Social Media Background Screening

July 11, 2010

There is such a lot of talk around about social media background screening, where employers check your profile out on Facebook, Twitter and the like. But how many do, and how seriously do they take the information they can access, and more to the point, what are they actually looking for? I recently co-authored “What do employers really want?” with James Evangelidis, a very good friend of mine. We were curious so we asked a few questions of a number of employers we interviewed. Here’s what they said:

Read the full article →

Mind your interview (body) language

July 11, 2010

How important is body language in interviews? You’ll read in a lot of studies or guides around presentation skills that say it is the most important thing to your success – that words account for 7% of meaning, tone of voice counts for 38% of meaning and body language accounts for 55%. These are pretty startling statistics, and they do make you sit up and take notice. Do you believe this? Read on to find out if what I’ve just written is true.

Read the full article →

More weak (and pesky) resume words

July 11, 2010

I really loved this post by the Avid Careerist, Donna Svei. She writes on one of those pesky weak resume words, “utilize.” As Donna says, we never “utilize” the word “utilize” when we speak, so why should we “utilize” it on a resume? Good point. We use this language when we are trying to sound impressive on our resumes, we don’t know what we should put, or where we reflect the cloudy language we often find in position descriptions. For more words you shouldn’t use or utilize on your resume, read on….

Read the full article →

How to lose a job on Twitter

July 7, 2010

While I’m on my perch about the benefits of Twitter, you do need to be smart about how you use it. If you muck up, you can muck up publicly, damage your online brand and ping people off when you use it. I’ve since un-followed a person because of what I’m about to describe and I suspect many other people will as well. Read on to find out what happened…

Read the full article →

How to find a job on Twitter, or get started at least….

July 4, 2010

I love Twitter and not because I’m an exhibitionist with a short attention span. I love Twitter because it’s an amazing social search engine. I follow people in HR, employers, recruitment consultants, my clients, people who follow me, and lots of other people who just keep me amused. People are always tweeting interesting information, with links back to blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like. They tell me and the rest of the universe what they like, who they talk to and what they’re up to. Well, the bits they’d like me to know at least. So I use Twitter a lot for ideas and contacts. But there are lots of other uses for Twitter as well, including finding a job on it.

Read the full article →

Six new reasons to use LinkedIn

June 27, 2010

LinkedIn has more than 60 around million users worldwide. That fits the bill of scarily big to me. That’s a population size roughly three times the size of Australia, twice the size of Canada, 14 times the size of New Zealand and 71 times the size of Fiji. In fact it’s now clocking in around the size of the UK, if not bigger. I present you these numbers because I do like to lecture people. I like to think I am quite good at it, although some unkind people have called it nagging :-) I am kindly going to spare you that this post and just present you a sample of results from one LinkedIn profile. I have changed the names to protect the innocent. But here’s what happened to a friend of mine after being on LinkedIn for a week, or so…..

Read the full article →

Managing your online brand – Job hunting 2.0 means Chef Shane is moving fast

June 26, 2010

Two posts ago I introduced Chef Shane. He’s based in Thailand but looking to move internationally. Anyone reading his blog would like Shane. He’s engaging and writes well. He’s also proactive. He’s not let being in a place remote from where he’d traditionally look for a job, hurt his chances for finding a job. In fact using LinkedIn, Twitter, and Blogging, he’s making things happen. So if you’re an expatriate looking to return to Australia or someone wanting to make an international move, (or even just wanting to be in control of your job hunt), I urge you to read on…..

Read the full article →

More than a profile! Eight things LinkedIn can tell you about the professionalism of your recruitment consultant

June 24, 2010

I loved a recent piece I read from Punk Rock HR’s Laurie Ruettimann on questions to ask a recruitment consultant. She includes things such as asking for a bio, asking the consultant to talk about their networking strategies, their relationships with HR professionals, plus asking the consultant to give you an overview of the industry and their last couple of placements. These are great questions. There’s another great way to check consultants out as well. Have a look on LinkedIn and see what the consultant writes on their profile. This profile and more can tell you interesting things.

Read the full article →

Managing your online brand – how social media will help Chef Shane will find his next job

June 23, 2010

It’s funny how social media works. One day someone posts a complimentary comment on your blog. They leave their url. You discover their blog. You check them out on twitter and the next moment you uncover a fascinating story. Meet Chef Shane. He’s taken the initiative to take control of his destiny and not waiting for the perfect job to be advertised. He’s defined what he wants, what makes him unique and gone ahead and used the biggest social media tools, LinkedIn, Twitter and Blogger to help him get there.

Read the full article →

Why Australians don’t love LinkedIn

June 21, 2010

I know that LinkedIn is immensely popular. 60 million users worldwide, says so. But how many Aussies really truly embrace it? Last week as I was updating my own LinkedIn profile, I did a search of my previous work colleagues, friends and old clients and could find hardly find any of them there. The ones who did have a profile had the barest of details, and definitely no superlatives or adjectives. Just yesterday, even, I spoke to a client, who, despite looking for a permanent role for the past two months had only just put his profile on. He received an email and a call from a recruiter, a couple of days after. He was surprised.

Read the full article →

90% of recruiters will ask these typical reference check questions

June 16, 2010

One of the bloggers I read on a regular basis, Donna Svei from the Avid Careerist, posted an article yesterday on how to prep your referees. She cites a study of 500 HR professionals which found that 90% ask questions about the same seven topics. Read on to find out what they are…..

Read the full article →

What to do if you can’t stop talking in an interview

June 16, 2010

I had a client see me last week because she was concerned she would go off on a tangent in her job interview. She said she talked so much she was afraid she would lose the interviewer or shoot herself in the foot with something she said. She’d done it before in interview and blown her chances. Talking too much is not uncommon in an interview. Many people talk too much when they want to be believed. And a job interview is a real scenario where your faith in yourself is being challenged. Read on and I’ll give you a few (brief) ideas on how to handle this!

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →

This site runs on the Thesis WordPress Theme from DIYthemes. Customized by Shannon Albert.
Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes