Recruiting for Development Why We Shouldnt Look for the Purple Squirrel

Recruiting for Development Why We Shouldnt Look for the Purple Squirrel We all look at the opportunity of finding the purple squirrel when recruiting. This is obviously an ideal outcome for any employer, recruiter, and hiring manager. However, what if there was greater value in hiring for development? In this current day and age, we know that a business should be flexible, agile and adaptable at all times. They need to have the working environment that is willing to change to align with longer-term goals. Most of all, however, they need to have the working environment that is willing to evolve and learn new skills and new requirements to adapt to this change. Obviously, an ongoing learning and development strategy is imperative to this, however, can hiring the purple squirrel actually be detrimental to achieving this longer-term goal? What is a purple squirrel? Ultimately, the purple squirrel is the perfect fit. They have the right education, years of experience, skill set and industry certifications to meet the needs. The purple squirrel is rare, something that for many exists only in folklore or stories of past. If a purple squirrel is identified, generally a business will do a lot to actually engage that purple squirrel as soon as possible. What value can a purple squirrel bring? The purple squirrel can bring immediate traction to a business. It is expected they will be able to immediately undertake their role with minimal transitional issues. That they will be able to pretty quickly deliver a return on investment, and most of all, be an asset to the business. Why shouldn’t I wait for the purple squirrel? We are all well aware that waiting for the perfect fit will take time. During that time, we wait. We may even expand our resources and from there bring in additional costs. We may spend more time, more resources, and more money, in the hope that we can find that purple squirrel. All of this will add ultimately to the overall return on investment a placement can bring. We run a risk that the person we looked over because of that not so perfect fit will not be available even when we identify that our purple squirrel is just that, a folklore. What value would not hiring a purple squirrel to bring? Innovation and diversity are fundamentally what we need to talk about for businesses moving into the new world of work. A new perspective, a new approach and a different degree of experience will greatly influence an innovative environment; because the way of doing things differently may be extremely beneficial to a changing business. Additionally, bringing in someone who has development needs but a strong passion and desire for your brand, your product, and your customers is the foundation for a very successful and dedicated employee. How can I influence this with a client or with the reporting manager? The greatest challenge when hiring is being able to ensure that there is great value in being flexible in the hiring process. Teaching someone to look beyond what a person’s role title has been, or product experience is, can be challenging in an environment with very stringent delivery targets. The first step is to work as an advisor. Change the approach of your conversation to focus on the value of other perspectives, different experience and how this aligns with the organizations future direction. Sometimes there is also great value in bringing in some examples of where this may have worked in your experience previously. We all appreciate that this is a big shift in the mindset of many managers, businesses and reporting line managers. Our roles in HR are to take them on a new journey of recruitment and hiring to align with the expected changes in the future. We can achieve this by starting to create our own stories and not ones that may be reliant on something that may not exist.

