Take the Right Job/Wrong Job Quiz!

A good friend of mine recently emailed me a link to a career assessment quiz. He swore to me his results were dead on. I pretty much laughed at him, as I have throughout my own career taken a myriad of these things…some simple and also some mirroring mini SAT tests. While I am not a big fan of tests of any kind, I went ahead and took the quiz. The online quiz itself was quick and painless, almost generic in nature which led me to think there was no way I would get back anything accurate or of worth. However, the results did in fact yield a few things that I thought were worthy of sharing.

As simple as this quiz was, it managed to peg me pretty perfectly with my results and also give me some good food for thought. The bonus and fun part of the results were by far the detail they give you back. The test provides your career personality type (i.e., I am a “strategic/creative”). It also elaborates to give you tips on how to improve your current work situation and some good, probing questions to ask yourself to better determine if you are in the right job. While these kinds of quizzes aren’t always 100% accurate, and aren’t necessarily rocket science, this one I felt provided some worthy feedback, so thought I’d share it with you all. I am also doing so as I promised that I would publicly admit to my friend that this fun little quiz had some worth after I laughed at his urging for me to have taken it! (Thank you and sorry JT!).

Probably worth mentioning is that I was all the more surprised to get any useful info from the site link that is entitled tickle.com…as this is the kind of site that will also provide you with silly tests to let you now what kind of superhero or cartoon character you would be, etc. : )

***Before you take the test, note that the site will require that you set up a free account (enter your name and email), right after completing the test, hit "skip all offers", then you will see a brief overview of your results. They will email you the detailed report which is free, yet when you click on the link in your email to get your results they are of course trying to sell you this report. In small letters at lower right of screen…you can click "get my free report" at the bottom of the page, then hit "skip offer" on the next 2 pages to truly get the report/results free. Quick and simple, I promise!

Here is the link if you want to try it for yourself…Right Job/Wrong Job Quiz: www.web.tickle.com/tests/rightjob/index_main.jsp

While there are many sites that offer free career tests , quizzes , and assessments these sites generally use them as a lead in for you to purchase more materials from the site. However, you can still get a lot of useful information without buying anything. And some tests are actually totally free. Here is the link to a site that lists many different career related tests and quizzes...some of these are more fun in nature versus giving you any real substance, yet there are several other interesting and ones of substance hereas well: www.zcareer.com/freecareertests.html

Enjoy!

To post or not to post...

I have received many questions recently on the subject of whether or not job seekers should post a resume online. While posting your resume on a Monster, Careerbuilder or any job site for that matter may seem like a good idea, it can also thwart your job search pretty quickly if you go about this the wrong way. Yes, when you are looking for a job you want to get the word out and have your resume be accessible and readily found to help land you in your next dream job. However, it is not necessarily true that the more you put your resume out there, that the more it will benefit you in your job search. In fact, exactly the opposite may be true. I am not saying not to post, what I am saying is throw caution to the wind and be extremely careful with how and where you go about posting your resume publicly.

Things to think about when you post your resume online:

Limit and be selective of where you post your resume. Don’t over saturate the job boards with your resume. There is nothing worse than having recruiters and employers who search these boards find your resume over and over again. This lessens your value immensely. If you must post your resume, pick only one or two of the larger and reputable job boards and also post it in a more niche job site that ideally is targeted to your industry or specific job function.

The more you post your resume online, the more likely it is to spread in reach and availability. This lessens your control over who sees your resume and whose hands it may land in. A word of caution – just because you post your resume online, does NOT mean that recruiters will respect your privacy. I have heard numerous horror stories from job seekers I have worked with about them having experienced first hand a shady recruiter or two picking their resume off a job board and sending it into a company without their permission. If you put your resume out there, it could literally be ending up just about anywhere and everywhere.

Any time you post your resume, you run the risk of having your current employer or someone your current employer knows finding it. Most companies have staff dedicated to searching job boards for positions they are looking to fill…chances are that person may easily stumble across your resume while they are searching. In addition, many companies are now searching job boards by using their company name and key words in an effort to find current disloyal employees who may be out there looking for a job. I probably don’t have to tell you the horror stories I have heard about the many recruiters who use this same practice and in turn will go to the clients and unethically tell them that they saw your resume online in some twisted effort to build loyalty or gain allegiance form them. (It’s no wonder recruiters get such a bad rap and reputation from the many unethical ones that there are out there!!!).

