children with limited English proficiency is estimated to be 64%. Over 80% of Hispanic dropouts claim that their inability to effectively communicate in English significantly impacted their decision to leave school. Mi Escuelita works with at-risk children to ensure that they receive a quality education as well as preventative health, dental, vision, nutritional, speech, and behavioral care.
To learn more about Mi Escuelita and how you can get involved visit their website at www.miescuelita.org
Read more!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Temp Jobs down 63,000 in April
From Staffing Industry Analysts: "Less worse: Temp jobs off 63,000 in April!
The April decline in temporary help payrolls, of 63,000 jobs, was the smallest since October. It’s also noteworthy that the temporary share of total employment losses has been moderating—in the first half of 2008, temporary job losses accounted for about a quarter of all jobs lost, but that share has been declining and in the last three months averaged just 10.9%."
What does this mean? A few things: 1)Considering the monthly average of temp job loss was averaging 80,000 per month October through March, this shows signs of slowing down 2)This shows that companies are looking to keep a "flexible" workforce currently rather than bringing on full time employees.
This is is definitely in line with what we here at SkillStorm have seen in the past recessions. Companies hiring will first start with the "flexible" hire in a risk adverse measure to see what happens in the economic climate. The old adage of "putting a foot in the water before jumping in!".
Find a great staffing firm and get yourself leveraged with them NOW! Here at SkillStorm and StormStaff (www.skillstorm.com or www.stormstaff.com ) we are ready and wanting to help!
Read more!
The April decline in temporary help payrolls, of 63,000 jobs, was the smallest since October. It’s also noteworthy that the temporary share of total employment losses has been moderating—in the first half of 2008, temporary job losses accounted for about a quarter of all jobs lost, but that share has been declining and in the last three months averaged just 10.9%."
What does this mean? A few things: 1)Considering the monthly average of temp job loss was averaging 80,000 per month October through March, this shows signs of slowing down 2)This shows that companies are looking to keep a "flexible" workforce currently rather than bringing on full time employees.
This is is definitely in line with what we here at SkillStorm have seen in the past recessions. Companies hiring will first start with the "flexible" hire in a risk adverse measure to see what happens in the economic climate. The old adage of "putting a foot in the water before jumping in!".
Find a great staffing firm and get yourself leveraged with them NOW! Here at SkillStorm and StormStaff (www.skillstorm.com or www.stormstaff.com ) we are ready and wanting to help!
Read more!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
DOW and Hiring
Many questions have come up of course recently about how the stock market can show signs of job growth. Now, I will not call myself an expert at this, but this is an opinion based on my years in this business and past recessions. Some key points have been the strength in the DOW to stay over 8k over the last few months. Now, also the volume of trades has increased tremendously which certainly shows signs that investors are starting to get back in the game.
The overall economic situation show signs that the rate of economic decline is abating which leads to assumption that the slump should end by late this year. Emerging economies have generally
weathered the recession better than developed ones and seem likely to have stronger
recoveries. Thanks to aggressive stimulus, the US and China should be first to recover.
So, with all that being said, I can see companies feeling more confidence in hiring when stabilization in the DOW pushes above the 8500 mark and we see the financial sector starting to open up the check books for business loans. Short and sweet...look for job growth to increase by end of 2009 and early 2010. Keep the faith and use all your resources to find work....remember, most companies will hire project, temporary's, and contract labor before full time employees. Find a great staffing firm like SkillStorm or StormStaff and let them do their best to help you find work.
Brian Brown
EVP
Read more!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
JOB HUNTING TIPS - NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE
We know many people are on the job search, so we thought it might be helpful to put together some tried and true tips on the job hunting process. Click here to check them out or visit:
http://www.SkillStormFamily.com/jobhuntingtips
Read more!
http://www.SkillStormFamily.com/jobhuntingtips
Read more!
Friday, April 10, 2009
HOW IMPORTANT IS SOCIAL NETWORKING?
Social networking has stirred up quite a buzz in the past few years. By now, most people have checked out or at least heard of sites such as Facebook.com, LinkedIn.com, MySpace.com and Twitter.com. These are a few of the most popular, and better yet, they are free to use!
These sites have benefitted the recruiting business immensely and can be extremely effective for sourcing and recruiting job candidates. Many companies are using sites like these to post open jobs and keep potential candidates up-to-date on their companies and prospective opportunities.
Need someone with extensive experience? How about recent college graduates, or even college students for that matter? No problem. These sites are used by a wide variety of people, ranging from top-level professionals to entry-level candidates.
Finding highly qualified professionals can be tough sometimes, but networking technology can help recruiters reach a whole other pool of candidates to help them find the right fit for the job. Recruiters should take full advantage of every resource and tool at their disposal, and social networking sites are no exception.
Read more!
These sites have benefitted the recruiting business immensely and can be extremely effective for sourcing and recruiting job candidates. Many companies are using sites like these to post open jobs and keep potential candidates up-to-date on their companies and prospective opportunities.