Is Getting an MBA Worth It

Is Getting an MBA Worth It By, Kate Manning With national as well as global economics taking a recent turn for the worse, many question the necessity (or the even possibility of) pursuing higher education: especially an MBA. Getting your MBA is no small matter the price, the prestige and the time along with many other factors make it a big decision. However, if you are considering getting an MBA, it is important to realize that it might not hold the same value it did several years ago. A master’s degree in business is a title many wish to hold for several different reasons. It is a prestigious title that marks your hard work, dedication to your education and subsequent career.  Many employers take note of it as well. It also offers the possibility to improve your academic record after you complete your undergraduate studies. That is, a student who had a B average as an undergrad can work to achieve an A average as a graduate student. While there are many valuable aspects of earning your MBA, there are also many obvious pitfalls in pursing this path. Clearly, education has been severely impacted since the start of the recent economic recession. Each year, students across the nation are finding that it is becoming harder and harder to pay tuition fees for undergraduate classes, let alone those for a higher degree. Those who jump directly into the workforce after their undergraduate studies for a business administration degree will find themselves having to quickly pay off their student loans, perhaps even having to do so in a less than favorable job market. As we all know, the job market for college graduates is not an easy one and may never be again. Therefore, predictions about job security whether you have a bachelors or a masters- and the overall employment outlook can only be taken with a grain of salt, regardless of their source. Ultimately, the question one has to ask themselves when considering the pursuit of an MBA is, Does the pay-off justify the cost and time invested in getting the degree? Student debt is a scary monster to many undergrads and it often deters them from post-graduate studies. Their rationale is that the more time they spend in school, the more debt they accumulate and the less time they will have to work. Likewise, once they finally do graduate, they will be several years behind in terms of full time work experience when compared to their counterparts who have bachelor’s degrees. Recently, the New York Times held an open forum where they invited several professors and company owners to talk about the cost and value of an MBA. One of the conclusions drawn was that student debt was actually quite exaggerated. While student debt is a real problem, it is not the large monster that many think it is. The media along with loan-forgiveness proponents have created a typhoon of student debt rumors that have circulated the nation and fallen upon almost all student ears. However, pursuing an MBA can have advantages though when considering student debt: it prolongs your studies and, with certain subsidized government loans, allows you longer time to ride out the storm so to speak. What this means is that those going on to pursue an MBA after receiving their BA will have more time to wait until both the national economy and post-graduate job markets improve. Those who jump directly into the workforce after their undergraduate studies will find themselves having to quickly pay off their student loans, perhaps even having to do so in a less than favorable job market. Although, as previously stated, the job market as well as the national economic forecast is something that is quite volatile. There is no telling with absolute certainty what may happen in the next couple years, but the time spent pursuing an MBA may actually work in your favor. If you do decide to receive a Masters in Business Administration or another similar post-graduate degree, you will certainly find the benefit of appearing much more marketable to potential employers. Being able to list a post-graduate degree on your resume proves your ardent dedication to your studies and your major. It shows you are passionate and serious about learning as well as doing, and this is something that can mean the difference between you and the next person getting that job. The Harvard Business School shows the expanded statistics for their MBA program of the past six years. It is clear from their data that those who chose to obtain an MBA receive not only a higher base salary compared to those with only a bachelor’s degree, but also receive higher signing bonuses as well as quicker job acceptance with no lower than at least 70 percent of graduates receiving and accepting a job offer by graduation date for any year. The education bubble of today can be a scary one and deciding to pursue a post-graduate degree sets many people on edge. Yet an MBA can be extremely valuable if you approach it in the correct manner. You must make sure that you are ready for the dedication of both time and money to post-graduate studies and know that there is no guarantee as to where the U.S. will be in terms of job availability in the coming years. However, if you do decide to pursue an MBA, you will most likely reap the benefits of doing so in both personal gratification as well as in your professional career. This post has been updated January 26, 2016.