Never ever pay someone to distribute your resume or use one of those resume blasting services. They often sound good and offer all sorts of appeal if you are a job seeker in desperate search of a job. Trust me, these sites do nothing other than distribute your resume to everyone’s email address they can find. A sure fire way for you to over saturate yourself in the marketplace. Worth mentioning is that throughout my own career as a recruiter, I have tried tapping into many different resume blasting services and have yet to ever have received one resume that matched my industry let alone a job that I was recruiting for.

My absolute best piece of advice based upon all of the above comments, is that if you are going to post your resume online, do so confidentially. Most reputable job boards will allow you to list your resume as confidential. Do not post your contact or identifying information (name, address, current employer, etc.). Where many job seekers trip up is by clicking on that option, yet then downloading their resume without remembering to remove their name, contact info and current employer from that resume they download. Trust me, this happens lots!

Don't let your resume sit out there. Many job boards sort resumes by date of submission with the newest first. Renew your resume every few weeks to keep it looking current and new. If you don't get any response to your resume within 20 or so days of posting, remove it from that location and post it elsewhere. It could be that employers are not looking for people with your skills in this particular database, but it could also be that there is too much competition between candidates with the same skills and your resume is not rising to the top.

And finally, when your job search is over, delete all resumes out there. Do not continue to "dangle the hook" and see what offers may come up. Your new employer (or those shady recruiters mentioned previously) may find you still fishing and demand an explanation.

Always remember that most job sites make their money by selling access to the resume database! Many want you to post your resume in their database, but few really work for you.

Tips to providing and getting better references

Reference checking is a big part of my job. It is also one of the most frustrating areas that I and many employers have to contend with. All too often, attempting to reach a reference that a job seeker provided results in playing a seemingly never-ending game of phone tag...or endless hours of waiting for the reference to find the time to call back. This is par for the course as they are busy with their own jobs and as such, calling back to provide references is often one of the last things they have time to do in their busy schedules. Unfortunately in many instances, sluggish return calls of references holds up the process and utimately getting you an offer in hand.

Also, the ultimate worse case scenario is finally getting a hold of a reference and having it result in negative things being said about the job seeker. While this rarely happens, it does occur and can be a quick means to cutting all chances of you landing your dream job...regardless of whether the recruiter or employer is checking your references. Although recruiters work on your behalf, they also work on the behalf of and for the companies they recruit for and ethically they should divulge the good, the bad and even the ugly to the employers they are partnered with. After all, every candidate they present to their clients is a direct extension of their reputation.

Tips to ensure that you are providing and also getting stellar references:

WHEN PROVIDING REFERENCES:

Keep them current! Make sure you stay in touch with these people frequently, that their contact information is correct and up to date so they are easily reachable and accessible.

Call your references each time you hand them out! A quick phone call to give your reference a heads up that they may be receiving a call will serve you well! This lets them know to expect the call, that is important they return the call and also an idea of what position you are applying for so they can put some thought into comments they want to provide on your behalf.

Have backups! It is always best to provide 3-5 professional references to provide to the prospective employer or the recruiter you are working with. On the off chance that these references cannot be reached or found when reference checking is conducted, protect yourself with having a few backups to provide as additional security that your job offer will not get held up by references that are not reachable or are taking too long to call back.
HOW TO GET BETTER REFERENCES

Interview your references! To ensure you are providing references that will provide an honest and clear picture of your skill set and other questions they may be asked, ask them questions about yourself and your performance in a prior job. This will enable you to know how they will respond when answering those same questions to the recruiter or company that calls them to ask about you. Better to be safe than sorry! And while I don't recommend ever hiding anything as honesty is always best, should you hear anything negative from your references, this will give you a chance to learn, improve and also tackle resolving potential areas of issue that could potentially arise in a reference check.

Get it in writing! When you leave an employer, get as many letters of recommendations as you can. This will serve you well in many scenarios down the road...such as, in the event your reference changes jobs, moves or is unreachable, and also in the event whoever is checking your references cannot get a hold of one of your references. Often a letter of recommendation will suffice and be a possible substitute if this is the case. As a final note, if you are working with a recruiter who conducted your reference checks, ask them for a copy when they have completed it. Not a bad idea to have this in your files and also to be able to see first hand what and how your references responded about you.

International Builders Show - Orlando

Hope you all have a successful Builders Show this year! This is the first time in several years that I will not be in attendance at the show as timing wise, my daughters birthday celebration coincided with the show. As such, me making the trip was just not a possibility - unfortunately! I do however look forward to hearing all about how the show was from each of you as I have spoken to so many of you who will be there - or are already there setting up. Should be a great show as always...Have fun!!!

