Is resume optimizing cheating?

So recently I reposted a few posts to help people looking for work. One of the posts was about optimizing a resume for ATS and resume databases. I posted or reposted it, and got some interesting feedback form a few recruiters. One said I was telling their secrets, that by telling candidates how to optimize their resumes it will mean they will have more junk resumes to read.  Another said it was…

Last week,  the New York Times ran an editorial regarding employment screening and how employment background checks are often inaccurate and cause otherwise innocent people their chances for employment.   The editorial requested that the supervising agencies get a tighter control around the CRA's or Consumer Reporting Agencies.    Upon reading the editorial, more than a few recruiters and employers, to say nothing of Consumer Reporting Agencies,  had their proverbial bowels in a…

By Jennifer Copley, Rookie Recruiter, Q4B

“To have another language is to possess a second soul.”  - Charlemagne

I am not sure when I first fully appreciated the importance of having learned a second language. I took French in high school and college and most of my friends and peers took some language as part of their course requirements. For many of us it was just another subject, sometimes required, that we needed to pass in order to graduate.

In college I took…

If your company is growing, you've likely encountered problems finding the talent you need, especially if that talent is technical in nature. You've also probably spent lots of $$$ on outside recruiters and maybe even an RPO provider. And you're probably still unhappy with the quality of candidates you've received. If you're ready to take talent acquisition into your own hands, reduce costs and turnover, increase hiring speed and quality of hire, here are some tips to get you…

Read the latest iCIMS blog post from Erin Smith:

I recently read an article titled “Our Employees Are Our Most Valuable Asset”, which was proceeded by the sentence “This (standard)…

The first staffing lesson I learned was, “Candidates do stupid things”. My boss at the time was a tough and cynical agency recruiter (headhunter) with 10 years experience. Wally had been rode hard with had plenty of stories to prove his point. That lesson was driven home yesterday in a most painful…

If you haven’t learned by now, I’m kind of a sports geek.  Not only do I geek out for the NBA Draft but I also find the Major League Baseball trade deadline to be incredibly interesting.

It’s at this point in the MLB season that can make or break a team’s playoff chances.  General Managers are currently deciding where their team stands in the playoff race and if they…

Online labor continued to decline in July. Employers posted 1.4% fewer job openings than in June. Year-over-year the online job market declined 4.1%. The current number of posted job openings is 32.7% below peak demand in August 2007.

United States Job Openings (Online Postings) and Unemployment Rate

January 2007 – July 2012…

What exactly is a video interview?

In recent months the subject of video in recruitment has become quite a hot topic amongst recruiters, so what exactly is a video interview?

For the purpose of this article, we’re looking at automated or asynchronous video interviews. This is where a candidate records their answers to questions set by the recruiter, but without the recruiter or hiring manager being there live.

It may sound obvious, but a video…

Scott shares a solution for avoiding empty seats in your business.

 …

15 questions you need to ask before accepting an offer.

This year we have seen a significant increase in the number of candidates returning to the job market, albeit relatively passively in a lot of cases. Surprisingly, while the reasons can be poles apart such as redundancy or a lack of career progression, it can often drive similar behaviours amongst candidates. I have commented previously…

Source: http://blog.gooodjob.com/2012/06/add-linkedin-ppc-to-your-sourcing-toolbox/

Publishing your job openings as pay-per-click (PPC) ads on LinkedIn offers an extensive reach to a career-centric audience (earlier this year, its user-base reached the 150…

I love LinkedIn! It has been bringing us more matching candidates and business connections than everything else combined out there. For my own recruiting business LinkedIn accounts for 100% placed candidates in the last twelve months and a large chunk of sourcing information that I submit to others when sourcing.

Yet taking the full advantage of LinkedIn is not straightforward! There are numerous obstacles and misleading marketing messages, blogs, and tutorials. Some LinkedIn members…

by Joelle Schoenherr

Between the numerous forms of social media, chatty coworkers, and the rapid onset of boredom in our society, it is no wonder that distraction is an enormous problem. In a recent study conducted by Sendouts, the greatest obstacle in the recruiting workplace was distraction, whether personal or external. However, this issue transcends…

This…

There has been a lot of buzz around candidate experience lately. Many organizations have begun to realize that if they want to attract top talent, they need to provide a positive candidate experience throughout the application process.

Industry thought leaders Gerry Crispin, Ed Newman,…

According to the ASA Staffing Index, since the beginning of 2012, temporary and contract employment has grown by 22.4% - up 4.4% in July 2012 from July 2011 alone.

 

Typically, staffing employment peaks between mid-November and mid-December each year, after which it dramatically declines for several weeks before turning upward in mid-January.

 

Emergent President Bill Inman, says “We expect the utilization of all kinds of temporary and project based contingent workers…

I stumbled across a gem today! While searching for something else, I discovered the video resume of Lamia Gouda. Curiosity took the better of me and I watched a VERY funny and engaging pitch of a very talented woman: Actress, Translator, Video Editor, Voice Over Talent and Stylist. She speaks multiple languages (Arabic, French and English) and not only that, she is also quite the entrepreneur. Check out…

Networking is a word that means many things to many people. At one end of the scale its a nerve racking experience that you make yourself do, for others its an opportunity and a fun way to meet new potential contacts and business partners.

The truth is that most of us go out to network in one way or…

I once heard a story about a CEO who had a rather unusual strategy for culling through resumes.

This successful and brash leader of a large, well known company would print all the resumes he received for an open position an put them in a stack in no particular order. He would then take half the resumes right off the top of the pile and throw them straight in the garbage without giving them a second look.

One day a precocious young human resources employee…