Look Behind the Credentials: Find Candidates with Multiple Skillsets

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by Julie Long | BLR

Thoughts of IT, engineering, and computer science don’t normally conjure up images of people who are the life of the party. Or even those who enjoy exchanging pleasantries. But, these unicorns of the tech world—those that have technical talent and people skills—do actually exist. You just have to know how and where to find them.

What’s in a name?

The first instinct of any recruiter or HR professional is to look at the title. This can be a grave misstep because titles are often misleading. Titles like Field Engineer or Systems Administrator may not imply the full extent of the candidate’s experience working with others. While technical-sounding, candidates with these titles actually have to work alongside staff and clients on a consistent basis. What’s a good way to make sure that you fully understand someone’s communication ability through his or her resume?

See if they have any consulting experience. The word “consultant” doesn’t have to be in the title, either. For example, an applicant with experience in website coding design probably has had to communicate with clients and staff to deliver the desired result. Producing designs that are aligned with a company’s brand requires a high-level understanding of what a company’s culture is all about. Awareness of company culture is usually an indicator of someone who can appreciate the value of a company’s people.

So they can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk?

Once you’ve found someone who appears to have all the skills on paper, how do you know if they can walk the walk? A technical skills screen is probably the first thing that comes to mind, but it isn’t the only thing you should be doing.

It’s crucial to make the most out of group interviews and phone screens. Seeing how people interact with others is a good way to gauge overall social skills, so is asking questions about what they do and don’t like about their current or previous positions. And then there’s the all-important question: would I enjoy going to dinner with this person? If they seem like someone you’d enjoy spending time with outside of the office, it’s likely they’ll be just as interesting to work with.

Hold the phone, social media is important too?

The phone screen doesn’t have to be brutally difficult. It can actually be quite the opposite. In addition to observing how easy they are to communicate with over the phone, asking people simple, casual questions—such as what they like to do outside of work or what they’re truly passionate about—can give insight into their like or dislike of social interaction.

You can tell a lot from a phone call, but you can tell a whole lot more about an applicant by their presence on social media and in their professional networks. People who have robust, but appropriate, social media profiles and who regularly attend networking events are usually people who enjoy the company of others.

However, even the most people-oriented of tech talent may not be on LinkedIn. The reason is simple—tech talent is in high demand and many of the people with those skillsets don’t want to be bombarded by recruiters. If you do find a qualified applicant through LinkedIn with a strong profile and a few solid recommendations, chances are you’ve got someone with potential.

You may have found the perfect candidate, now what?

So you’ve found the illusory candidate with a mix of tech talent and people skills online. How do you woo them? By being personal. All too often, recruiters search strictly by title without doing any research about the individual before reaching out. Even though you may be searching for people with hard technical skills, they probably are driven by more than just a paycheck.

Take time to figure out what someone’s previous work experience is and allude to it in your initial email. Be sincere when you ask them about what they want their job to look like, or what their passions are. A smart recruiter and HR professional shouldn’t just be looking for a technical skills fit—they should also be looking for potential employees who are looking to advance their careers over the long run.

Searching for candidates with both the right technical skills and a big personality may seem like a lost cause. However, the more effort that’s put in to get to know the person behind the credentials, the more satisfied the person—and the company—is going to be with the job fit.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/152-look-behind-the-credentials-find-candidates-with-multiple-skillsets

Keeping Those Candidates on the Line

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Always Follow Up, applying for a job, Candidates, dallas temp jobs, interview process, job duties, job search dfw, rockwall jobs, trend personnel services

by Stephen Bruce | BLR

This crucial moment can play out in so many different ways, and most of that is up to you. Consider these Do’s and Don’ts.

DO:

• Clearly introduce who you are, and be sure to include the name of your company.
• State your purpose for calling.
• By all means, flatter your candidates. Let them know you have specially picked them from a large pool of candidates. After all of your sourcing and preparation, this is very true!
• Take your time and add a few short pauses here and there. Candidates should feel in control of the conversation and have enough time to think. If they didn’t expect a call from you, they might be on-guard or suspicious. A little space in a conversation can put them at ease.

DON’T:

• Do not offer them an interview for the same day, or even the next day, even if you really want that position filled quickly. Give your candidate time to do some research. Besides, rushing the process makes you seem desperate.
• Never forget to explain in detail how the interview process works. Let them know what time and where they will be meeting, and with whom they will be meeting. Make sure to give them time to write it down, and if there are any other steps involved, let them know. Give them clear, easy steps to follow. This helps eliminate uncertainty.
• Never misrepresent your company or the position. If candidates ask about the company, use clear terms to describe it. Also, make sure to tell them the job duties in accurate, straightforward terms. The candidate should arrive at the interview ready to talk about the actual job you want them to fill. If their interview doesn’t match the initial phone call, you are likely to lose the candidate.
• Do not answer any questions about pay during the initial phone call. Sometimes a candidate will want to talk pay up front. Unless you work for a company where positions come with fixed pay, it’s best if you don’t mention any numbers at this time. At this point, your guess might not align with what they could see down the road in an offer. Experts agree that failure to be honest about pay can cost many companies good candidates.

