We’ve all seen the same statistic that approximately 80% of jobs are unadvertised. Some refer to this as the hidden job market.  Alternatively, we’ve also seen the statistic that approximately 80% of employers advertise job opportunities online either through their own website, a mainstream job board or a niche industry site. So, while those two statistics refer to separate measurements, they are somewhat intertwined and intriguing.

I frequently encounter content directed at…

A picture is worth a thousand words. Cliché? Yes. True? Absolutely! Especially in terms of social media, people have so much to look at and take in (the average Facebook visit is 20 minutes), that pictures stand out and make the biggest impact because visuals are a little easier to process. For example, you can tell people how awesome your office is, but it's so much more powerful to show them your…

More jobs in Africa as Sub-Saharan economies are set to grow by more than 5%

A World Bank reports that Africa's economic growth to will outpace average- a result of Higher commodities, increasing investment and a general pick-up in the world economy.

More jobs in Africa can be created if that African governments do more to ensure that this growth reduced poverty.

The report said strong economic growth has meant vacancies  in Africa and significantly reduced the…

Manufacturing, Engineering and Industrial Sales; Increased Hiring! - 2013 Outlook

Bill Marek

Vantage Point Recruiters, LLC.

In our world of recruiting we have noticed, this year, an increase in the demand for Sales Engineers, or Field Applications Engineers.  Not surprising, after a general slowdown, for six years, manufacturing and production companies are eager to get back to full production, and then add to that.

One step…

Each month, the New York City metro area consistently outnumbers all other metros in hiring demand. In March, there were more than 437,000 ads available online in the greater New York area. (Los Angeles was in 2nd place with about 258,000 ads.) This ad volume represents a 1% decline in demand compared to March of 2012. Approximately 89% of available job ads during March were posted by employers, whereas staffing firms and recruiting agencies only accounted for about 11% of ads.…

Are you using social media in your job search? Are you using social media to find potential hires? Whether you’re looking for a job or looking for a new hire, you should be using social media as part of your process. While Pew Research estimates that 65% of adults use social media for their own job search, only…

Hiring? On the Benefits of Engaging a Recruiter!

Time:

Having a recruiter go to work for you saves the time and burden of placing this task on an internal Human Resources person. The search is tedious; searching the active resume boards, writing and placing ads, reviewing often hundreds of resumes, calling candidates after hours and on weekends. Receiving numerous calls daily, regarding the ‘open’ position. Then to scheduling interviews, completing…

James Surowiecki begins his book The Wisdom of Crowds with a description of Sir Francis Galton’s visit to a country fair in 1906. Galton witnessed a competition where members of the crowd guessed the weight of an ox after slaughtering and dressing. Galton analyzed 787 guesses from crowd members including priests, schoolgirls, and clerks.  The crowd’s average estimate was 1,197 lbs.  The ox weighed 1,198 lbs.

Individuals are subject to biases, prejudices, emotions, and…

You clicked to read about your idol Oprah, didn’t you? No, expecting some other big “O” content… Well, then you’re on the wrong website, buster!

Badge of honor, source of pleasure, reason for pride, satisfaction to scream about or maybe just something to accept quietly and celebrate contently in your own mind. The big O in all of its glory. Whether solo, with a best buddy or as a group, it’s something we’ll all experience - if we’re lucky to last that long.

What, you’re not…

Plenty of explanations or excuses exist for why many in the recruiting industry decide to put minimal effort into creating a quality candidate experience. One of the most common gripes job seekers have is lack of follow up after they’ve applied for a position. Even worse, many applicants never hear any feedback whatsoever after interviewing. Or, the communication they receive along the way is vague, mystifying, and in some cases downright unprofessional.

The following are…

I recently “googled” my name and found an assortment of results come up that I didn’t even realize were out there and visible to the public. Social media sites, registries I created, and websites that I’ve registered on and long forgotten about. When it comes to job…

Before an applicant even walks through the doors of your business, they should have a clear idea of your company culture. And, part of recruiting qualified employees should be your company culture. If you effectively market your company’s…

For most restaurant owners, it’s difficult to layoff employees in the name of saving money. Many owners do everything they can to try and fix the situation on their own—take a pay cut, work extra hours and hire less, take out loans to help pay the company bills—but sometimes there is nothing a boss can do to help keep…

One of my contacts shared this vent with me. Thought it pretty much sums up some of the lazy, sloppy, clueless types that somehow found their way into the recruiting realm.

I honestly have a ton of recruiters that contact me, the majority are very bad at their job and I would never work with them but this specific recruiter keeps sending me positions where I do not fulfill what is identified in the job description and/or requirements, so after being nice on about…

Veterans make great business leaders. Employers know it. As a result, veteran recruiting goals have grown exponentially over the past few years. And as more and more military veterans return home after serving our country abroad, they are heading to graduate business schools to earn their…

Today it was announced that in China a man successfully sued his wife after she gave birth to a baby the husband considered so ugly he insisted she must have had an affair. When it surfaced that the woman had had a lot of plastic surgery before they met and the new daughter merely inherited her old face, the man not only divorced his wife, but sued her for the equivalent of $120k -- and he won. The judge ruled the man had married the woman under “false pretenses.

If that is…

Looking for a new job? Relatively happy where you are but could be tempted? Well however actively looking you are, here’s how to find the hidden jobs you might never hear about and then create an application so good they’ve just got to interview you.

Tip 1: Write your own CV/resume

Don't go and pay $50 to have someone write one for you. It's a waste of…

Here is our weekly feature in which we share the top articles we enjoyed from the past week about recruitment marketing, social recruiting and anything else in the recruiting space. In this article, we’ll be talking about Platforms vs. Point Solutions, impressing hiring managers, HR Tech acquisitions and trends, perception mistakes and crisps for tweets.

And if you are at the HR Technology Conference this upcoming week…

The restaurant industry provides jobs for approximately 9% of workers in the United States (that’s over 28,000 people!), so why not find the best of the best for your restaurant establishment?  Seeking quality professionals is an important part of having a successful operation.

Unfortunately, finding a great staff…

For some bizarre reason, I seem to attract more than anyone’s fair share of random inquiries, peculiar requests for assistance and other assorted mystery messages on a regular basis. One such recent item that caught my attention was the following snippet from a person presumably running some sort of “recruiting” service…  

As you will notice, this was a generic message sent to my email but not addressed to me by name – probably because I was only one of the thousand or so…