Earlier this week I posted a few profile-enhancing tips on a LinkedIn discussion group frequented by active job seekers. One of the things I constantly notice when helping newcomers get up to speed on the essential functionality of LinkedIn is how poor they tend to be at populating their profiles with meaty, search-friendly information.

This is especially noticeable in the job seeker community. Rather than placing career relevant and recruiter magnet content, they fill their headline,…

Facebook launched its long-rumored job board offering last week. It was a bit rocky:

• “ It’s buggy and kind of janky looking.” – FB userMike Chapman (and thank you, Mike, for…

Every job market is unique and in order to gain the most out of your job search, working alongside a specialised recruiter can be your ticket to success. Just as you may use a mechanic to help you with your car or a plumber to help stop your leaking tap, an expert recruiter can help…

Being a full time consultant is wonderful – I have the opportunity to work with hundreds of interesting clients, tackle unusual and cutting edge projects, and yes, get paid for it. But there is a drawback – although I’m in contact with dozens of people every week via phone, email, Skype, and Twitter, I don’t actually see them. I’m here in Iowa, and they’re…well, all over the world.

Conferences are a great way to see your colleagues and…

As noted in previous posts, I’ve been thinking lately about what makes a job board good – or not. Below are a few questions to that effect – and yes, some employment sites have these features, but most do not. Maybe there absent features you’ve wondered about?

• Voice input for search: Hey, if you’re…

Are these really the dog days of summer? Maybe not, judging from the number of new job sites I’m seeing. Granted, some of these have been around in alpha or beta for a while, some have been flying under the radar, and some are simply new to me – but there seems to be no letup in the volume of start-ups in the online recruiting sector.

This is great, in my opinion. Startups force established players to rethink how they do business. They…

A few weeks back I posed the question“What is a job board?”. In the process of trying to answer that question, I mentioned LinkedIn as a prime example of something thatlooks like a job board, acts like a job board, butclaims not to be a job…

Since moving to Texas a little over a year ago I have learned about a special partnership between Josh Hamilton and his “Accountability Coach.”  Josh’s Accountability Coach is his father-in-law, and he actually travels with Josh and the Rangers in order to help Josh with his commitment to sobriety.  The more and more I got to thinking about this type of relationship, the…

For those of you who don’t know, Rich DeMatteo, AKA Corn on the Job, is a globally recognized Career Expert, Gen Y Career Coach, and Social Media Marketer. Rich has spent time in Agency and Corporate Recruiting, and has a Masters in Human Resources from Villanova University. Along with being featured on Monster.com and Reader’s Digest, he was also named one of the world’s Top 100 Most Desirable Mentors.  If you are looking to learn about the job hunt through social media, check out…

I recently had the privilege of hosting #HFChat – the HireFriday Tweet-fest organized by @HRMargo and @CyndyTrivella.  HireFriday is all about helping job seekers find work. Recruiters, HR professionals, and the occasional job board doctor pose and answer common questions about the job hunt. It’s a wonderful event for all involved.

My subject – surprisingly enough! – was “Making job boards work for you”. The conversation ranged from the basics (setting up job alerts, using job boards…

You’ve hear d it countless times: With the economic recovery crawling along in the slow lane job seekers need to prepare for a longer than expected search and consider new and innovative ways to differentiate. But how do you prepare for a longer than expected search when you don’t have any sense of how long it’s going to take in the first place, and how can…

I recently received the following email from a reader and asked them if I could post their question as this is a popular frustration with HR and would probably help.  When do recruiters call back?  With their permission, I am reposting a condensed version below.

HRNasty,

For about a month now, I've been down to the finish line at conglomerate, Company X. 

THEY called ME. I wasn't actively…

Formatting resumes. We all have our own ways to send resumes to clients. Some Recruiters just slap a logo and their own contact information on it, while others take the time to make sure the spelling and grammar are correct before sending the resume to the client with logo and their personal contact information. I see resumes from Recruiters that have different fonts, colors and misspelled words throughout the resume. To get attention from your clients with a candidate’s resume, you should…

Resources for Veterans & Transitioning Military

As recruiters and hiring managers learn more about the military culture and experience, the bridge to hiring more Veterans into civilian careers directly from Active duty or Active Reserve is built.

In order to…

If you are interviewing with a company, think of yourself as a restaurant worker after you use the bathroom.  Simply put: Wash your hands.  Your mother told you this every day growing up so that when you got into public, it would be a natural habit.  Good habits pay big rewards.

Picture this:  I go to use our restrooms and run into someone I don’t know coming out of the stall where “Number 2” business was just taken care of.  I say “hello”, he says “hello”.   It’s just a cordial…

Last month, I encouraged job seekers to step away from the job boards and step outside to get some fresh air, network,…

That is an outrageous and absurd idea, right?

Yet, countless career related experts continue to suggest that to job seekers. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve read and heard that exact piece of advice, but it is a prevalent theme amongst the rapidly reproducing “build your brand” and “brand yourself as an expert” contingent.

They may not be saying it quite like the title above, but essentially when they advise anyone…

I don’t know if it’s inevitable that age and experience brings cynicism, but theongoing discussion about social recruiting certainly brings out the skeptic in me. Social recruitment is about the…

If you build it, they will come.

If you build it well, they will stay.

Attraction is half the battle, but attraction is pointless if your career site is not sticky enough to maintain the candidate’s interest so that they apply. To increase application completion rates, Certified Usability Analyst, Jennifer Brogee,…

Another week, another ‘job boards are dying’ blog post. If I had a dollar for every post like this, I’d be a (moderately) rich man. Truly.

I try to avoid the ‘job boards are dying’ discussion because (a) it’s a flamer’s game (not unlike arguing with those who disbelieve climate change), and (b) those of us in the biz know it…