Google yourself!!!

I have seen many (although often really funny) completely inappropriate personal email addresses that have been listed on job seekers resumes lately. Keep in mind that when you send your resume out, it is the first impression the prospective employer or recruiter will get of you. Having your email read things like pimpdaddy@yahoo or idealdrugs@yahoo most definitely may hinder your shot at having someone take your resume seriously or even give you a second glance.

Along that note, as it has been referenced in many articles and even in the news lately…be careful what you post online at personal networking sites such as facebook, friendster, myspace, etc. You would be surprised how many employees are technically savvy enough these days to check these sites to try and get a glimpse into what they may be getting in an employee they are considering hiring. Although your personal life is indeed just that…best to make sure that you don’t let the two intertwine and possible affect getting that next interview or job of your dreams!

My best advice to you is to:

1. Set up a separate email account specifically for your job search. Use this account solely to send our resumes and communicate with recruiters or potential employers. You can get a free email just about anywhere these days (yahoo.com, gmail, com, hotmail.com, etc.). Total bonus that this will help keep you organized in your job search and keep all your correspondence in one place separately from other personal or work related emails.

2. Keep the email address simple! Restrict it to your name or you can even get a bit creative and use key words that describe your career background versus words that may border on being risqué and unprofessional. For example use windowsalesguy@yahoo or johndoe123@yahoo. Keep it simple!

3. Google yourself! It will take you seconds and will possibly save you some heartache down the road from sitting in that final interview and having an employer know a bit too much about you. I am not saying stay away from personal networking sites as they are fun and often a great way to meet new people…yet they should not interfere with your professional life. Just be careful what you post on there. Last thing in the world that you would want would be to have the person who you may soon report to find risqué photos of you on myspace or read the slang terms you write to all your friends on facebook, etc. Aside from that, there is a website out there for just about everything these days for people to publicly complain about anyone…bad neighbor, bad boyfriend, etc. The internet is a vault of information, but what you and others put out there about yourself can all too easily be found by just about anyone!

And, YES, I did google myself prior to writing this post! Ha ha! And phew! 

Network your way to a new job!

There seem to be an endless and never-ending array of professional and also personal networking sites popping up these days. It can easily become all too harrowing to try and navigate through the maze of networking sites available and truly determine which ones are worthy of investing your time at. Whether you are a job seeker, an employer, a recruiter or just want to reconnect with former colleagues, there truly are some great sites and resources out there to tap into these days.

I have links to most of the sites I personally recommend here on this Blog, yet I continue to check out several of the new and also older ones occasionally as they are great sources for me as a recruiter to tap into the more passive candidate and also gain some phenomenal industry referrals from. In an effort to help you all tap into some good networking sites, here are both my recommendation of sites and also some sites that I have heard of, yet cannot vouch for as I have yet have to check into yet fully.

Good luck with your job searches and networking efforts...and while I truly hope that I am the recruiter who places you in your next dream job, I am also hopeful that some of these sites may be of use and benefit to you in your career search or just to network more extensively with industry contacts. You all continue to be so wonderful in providing me with some great references (thank you!), so I am hopeful this list may help give you ways to connect you with new industry contacts, former colleagues, etc.

Sites I recommend:

www.linkedin.com Most of you who know me and are in my network, know that I am a big fan of LinkedIn. A great and easy tool to keep in touch with your contacts and also reach out to many new contacts across just about any industry. I rank this site top of my list!

www.konnects.com This is a newer site for me and I have not diligently checked it out in great detail yet. However, as new as it is to me, it appears the site is growing rather quickly as I have received many communications or request through the site thus far.

www.xing.com This is another site that I have received several communications and requests form professionals looking to reach out to me at, ye have not researched it heavily enough to form an opinion one way or another yet.

www.naymz.com

www.spoke.com

Other sites that may be worth checking out that I have heard or seen reference to these, yet just haven't had enough time to thoroughly research and personally review all of these yet. Please let me know your experiences on any of the below listed sites and I will post a follow up here in a few months to give everyone an update:

http://www.fastcompany.com/cof/

http://www.ecademy.com/

http://www.jigsaw.com/

http://www.networkingforprofessionals.com/

http://jobs.realcontacts.com/home.asp

http://www.ziggs.com/

http://www.zoominfo.com/ (this is more of a great researching tool - much like a Hoovers, you can search for company data or by individual name - a great resource!)