Why You Should Always Give Feedback After an Interview

Why You Should Always Give Feedback After an Interview No feedback after an interview is catastrophic to the hiring process. In this post I want to take a look at the 3 parties affected by a lack of interview feedback and hope nay pray that in some small way this article might just help people understand quite how important interview feedback is. I’m going to refer to the company as XYZ Co during this article so that you might follow the process. The Candidate Today’s connected candidate (Bob) knows the world. If they’re not on Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn then, to be honest, they’re living under a rock. So, Bob is contacted by many recruiters about positions â€" the majority of the time they won’t have heard of the company, so the recruiter has to do their job in explaining why it’s a good place to work AND get them interested in the position. Bob enjoys the call, gives permission for CV to be sent to client, is sent job spec / URL (FYI this is the correct way to recruit!) and wanders off to research a little more. A few days later they actually get an interview request and they hit the social channels hard â€" checking LinkedIn profiles, Twitter accounts, Google, Facebook, the lot. They absorb the company information so that they can be fully prepared for the interview. They may even look at your product offerings and be interested in purchasing them â€" for those not following my trail of thought here; interviewees are potential customers. Their friends are potential customers. Their friends friends who tweet and get retweeted are potential customers. Bob takes time off work. Bob goes to the interview. Bob spends a couple of hours in XYZ offices, comes out and calls the recruiter to tell them how he got on. Bob’s looking forward to his feedback. Bob…never…heard…back â€" the recruiter tried for feedback and got none. Bob’s future custom is lost. His friends’ custom is lost. And so on. Also, if anyone ever tells Bob that they have an interview with XYZ company, he’ll likely say ‘I wouldn’t bother, they don’t get back to you’. I feel sorry for Bob. He’ll get another job, but he’ll always remember XYZ as a company who didn’t care enough about his time to even let him know why he wasn’t right. The Recruiter The recruiter has a vested interest in the entire interview process â€" they want to live and breath your vacancy so that they can earn their fee. The majority of recruiters I know (in the UK) don’t work on any kind of retainer â€" we literally earn nothing until people such as Bob start a job. If we send a candidate to a job who isn’t right, it’s not a problem, but structured feedback is crucial. For instance, if you’re recruiting for a C# developer and I send one your way who is a C# / ASP.Net developer, and unfortunately something has been misunderstood, then we massively appreciate you telling us that you need a C# / WPF developer instead means that we wont send any further ASP.Net guys, instead focussing on WPF devs â€" see how much easier it makes the process for everyone concerned? By giving the recruiter some constructive feedback you are able to cut your CVs received down dramatically. The Client So, moving on to Mr / Mrs client nicely from the line above. The recruiter is trying to make his / her money â€" they want to provide you a service that will ensure that you make a placement through them. If you don’t provide constructive feedback you will spend so much of your time seeing poor matching CVs, or even CVs that are pretty much a zero match to your requirement. By not giving Bob his interview feedback (positive or negative) you are risking alienating people from a company that I am sure you will have spent time and effort in building up a positive image of. Summary Put yourself in the shoes of the interviewee â€" how would you feel if you didn’t get any feedback, yet took ½ day holiday and paid money to attend the interview? Annoyed â€" yep. Upset â€" likely. Interested in purchasing goods from XYZ â€" not a chance. If you think about feedback as a form of constructive criticism for interviews, you’ll very quickly see your time to hire fall and placement ratios drop.

Attention Generation Next LinkedIn is Not Facebook (and other tips)