Need someone with extensive experience? How about recent college graduates, or even college students for that matter? No problem. These sites are used by a wide variety of people, ranging from top-level professionals to entry-level candidates.
Finding highly qualified professionals can be tough sometimes, but networking technology can help recruiters reach a whole other pool of candidates to help them find the right fit for the job. Recruiters should take full advantage of every resource and tool at their disposal, and social networking sites are no exception.
Read more!
Friday, March 27, 2009
RECRUITING HIRING TRENDS AND COMMON MISTAKES
Recently, we had the chance to sit down and chat with Brian Brown, Executive Vice President of SkillStorm, about hiring trends and mistakes companies tend to make in the recruiting business. He offered some great insight and advice.
Interviewer:
You have been counseling recruiters and customers about hiring trends and mistakes for over 12 years now. What are some of most valuable things you have learned over the course of this time?
Brian Brown:
With 12 years in the recruiting and staffing business and being part of the recession in the mid-1990’s and also after 9/11, I have learned a great deal. When you look at hiring trends and mistakes companies have made, there are a couple of things that come to mind. In the late 1990’s, there was a bidding war during the dot com era where companies were bidding against each other to bring on talent and paying astronomical prices for people in an attempt to get them to join their organizations. After 9/11, we saw a lot of these companies laying off a ton of people. When they started hiring again, they started hiring at the lowest possible salary rates, which caused a lot of people to feel undervalued and go from one company to the next. Companies were losing talent and taking the best available talent, but not at the most effective cost. As 2003 rolled around and the housing boom started, companies started hiring again and prices started rising. One of the biggest things that really sticks out in my mind is that people don’t realize that during times of recession there are three huge mistakes that companies can make.
Interviewer:
I understand that you have narrowed it down to 3 common hiring mistakes. What are they and what can people to improve in these 3 areas?
Brian Brown:
Number one, and this is number one for a reason, during these times companies have to take the opportunity to upgrade their current staff when they have the chance. I have done business with hundreds of companies and placed thousands of people over the last 12 years, and there’s a question that I always bring up to managers. “Would you enthusiastically rehire this person knowing what you know now of their work ethic and ability?” Good question, right? There is always someone that is underperforming. Right now, there is an opportunity for companies to upgrade their teams. Here at SkillStorm we call this topgrading: making sure that we are getting the best possible people, at the current market rate, to do the job. You have to take advantage of grabbing the best people available now and replace the people on your team that are not performing well. It puts you at a huge advantage when things start picking up because you have the best team. There are a lot of great people in the marketplace, and if companies are not upgrading their teams now, they are definitely going to feel it as soon as the market picks up again.
Another big mistake is not understanding that recruiting is sales. A lot of people may take a little bit of a backseat to this, but the fact of the matter is that recruiting is an ancillary function of human resources. The HR function is not to be a salesperson or constantly reach out on behalf of an organization to attract the people. Recruiting is not posting a job on a job board and then waiting for someone to respond. Companies have to think about their current and future needs and need a formalized process to attract only the top talent. This includes a formal plan using all social networking sites, job boards, employee referrals, staffing agencies, executive recruiters, networking events and all other resources available to them. When you utilize these tools, it’s going to be key to your success. However, the big mistake that I can point out to people out there that are looking to bring people on board is that all of these things are null and void unless you have somebody with a sales-like personality calling out to these folks, developing a proactive plan, negotiating, selling your company and actually courting the best candidates to be intrigued and excited by your company. They use a sales script. A recruiter who looks at acquiring talent as sales will handle objections up front, ask for referrals, sell the company and be the company’s first line of defense for negotiating compensation, not just the salary. Most importantly, they do it all proactively, so that companies have a pipeline of people to look at it. The bottom line is that companies have to realize that recruiting is sales. It’s a sales-related job, not just throwing together a job description and putting it up on a website.
The third mistake is not taking the time to train managers on how to interview. Hiring managers talk to candidates every day. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to candidates that I have put to work for clients and also people that interviewed for jobs. They came back to me with a bizarre look on their faces due to the poor interview skills of the hiring managers. Not only that, but the list of questions I have heard managers ask candidates have absolutely no relevance to anything regarding the position. Even when a company has done their job to bring somebody into the organization to be interviewed, they still end up shooting themselves in the foot by not having somebody that is engaged and trained on how to actually interview someone, get behavioral questions answered and find out if they can do the job as well as fit within a team. More times than not I see managers discount the best person for a job because within the first couple of minutes they do not feel like they can personally associate with the candidate, which causes companies to miss out on great talent, just because the manager has not been trained on the proper ways to interview candidates and bring them into the fold.
With the unemployment rate on the rise, this is a fantastic time for organizations to upgrade their staff, understand that bringing the best people to their company is a sales function and taking the time to properly interview and train people that are conducting interviews. This is going to bring great results to companies and really help them escalate and achieve tremendous success during these tough economic times.
Interviewer:
What would you say the secret to success is in the hiring world?