Direct Sellers and Small Businesses How to Socially Bounce - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Direct Sellers and Small Businesses How to Socially Bounce - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Social media is one of the latest tools that direct sellers and small businesses can utilize in reaching their audience and engaging with their consumers. Brands of today realize the importance of establishing a presence in the online world, since this is the way most people are now connecting with the businesses, brands, and products they love. And because social media is currently where the people are, it’s also where most brands choose to connect with their customers and build relationships with them. Of course, it’s important that before you decide to use social media in your campaign, you need to make sure that you already have your plans laid out. You don’t want to just jump into the fray without a strategy in place. And you should definitely understand how you’re going to integrate the different social networking sites with your brand. But perhaps the main problem that plagues brands that utilize social media is the fact that it is easy to commit social blunders. The viral effect of social media is quite well-known, and it can be both a blessing and a curse. Even people are affected by what they do on these social networking sites, resulting in not getting hired for a job they applied to, getting fired from their current position, and even earning a bad reputation. Sometimes, you don’t even know that you’ve made a social media mistake until it’s reported and spreads like wildfire through the online world. Now you can either just bury your head in the sand and hope it dies out soon, or you can take steps to do what you can to salvage your reputation. As a direct seller or small business owner, how do you recover from a social blunder? How do you socially bounce back and keep your brand and reputation intact? Here are some tips. 1. Address the problem as soon as you can One of the worst things you can do is to ignore what happened and hope that it eventually dies out, because the more that you don’t address the situation, the more that people will speculate about it until a small social media mistake can evolve into a bigger problem. Think of it this way â€" the problem isn’t going to resolve itself by its own, so the sooner you address it, the better for your brand. If a customer has a bad experience and starts posting about it on your social media pages, make sure to address it quickly, admit where you went wrong, and work on improving your performance. Customers will appreciate the fact that you didn’t just brush off their concerns or make excuses for what happened. Also, make sure that you monitor your social media pages regularly so that you’re updated with what’s happening. You don’t want to act too late, since the more people who learn about what happened without feedback from you, the worst it can get. 2. Learn from the mistake Committing a social faux pas doesn’t mean the end of the world nor the end of your brand. You can actually learn from your mistake, make improvements in your business, and come out a better brand. So if your mistake was tweeting something you thought was silly, but actually ended up offending some people, you should definitely take that as a lesson. When it comes to social media, if you’re going to post something that may be politically incorrect or that may put you in a bad light for some people, it might be better to just avoid posting it in the first place. You don’t want to ruin your brand just for the sake of a few laughs. You want to ensure that what occurred doesn’t happen again. 3. Build a strong community Even direct sellers and small business owners can benefit a lot from building a strong community around your brand. When you have loyal brand advocates who are willing to go the extra mile for you, then any social blunder you commit will probably not affect you that much since there are people who will defend your brand. So it’s really important that you engage your consumers and build a good relationship with them, because this is what results in a strong community. Yes, you can socially bounce back from even the worse social blunders as long as you make sure to address the problem quickly, learn from your mistakes, and build a strong community around your brand. Remember that a social media campaign takes some effort, so make sure that you plan well and ahead so that you can really build an excellent brand and avoid mistakes. Author: Maria Elena Duron, is managing editor of the Personal Branding Blog and is also the CEO (chief engagement officer) of buzz2bucks.com â€" a word of mouth marketing firm. She helps create connection, credibility, community and cha-ching through mobile marketing and social commerce around your brand. She is co-founder of #brandchat a weekly twitter chat focused on every aspect of branding.

Are You Your Past or Are You Your Future - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Are You Your Past or Are You Your Future - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career As a career coach, I’ve heard many of my clients start with, “Well, I want to do something totally different from what I’ve done so far.” This attitude indicates that you are ready for change. That you want to find a new path because you either don’t like where you are right now or you just can’t imagine that continuing the current direction will lead you to a place you desire. The urge to change also brings a sense of failure, because you may feel like what you’ve done so far didn’t really matter and was a total waste of your time, money, effort… your life. How should you go about reinventing your career? What defines you more â€" your past experiences or your future aspirations? Here is an exercise for you if you are willing to play a little: List 5-10 experiences from different parts of your career where you enjoyed creating something of a value for others. Maybe it was a part of your job and maybe you volunteered. For each of these, describe what it was that you provided to people and how it benefited them. You can also ask this question from another angle what would they not experience if you didn’t do that for them? Review what you wrote and highlight the parts that strongly resonate with you. Im sure that if you look at all your past experiences that are meaningful to you, you’ll start sensing a pattern. You will see a common way you want to make an impact on the world. And no matter how you navigated your career, what jobs you had or whom you worked for, your core purpose surfaced again and again. Your PAST is important â€" it gives clues about what it is that matters to us. What about your FUTURE, then? Well, once you get to that core of what you truly enjoy, the future possibilities are endless. You just need to wake up all your senses and follow the signs.  Which brings us to the PRESENT. The only time you can make a choice is NOW. So, as much as you look at your past and your future, what really counts is the present moment. Only from being totally focused on what’s happening now, can you take advantage of the opportunities that can take you to your ideal future. And when you know what that core is from the clues in the past, you can easily talk about who you are to everyone around. The people around will help you find and follow the right signs to the future you are hoping for. Author: Henrieta Riesco  is a founder of  Intentional Career. She is all about meaningful conversation to empower professionals on their career journey. After experiences of being a teacher and a corporate trainer in Slovakia, a customer advocate and a training consultant for  10+ years at Microsoft, she is comfortable with calling herself a Career Coach. You can follow Henrieta via  Twitter, or via  her blog.