Attention Generation Next LinkedIn is Not Facebook (and other tips) Increasing your network is a common New Year’s resolution, so it’s not surprising that I’ve seen more requests to connect on LinkedIn and Facebook lately. But I’ve also noticed that while the quantity of the connections is picking up, the quality is taking a downward turn. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'JXWml2INSnpLhh2An2642A',sig:'qBIUuVk65jqxN8tRa65E6Q-TJ9v8TLwWQer_zABvq7o=',w:'507px',h:'338px',items:'465291919',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); It may be due in part to the growing number of Millennials entering the workforce. According to the Department of Labor, the generation born between 1976 and 2001 now numbers more than 80 million. In 2014, 36 percent of the U.S. workforce was made up of Millennials. By 2020, Millennials are projected to comprise nearly half of the U.S. workplace. This generation embraced social media at a young age, and that accounts for some of their online quirks. Beware, for example, of a 30-something who gives you an AOL email address. He will never respond to any email sent to that address. He never checks it; in fact, he probably never checks email (you have something to say? Text it.) Why hang on to it at all? Here’s the reply I received: “My generation got some of the first email addresses, so we could actually get our name @ AOL. I’m not going to give up my ‘Jack Jones’ email; I’d never get it back. I’d have to be ‘JackJones20722’ or something like that.” Have you noticed a growing number of young Facebook contacts with names like “Julie Katie” or “davester”? Why the heck not use your full name on Facebook, so I can recognize who you are? Again, the answer is connected to their age. Many Millenials started their Facebook pages as teenagers, and their diligent parents wanted to make sure their identity was protected. So they shortened their name to a cute, safer version, and they’ve probably been using the same page ever since. Not too much of a problem, since Facebook is seldom used as a professional networking tool. As an added benefit, personal pages that dont reflect your full professional name probably wont show up in a search, so younger candidates use nicknames as a way to keep their career and personal lives separate. LinkedIn should be held to a higher standard, since is it intended as a serious, professional, career tool. But the Millennials may not have gotten the memo. As a matter of fact, they may not know what a memo is. (Helpful historical reference link here.) If you’re confused as to why your requests to connect are not being accepted, here are some tips for younger contacts who want to be taken seriously on LinkedIn. Use grown up rules of grammar and punctuation.’davester’ may work on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, but on LinkedIn, you should capitalize your name. If I see your connection request come in as ‘donnie j.’, I will have trouble taking you seriously. Remember that part of the LinkedIn culture is that you are judged by the quality of your network, so part of your first impression becomes part of my first impression. Unless you’re ee cummings (Helpful historical reference link here), capitalize your name and headline. You do need to include a photo (I don’t usually accept connections from people whose face I can’t see.) But you must use a professional and in-focus head shot. I’m seeing increasing numbers of dark, casual, blurry, and outdoor shots as LinkedIn profile photos. Selfies are obvious, and they diminish your professional image, even if they don’t feature the dreaded duckface. No duckface. Ever. Trust me, these are the snaps your children, and your children’s children, will be mocking 20 years from now. Connect with people you know first and build up some numbers. If we are complete strangers, don’t make me connection #4. My first action will to be to look at your network to see how we’re connected. If you have no network, it’s very unlikely that a professional will accept the request. If you’re new to LinkedIn, start by connecting to your actual coworkers and social network. Link out to strangers and public figures only after you have filled out your profile and have some experience in using the site. Just as youd wear different clothes to a pool party and a state dinner (I hope), its helpful to know that different online sites have different protocols. On the internet, no one may know youre a dog (helpful historical link here) but they may suspect youre not ready for prime time.