Brian Brown:
Don’t miss out on great people because you assume your hiring manager knows how to interview. Also, don’t forget that to bring the best people into your company, you need someone that is trained on how to proactively recruit, ask for referrals and perform tough negotiations. Most importantly, you have to take advantage of the fact that you can upgrade and improve your team by bringing better performers on staff.
Read more!
Interviewer:
You have been counseling recruiters and customers about hiring trends and mistakes for over 12 years now. What are some of most valuable things you have learned over the course of this time?
Brian Brown:
With 12 years in the recruiting and staffing business and being part of the recession in the mid-1990’s and also after 9/11, I have learned a great deal. When you look at hiring trends and mistakes companies have made, there are a couple of things that come to mind. In the late 1990’s, there was a bidding war during the dot com era where companies were bidding against each other to bring on talent and paying astronomical prices for people in an attempt to get them to join their organizations. After 9/11, we saw a lot of these companies laying off a ton of people. When they started hiring again, they started hiring at the lowest possible salary rates, which caused a lot of people to feel undervalued and go from one company to the next. Companies were losing talent and taking the best available talent, but not at the most effective cost. As 2003 rolled around and the housing boom started, companies started hiring again and prices started rising. One of the biggest things that really sticks out in my mind is that people don’t realize that during times of recession there are three huge mistakes that companies can make.
Interviewer:
I understand that you have narrowed it down to 3 common hiring mistakes. What are they and what can people to improve in these 3 areas?
Brian Brown:
Number one, and this is number one for a reason, during these times companies have to take the opportunity to upgrade their current staff when they have the chance. I have done business with hundreds of companies and placed thousands of people over the last 12 years, and there’s a question that I always bring up to managers. “Would you enthusiastically rehire this person knowing what you know now of their work ethic and ability?” Good question, right? There is always someone that is underperforming. Right now, there is an opportunity for companies to upgrade their teams. Here at SkillStorm we call this topgrading: making sure that we are getting the best possible people, at the current market rate, to do the job. You have to take advantage of grabbing the best people available now and replace the people on your team that are not performing well. It puts you at a huge advantage when things start picking up because you have the best team. There are a lot of great people in the marketplace, and if companies are not upgrading their teams now, they are definitely going to feel it as soon as the market picks up again.
Another big mistake is not understanding that recruiting is sales. A lot of people may take a little bit of a backseat to this, but the fact of the matter is that recruiting is an ancillary function of human resources. The HR function is not to be a salesperson or constantly reach out on behalf of an organization to attract the people. Recruiting is not posting a job on a job board and then waiting for someone to respond. Companies have to think about their current and future needs and need a formalized process to attract only the top talent. This includes a formal plan using all social networking sites, job boards, employee referrals, staffing agencies, executive recruiters, networking events and all other resources available to them. When you utilize these tools, it’s going to be key to your success. However, the big mistake that I can point out to people out there that are looking to bring people on board is that all of these things are null and void unless you have somebody with a sales-like personality calling out to these folks, developing a proactive plan, negotiating, selling your company and actually courting the best candidates to be intrigued and excited by your company. They use a sales script. A recruiter who looks at acquiring talent as sales will handle objections up front, ask for referrals, sell the company and be the company’s first line of defense for negotiating compensation, not just the salary. Most importantly, they do it all proactively, so that companies have a pipeline of people to look at it. The bottom line is that companies have to realize that recruiting is sales. It’s a sales-related job, not just throwing together a job description and putting it up on a website.
The third mistake is not taking the time to train managers on how to interview. Hiring managers talk to candidates every day. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to candidates that I have put to work for clients and also people that interviewed for jobs. They came back to me with a bizarre look on their faces due to the poor interview skills of the hiring managers. Not only that, but the list of questions I have heard managers ask candidates have absolutely no relevance to anything regarding the position. Even when a company has done their job to bring somebody into the organization to be interviewed, they still end up shooting themselves in the foot by not having somebody that is engaged and trained on how to actually interview someone, get behavioral questions answered and find out if they can do the job as well as fit within a team. More times than not I see managers discount the best person for a job because within the first couple of minutes they do not feel like they can personally associate with the candidate, which causes companies to miss out on great talent, just because the manager has not been trained on the proper ways to interview candidates and bring them into the fold.
With the unemployment rate on the rise, this is a fantastic time for organizations to upgrade their staff, understand that bringing the best people to their company is a sales function and taking the time to properly interview and train people that are conducting interviews. This is going to bring great results to companies and really help them escalate and achieve tremendous success during these tough economic times.
Interviewer:
What would you say the secret to success is in the hiring world?
Brian Brown:
Don’t miss out on great people because you assume your hiring manager knows how to interview. Also, don’t forget that to bring the best people into your company, you need someone that is trained on how to proactively recruit, ask for referrals and perform tough negotiations. Most importantly, you have to take advantage of the fact that you can upgrade and improve your team by bringing better performers on staff.
Read more!
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