Always Follow Up

So, you’ve made the call and hopefully you have an interview scheduled. The candidate knows what he or she is supposed to do, and when. So why would you follow up? This business practice is polite and it helps put the candidate at ease. Just shoot the person a quick e-mail shortly after you talk summarizing what you talked about. Send another e-mail the day before or early the day of the interview confirming the time and location. Make sure the candidate knows that he or she can contact you with any questions. In fact, some form of communication should take place at each step of the entire process. Employees expect this, and when it doesn’t happen, they feel adrift.

What if you decide not to go with that candidate? What if someone else gets hired before the interview? If this ends up being the case, you should still send a note gently letting the person know what has transpired. It may be hard to give someone bad news, but it is worse not to contact them at all. Studies have shown that people who are cold-shouldered by companies at any point during the interview process will often bad-mouth the company to their friends and family, as well as on social media. You may not see it directly, but a bad reputation gets around, and it may cost you in ways you didn’t anticipate.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/149-keeping-those-candidates-on-the-line

10 Tips to Help You Hire Right

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applying for a job, carrollton jobs, Good candidates, interview process, locating professionals, recruiting tips, recruitment process, rockwall jobs, trend personnel dallas, trend personnel services

by Vanessa Merit Nornberg | Inc.

Hiring is the Achilles heel of all small companies. Good candidates are hard to find, and the recruiting process always seems to take more time than planned.

Here’s what they are:

1. Allow six months for the recruitment process. Hiring when you have a start date in mind that is just around the corner causes you to accept candidates you would have otherwise passed over. Give yourself three months to search for and screen applicants, one month so a new hire can give notice to her current employer, and at least two months to train a new person.
2. Write a job post that accurately describes your company. Believe it or not, you don’t want to emphasize the qualities you need in a candidate in a job description. You want to tell a prospective candidate about what makes your company a different or special place to work, to insure you get interest from people who are the right cultural fit. It’s far less expensive to teach skills than attitude to a new recruit.
3. Make the interview process several steps. Candidates who want any job–and not necessarily the job you are hiring for–rarely take the time to apply if they know they have to go above and beyond a one-click submisssion just to get looked at.
4. Handle at least one part of the recruiting process yourself. Whether it be screening resumes, doing phone interviews, or conducting the first interview. The earlier you get involved in the recruiting the better the chances you have of finding the right candidate (and weeding out the others!). No one knows your company’s needs better than you.
5. Identify the five most important qualities for the positiong you’re filling. Create interview questions that measure these five qualities to allow you to determine if a candidate possesses them or not.
6. Do more than ask questions when you interview. Set up opportunities to observe how an applicant handles herself in situations similar to the ones she will be asked to handle if she’s hired. For example, if she will be organizing data for your company, give her data to classify, and pay attention to the way she does it. Does her approach match how you do things at your company? Does she follow a logic you can understand?
7. Bring others in on your recruiting process. Make sure strong candidates are evaluated by at least two members of your team in addition to you. Instincts are important in picking the right candidate, but sometimes you end up on the fence. Having someone to talk about the candidate with can help you get clarity when it matters.
8. Create a training program. Make sure your training program truly reflects the tasks a hire will be called upon to do. And then formalize it so the new hire can understand where she is at in the training process at all times.
9. Reevaluate both what you teach a new hire and what he retains on a regular basis. Never be afraid to slow down the training process, teach a concept again, shift gears, or add new modules as you go. The idea is not to train fast, but to train right. Taking the time to do it once and thoroughly will shield your customers from errors, and your company from lost loyalty.
10. Be honest with yourself throughout the training process. If you make a hiring mistake, don’t waste precious time and money hoping it will eventually turn out okay. It won’t. Let the candidate go immediately. It is better to have no help at all than to have the wrong help.

Recruiting the right team can seem daunting, but it is also extremely exciting. Taking the time to make the best hire rather than just any hire is a chance to expand your team’s competencies, grow your customer base, and take your company to a new level. Hopefully these 10 tricks will help you.