Five Blogging Lessons Learned From Newspaper Columnists - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Five Blogging Lessons Learned From Newspaper Columnists - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career If you want to be a thought leader in your field, to be seen as one of its leading authorities, you need to pay special attention to how you blog. You cant just splut out a blog post here and there, and expect people to take you seriously. You also cant have an overly formal writing style. You need to write like a newspaper columnist. In the past Ive said bloggers are citizen journalists who need to act and write like newspaper reporters, but Im changing my approach. The purpose of personal branding is to promote your self, but you cant do that by avoiding first and second person references, or reporting only facts without analysis. You need to adopt the writing style favored by newspaper columnists like George Will, Maureen Dowd, or the late Mike Royko who was the newspaper columnist in Chicago from the 1950s through 1990s. Or even gonzo journalism, as created by Hunter S. Thompson, where the writer is part of the story. Ive been a newspaper humor columnist for 18 years, and have used those skills and experiences to develop my own blogging voice. Here are a few of the lessons Ive learned in that time. 1. You still have to write like a reporter Newspaper columnists still follow the short words, short sentences, short paragraphs dictum. Its easier to read, which means people are more likely to finish it. Its also more likely to be shared. Plus if people search for your chosen topic, theyre going to use words they like to use, not the obtuse kerfuffle of the look how smart I am! academic writer. 2. Tell a good story, dont repeat someone elses One of the things I love about Royko is that he didnt spout stats or quote other columnists. He would tell a story about a single person, drop in one stat to help you realize that this person wasnt the only person suffering, and hed make you feel that persons pain. Many times, he would write a follow-up column a few months later about how the previous column had caused a reform in a government agency, or how a particular persons problem was solved when a high-ranking official personally got involved. All because they were moved by that story. Make your reader feel your excitement, sadness, or outrage when they read your piece. You can only do that with stories, not statistics. 3. Keep it short, but not too short Abraham Lincoln was once asked how long a mans legs should be. Long enough to reach the ground, he said. So it goes with blog posts. Say enough to make your point and reach the end, but dont blather on. The great thing about blogging is that you can revisit a topic again and again, examining subtle nuances, and plumbing its depths. Dont put every piece of knowledge into a single post. Split it up and spread the love. (If nothing else, it helps your SEO.) Shoot for 300 â€" 500 words for an average length. You can occasionally go longer, but dont drop below 200 words. Google just doesnt like that short stuff. Its too much like spam. 4. You dont have to write every day Plenty of bloggers post on a daily basis, but its hard work. I did it for a year on my humor blog, and finally gave up because I wasnt doing my best work and was just publishing to stick with a schedule. The only truly good work was my weekly newspaper column. So I had to make a choice: did I want to put up sub-par stuff that I didnt really care about, or focus on doing the best work possible. I chose the latter. 5. Have a strong lede* I truly will not give a shit about your story if you dont give a shit about your lede. If you open a blog post with I was having coffee with my friend Dave, and. . . or Take two parts enthusiasm, three parts hard work, and one part pure luck. . . no one is going to care, and will be gone before they know whether you had skim milk or 2% in your latte. And those recipe openers make me want to whack the writer with a rolled up copy of the Sunday New York Times. Read 10 â€"  15 newspaper stories, and focus on the opening paragraph and especially that opening lede. Better yet, go read some old columnists work. The art of writing good ledes is becoming lost as more newspapers are firing their experienced writers and replacing them with newbies. Ive talked on this blog many times about how important good writing is to your personal brand. And as you strive to build that thought leadership and expertise, its going to become even more important. Start thinking like a newspaper columnist and writing like one. Its one thats accessible to your readers, and can still speak to the greater truth of the issues youre trying to discuss. * In newspaper talk, the opening sentence is called a lede, not to be confused with lead, which is what the movable type was made with. Author: Erik Deckers is the owner of Professional Blog Service, a newspaper humor columnist, and the co-author of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself and No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing. His third book, The Owned Media Doctrine, will be available this summer.

