REFERENCES AND YOU

BY: Adam Gavriel

If you’re lucky enough to be in the middle of the hiring process, but can’t seem to push past the point of the interview, this blog may be for you.

After the hiring manager views your resume and your cover letter, and perhaps even after the company interviews you, you may need a little bit more to set you over the top of the competition. This is where your references will come in.

Unfortunately, choosing a great reference isn’t as easy as it would seem. There might also be a few great references out there that you can use that are more “outside the box.”

Last week, USNews.com posted a great article about choosing your references. Here are a few of their tips:

If you have many references from a long career, try to find the three or four best connections and fit it to one page. You don’t want to overwhelm hiring managers with too long of a list. Also, as you would with a resume and cover letter, tailor your list of references to the job position you are applying for. Use references from the same industry whenever possible.

 Although you may not think so, family and friends can be viable options under certain circumstances. If you were in a professional relationship with a family member or a friend, it is okay to utilize these connections as a professional reference, and ONLY as a professional reference.

Unfortunately, not all of us out there are seasoned in the workforce. If you’re a recent graduate, don’t discount utilizing professors or summer job supervisors as a reference. These are the professionals that are going to know your work habits best.

Despite your relationship, it is wise to include a recent boss. Some employers may find it suspicious if your most recent employer is missing from you references page; this is especially important if this boss is a professional within your current industry.

Most importantly, it is important to keep your references in the loop. Ask permission to use connections as a reference. You don’t want to have your connections blindsided by a call. It’s never a bad thing to thank a reference, but if you have enough it is also wise to rotate your references. You don’t want the same professionals getting bombarded with calls; keep your list fresh.

As a professional search firm and employment agency, we implore you to use us, Crossroads Consulting, as your main reference. With direct ties to all the job listings we currently have, your best and most glowing recommendation will come from us. If you would like, it is important to think of us as your main connection to the job. We can get your information in there directly to the hiring manager, along with our recommendation of you as a professional.

As a full service employment agency, we want to be around from the first step you take towards finding a new career, to the last step you take walking into the office as an employee. At Crossroads Consulting, our mission is to put the ‘human’ back into ‘human resources’ and it all starts with you.

TIME FOR SOME JOB SEEKING TIPS

BY: Adam Gavriel

The world that we live in is ever changing, and change sparks change everywhere.

Today’s job search is not like the job search of yesteryear, and this can be a very difficult change for workers who find themselves on the job market, a place they may not have been for twenty years. With all change, there is always an opportunity to take advantage and those who can find those opportunities first are destined to succeed.

Take Blockbuster for example. Had Blockbuster embraced the emergence of the Internet and video streaming, they would still be a leader in the media industry. Unfortunately for Blockbuster, they weren’t first to the finish line and Netflix came in and revolutionized the way viewers get their media. A report in June shows that Netflix has 89% of the current market share of television show streaming services.

The Internet has revolutionized the world, and your job search is no different. No longer are newspaper classifieds where to look. Nearly every part of the job search for every company is done online. There are ways to manipulate the system to take initiative and make sure you’re getting out there as best you can. Here are a few tips…

1. Do whatever you can to make it personal. Sending a cover letter? Personalize it. Try your hardest to find the name of the hiring manager that you are sending your information to and personalize everything. It’s also not very hard to find the e-mails of people within the company. Generally it is one of three choices. (firstname)@company.com. (First name initial followed by last name)@company.com. and (firstname.lastname@company.com). If your guess is wrong, your e-mail client will deliver a failed attempt to you instantly. Try again. This all of course assuming that the employees e-mail isn’t directly listed on their website!
2. Use as many sources as you can. The obvious choice in this matter is of course LinkedIn, but that’s not your only opportunity. Twitter is also a great avenue to connect with other professionals in your field. Follow your colleagues and begin a conversation. With LinkedIn, don’t be afraid to send a connection request, ask for an introduction from a mutual connection, or send an inmail. You’ll find many professionals are eager to help.
3. Start a blog. No, seriously, start a blog. If you’re unemployed, start a blog focused on your industry. Find an article posted by a colleague and respond or expand to it, mention them on Twitter to take a look at your blog. Get your ideas and expertise out there in original ways. Stand out from the crowd. 