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/138-10-tips-to-help-you-hire-right

Things You Should Never Do When Applying For A Job

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applying for a job, cover letter tips, dallas careers, descriptions, dfw staffing, how to apply, job experience, job within the same industry, recruiting agency dallas, resume tips, rockwall jobs, texas jobs, trend personnel, work history

              Vivian Giang | Business Insider

Never make your cover letter or introductory email longer than three paragraphs

Here’s what you should include:

1. Why you are sending the cover letter.
2. How (or from whom) you heard about the opening.
3. Something specific that cannot be inferred from your resume (i.e. work situation, special skills or the kind of job you’re looking for).

Here’s what you shouldn’t include:

• Don’t state what kind of pay you’re looking for since there are many different components in a salary package that can confuse a recruiter. This is the kind of thing that can be discussed during or after the interview.

Don’t put your name and contact info on the side, bottom or back of your resume — they should always be at the top

This is how it should be done:

1. Put your name in bold face and/or regular caps.
2. Include your full address and home, work (optional) and/or cell phone numbers and your email address but do not bold these.

Education should never be listed above experience

Unless you have five higher education degrees.

Or if you’ve recently completed a degree and don’t have too much of a work history. The rule here is that you can list “Education” first if you’ve graduated within two years.

• Also, always list the most recent degree first and continue in descending order.

Don’t break the one-page rule unless you have more than 8 years of experience

But if you have a lot of experience, then two pages can be used — just don’t fill up the second page.

Here are the basic rules:

1. A full-time job that lasted less than three months doesn’t need to be included.
2. If you have 3+ years of work experience, omit summer jobs, but internships related to your current job experience can still be included.
3. If you have 15+ years of work experience then your first job doesn’t need to be included, especially if it’s unrelated to your industry or to the position you’re applying for.

Don’t include short, worthless descriptions. Back up your credibility with some impressive numbers

If you’re applying for a job within the same industry, include some big numbers that will surely place you closer to the top of the pile.

For example:

• Manage a portfolio of $750MM
• Billed over $500k in 2010
• Market to Fortune 1000 companies with a minimum of $1B in sales

http://trendpersonnel.com/en/news/item/130-things-you-should-never-do-when-applying-for-a-job

How to Stand Out Among the Crowded Applicants?

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application tips, applying for a job, dallas jobs, dallas staffing work, dfw temporary jobs, interview tips, recruiting employees, staffing texas, temporary dallas jobs, warehouse work

By Jombay

#1: Use Common Sense

You’d be surprised by how many people don’t even use simple logic while applying to jobs.

• It’s common logic that a .Net developer must not apply to content writing jobs
• It’s common logic that if the job description says only graduates should apply, under graduates aren’t qualified
• Again, it’s common logic that if you are instructed not to send in your resume as the employer end cannot receive attachments, you should do it

Yet, most people simply do not heed these. Why?

Candidates are impatient -They don’t spend time reading the job description in full. They randomly go to job sites apply to 50 or more companies at one stretch and then site back expecting calls to pour in. I have news for you. It isn’t going to work that way!

Take the time and effort to apply individually to the jobs that match your profile the best. Most importantly, use common sense while applying for the job.

• Read the job description thoroughly. Only if you fit the description apply for the job
• Customize the resume with the employers industry and job role each time you apply for a job
• Follow instructions carefully. Some recruiters ask candidates to send resumes with certain keywords in the subject line. This is done so that the recruiters know the candidate has read the job description fully. Even if you are fully qualified for the job, if you don’t include the keyword, your email will see the trash folder only!

#2: Make Use of Cover Letters

Most job applications posted on job portals might not explicitly specify that they need a cover letter.

However, recruiters expect you to send one in along with your resume.

A cover letter helps you set the stage. It convinces the employer that they should go through the resume and invite the candidate over for an interview over all the other candidates who applied (often in the hundreds or in the thousands range).

A well-crafted cover letter helps you display your professionalism and your real interest in working with the company. If you are not truly interested in a company, you are not going to spend time creating a cover letter; are you?

While your choice of using a covering letter maybe good, equal care must be taken that it shouldn’t be a copy paste version of the many templates you get online. These templates must only be used as reference, not copy pasted entirely and changes made here and there to suit your needs.

How to Make Employers Get Back to You?

Follow-Up

Most candidates think that applying to the job is all they need to do and the employers will schedule an interview with them. In an ideal world that should happen for qualified candidates. We, however, live in a non-ideal world where people have so very less time, and there are hundred things to be done.

Recruiters always look to lighten their load and they sometimes don’t get back to the candidates unless they follow up. This serves two purposes:

1. Their workload is severely reduced
2. Only interested and qualified candidates take time to follow-up. These are much better hiring leads to spend time on rather than the hundreds of “give-me-a-job” applicants

http://trendpersonnel.com/index.php/en/news/item/108-how-to-stand-out-among-the-crowded-applicants