Marketing Intern Resume Mistakes to Avoid

Marketing Intern Resume Mistakes to AvoidIf you have just graduated from college and you are looking for a job as a marketing intern, the last thing you want to do is to create a resume that is so bad that you would not even be considered for an interview. But, there is no way you can make an error-free marketing internship resume. There are a lot of things that can go wrong when you create a marketing internship resume. You need to ensure that you will avoid those mistakes by going through this article.The first mistake that most people make when they are creating a marketing internship resume is to cut corners. Most people who are working in sales have the wrong outlook and they cut corners at the expense of quality. They often put the finishing touches on their resume but then make a few mistakes when they print it out.Example: At the end of your marketing internship resume, you may put a little note at the bottom saying 'additional source' as a list of jobs that you did during yo ur internship. This is not necessary. As long as you have given enough information to cover your internship, you do not need to add it in. You should have included this because it would be very impressive to know that you did the jobs listed there.Another example of the mistake that many make is cutting corners when it comes to listing their school. You may include the name of your college or university on your marketing intern resume but you must never mention that you attended the same school or university that your employers did. This would not only be embarrassing but also inappropriate.The third mistake that is really hard to avoid is including your college in your marketing intern resume. College is important for you to understand the market and it is one of the best sources of knowledge for you. For this reason, you must be absolutely sure that you tell the truth when you say that you graduated from college.Another major mistake that many people make is to forget to include t he internship that they were part of. Instead of including it, you may have forgotten about it or written it out incorrectly. You may have forgotten what your internship was about and it may have been some form of a part-time job. Because of this, you will not have anything to show for your internship except maybe the fact that you did not have a full-time job.If you want to make sure that you do not commit these mistakes when you are creating a marketing intern resume, you need to have a few tips that will help you. You must know what you are doing. When you know what you are doing, you will be able to create a marketing internship resume that will stand out above the rest.Once you have researched, created, and created some great resumes, you will be able to find the right resume template that will suit your needs. You can easily find a resume builder that can help you create your own resume.

2014 Jobvite Job Seeker Nation Study (Infographic) - CareerEnlightenment.com

Four No-Fail Tricks to Capturing Awesome Letters of Recommendation - Pathfinder Careers

Four No-Fail Tricks to Capturing Awesome Letters of Recommendation - Pathfinder Careers Four No-Fail Tricks to Capturing Awesome Letters of Recommendation Let’s face a painful truth: Most of us are totally ineffective when lining up our personal cheering sections during a job search.   This can include anything from failing to inform or keep references up-to- date on your current status to asking for recommendation letters in a panic due to a prospective employer’s request during an interview. Planning ahead and being completely focused on what you want others to speak about regarding your skills, abilities, and expertise as well as character can be the ‘make or break’ factor. So go ahead.   Be proactive and think ahead of the curve.   Here are some no-fail tips on how to capture that awesome letter of recommendation…before you actually need it. You’ll be glad you did! Be strategic on who you ask.   Review your network and only ask the people that you know are your absolute advocates for you, possess excellent industry profiles/reputations, are in elevated positions of authority, and can specifically speak from first-hand experience in working with you. This adds power and ‘oomph’ to your credentials. Identify key areas you want them to address.  If you spread out the angles that you ask people to discuss in your letter, the prospective employer will have a more in-depth insight into who you are and what makes you tick.   Think about asking one person to talk about your character, another who can talk about your subject matter knowledge, a separate person who can discuss your leadership, and another letter detailing your innovation.   This comes across as the ‘WOW’ factor on the other end. Trust me. Coach them.   Keeping your cheering squad up to date on where you are in your job search also helps them feel involved in your personal success.   As mentioned in #2, provide some coaching and unique insights into your target job. This actually helps the person writing the letter to make it a very focused asset to your application by connecting the proverbial dots. When in doubt, offer to write it for them.   I’ll let you in on a dirty little secret- this is a pretty common practice!   People are completely swamped right now… and while the spirit maybe willing, they are otherwise tied up.   This convenience is a handy tool in anyone’s job search bag of tricks.   In a recent online discussion with professional resume writers, it was agreed that it would be acceptable for a job seeker to make this offer in order to get what they need from the reference. The job seeker can write specifically towards the job target, and then provide it to the person providing the reference who can either approve, edit, or veto the document.       Hopefully, by following these quick tricks, you’ll be able to have some top-notch, compelling letters of recommendation at the ready for just the moment when you need them!