These three quick tips are a great start to get you on your way to manipulating the system to work in your favor. Of course, if you’re still having difficulty breaking in and getting the motions started, contact us here at Crossroads Consulting. As an employment agency, our job is to get you working again. With job openings that we are looking to fill TODAY across the nation, we are eager to hear from you. We don’t only want you resume; we want to really hear you. Your stories, your past, how is your job search going? Our mission as a professional search firm is to put the ‘human’ back into ‘human resources.’ And that mission can only start when you pick up the phone, or hit ‘compose’ on your e-mail software.

LET’S GET SOMETHING STRAIGHT – WE’RE HERE TO HELP

BY: Adam Gavriel

If you have been keeping up with the blog here at OutOfOurMind, you may realize that the name is fitting to the personality.  You especially understand this concept if you’ve taken a jump over to CrossroadsConsulting.com to check out our unique job postings.  On our website you won’t read the kind of coma-inducing  job postings you find virtually everywhere on the web when you’re looking for jobs. Crossroads Consulting differentiates itself from the competition in that our ads are, “Fresher-and-Bolder,” (to borrow the name of Bill O’Reilly and Dennis Miller‘s travelling comedy show).

Obviously there’s the elements there that you need to know when you read a job description, i.e., the qualifications and such, but there is also a boat load of humor and personality; something desperately missing from the employment market. 

TWELVE TIPS FOR 12-12-12

BY: Adam Gavriel

Whether you follow the American DD/MM/YY model, or the European MM/DD/YY model of the date, today’s date is 12/12/12, the last repeating date of this century. To me, this is just another one of those menial things that people tend to make a big deal about for a little bit, and then forget soon after. However this date could bring more in significance due to Madison Square Garden’s 12/12/12 concert to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy tonight, which is sure to be a fantastic event. But I digress…

In honor of the day, here are 12 tips to hopefully get you hired faster!

1. Make sure your resume is right. Nothing turns off HR professionals quicker than a poorly written resume. Make sure your spelling is correct, and your grammar is top notch.
2. Include a cover letter. The cover letter seems to be a lost art these days. I know when I get cover letters; I read them word for word. It’s another area to talk about your skills a little more in-depth than your resume to make sure the hiring professional has the most information necessary to gauge your skills.
3. Connect. Connect. Connect. You never know when your neighbor, acquaintance, friend of a friend, friend, old boss, old co-worker, etc… etc… can come in handy in letting you know about that opportunity you’ve been waiting for.
4. Take care of your “online persona.” This goes double for recent grads. One of the first thing potential employers is going to do is Google your name. Make sure your Facebook profile is clean, or the privacy settings are set to the max.
5. LinkedIn. More people need to utilize LinkedIn. I myself have a Facebook profile, a LinkedIn profile, a few online blogs, and a couple of Twitter accounts. When I Google my name the first hit that comes up, aside from a few windsurfing videos of an Israeli man who shares my name (lucky for me), is my LinkedIn profile.
6. References and recommendations, get them and use them. Another area where LinkedIn comes in handy as friends or employers are able to easily write recommendations for you.
7. Utilize all available outlets. There are plenty of job boards on the web, not to mention job postings on company websites. The jobs are out there people, find them! (we can help you there….)
8. Stay productive. As we’ve preached here before, time unemployed is not vacation time. Learn a new skill to put on your resume to set yourself apart from the millions of others out there looking for work. Learn a new language; make sure you utilize all outlets to help you get that position.
9. If an application allows you to submit samples of your work, DO IT. Self-explanatory here. If you’re applying online and the website allows you to add a sample of work, do it. Writing samples, a work sample, any sample you can think of, upload it. You would be automatically ahead of everyone in the process who skipped that step.
10. Phone interviews are not phony. If you’re lucky enough to get to this step, make it count. The phone interview is the screening process between those the company is willing to bring in in-person, and those who they will not be “wasting” their time on anymore.
11. Don’t get down, and keep at it. We know the job-searching process is frustrating and can be, at times, downright devastating. More and more Americans each day are giving up their search to find employment. We implore you to stay at it, and help us get the countries unemployment levels back to a reasonable number!

And of course, last but not least…

1. USE US HERE AT CROSSROADS CONSULTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are here to help, no way around it. With over 50 current job openings across the nation, and resume optimization services, there is no reason NOT to be checking us out and asking us to assist you in your search for employment.

It is our belief that the job-hunting process should be relatively stress free, and we try to accommodate that mentality into our everyday work ethic. Remember, we’re here to put the ‘human’ back into ‘human resources.’

Contact us today!