Dont Paint Yourself in a Corner - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Don’t Paint Yourself in a Corner - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career There comes a time in every career that we need to take a look around and make sure we are not limiting ourselves. Making sure we are making the most of our careers. And making the most of our lives too. For one cannot exist without the other. This  post has a few tips tricks to help insure  you don’t paint yourself into a corner. Having a plan is the first step. What’s wrong with painting oneself into a corner? Well, almost everyone has done it at one time or another. The problem is that doing so can severely limit your options and force you to make decisions that may not be the best for you and your future. The value of a plan If you are young and just getting started this is GREAT. You have time. If you are more established in your career you also still have time. The reality is… no matter what your age or stage in life there is time to think about what you WANT to do, what you  CAN do and what you WILL do. You are in charge. You get to decide where you spend your time. Where you will spend your days. What you will work towards. And, How you will invest your most precious asset… your time. By thinking about your skills, your goals and your big picture plans you can make efforts to  avoid painting yourself into a corner. Don’t forget to include a work life balance It is up to you  to insure  your  plan includes  a Work-Life Balance. Not doing so happens all the time. The results can be disastrous and lead to many, many regrets. Plan your career wisely. Build in a Work  â€" Life balance and take efforts to stay on track. Yes, there will be diversions. They are bound to happen. However, having a plan in place will help you deal with the diversions and stay on track. Some of these diversions will be happy diversions and as you review and revisit your plans on a regular basis you will need to make adjustments to accommodate them. For a perspective on Work-Life Balance  take a look at new Personal Branding Blog contributor, Nick Inglis’ post. Take a look today Sooner rather later is better, but its never too late to take a look and get started. What does it mean to take a look? It starts with a quick assessment of your skills. Including what you like to do and what others say you are good at doing. A thorough assessment also includes evaluating what you do NOT like to do.  As a sanity check ask a friend to make these same assessments of your skills or to look over your set of attributes you used to describe yourself. If you have a mentor ask them too. Will you like what you hear? Perhaps not, but hearing controversial statements about what you think are skills from friendly voices is preferred. Using candid feedback from friends, peers and mentors allow you to re-think your skills likes assessments and then  make adjustments to more accurately reflect and align with your big picture plans. How to get started One way is to use the old standard of a T-Chart. I recommend two T-Charts for assessing your Skills and your Likes. And an optional T-Chart that aligns your Wants vs. Needs. Draw a traditional T-Chart with two columns. In one column write Skills and the other write Non-Skills. You can use the Non-Skills column to identify skills you do not have (obviously) and also to identify skills you think you will need to develop. If you need to develop a skill you can add it to your plan (so that you don’t paint yourself into a corner). Create another T-Chart for Likes and Dislikes. This is a quick way to help you think about what you actually Like… and want to do. And to also evaluate what you do NOT like to do. The purpose is to provide a thumbnail assessment of where your skills are taking you. If you find that the direction your skills are heading now is the time to make an adjustment. Or, you may be ecstatic with the skills you have developed and realize they align perfectly with your plans. If this last scenario is the case then you are doing well. Keep it up. As a final, yet optional, assessment you should also consider doing a Wants vs. Needs sanity check. You may surprise yourself with what you actually need versus what you thought you wanted. This Wants vs. Needs chart is one that should help you define your Work  â€" Life Balance. As you will see there are many things we think we need, but when evaluated objectively they turn out to be mere wants. Each of these T-Charts can be both subjective and objective. You can and should be critical on yourself, but not so critical that you stop the process. Again, have a friend, colleague, mentor or even external party evaluate your assessments of your skills, likes and needs. You may not like what you hear, but please be kind to your evaluators. They can be fantastic sounding boards and they are willing to provide candid feedback. Take it for what it’s worth and make adjustments accordingly. Avoiding the sharp corners These tips are set out to help you avoid painting yourself into a corner. Having a plan, even an early rudimentary version, can help you avoid such a fate. Author: Jeff   is a veteran in the Enterprise Content Management industry. Over the past 20 years he has worked with customers and partners to design, develop and deploy solutions around the world. Jeff is currently the Director of Strategic Alliances at Winshuttle. He has worked for Microsoft, FileNet (IBM), K2, Captaris, Open Text, Kofax and Kodak. He speaks and blogs about ECM and the Intersection between Social, Mobile and Cloud Computing.

#93 - A Day in the Life of Linux Systems Engineer - Orrett Morgan II - CareerMetis.com

#93 - A Day in the Life of Linux Systems Engineer - Orrett Morgan II The Career Insider Podcast Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSSForEpisode 93of The CareerMetis Podcast, we will learn about:A Day in the Life of a LINUX SYSTEMS ENGINEERfrom our guest Orrett Morgan II.evalGuest Introduction â€"Orrett Morgan IIevalOrett Morgan II is a Linux Systems Engineer. His role revolves around designing, building, configuring and troubleshooting Linux systems.As an engineer, his job goes beyond building or designing a single box or server and can consist of designing hundreds or even thousands of servers that are expected to operate as a single unit to achieve various functions.Episode Summary1. Out of school, Orrett Mogan II wanted to be a doctor. He enjoyed medicine, but didn’t enjoy it as a profession. After a friend suggested IT, he decided to take it up and switched his major to pursue a career in IT.2.Watching his debt climb, he decided to drop out and take a different route. Half way through paying off his accumul ated debt, he was introduced to a program from Winter Park Tech, and within half a year he had found his first job, and built it into a fulfilling and enjoyable career.3.Orrett describes the various roles available in IT, and what each level and role are responsible for within the technical realm.4.He also shares where people can get their feet wet to see if this is the kind of job they’d enjoy, and whether or not they should pursue a certification.eval5.He breaks down the process and the cost of getting certified, and what doors open up after you’ve completed certification. He also talks about the benefits of contract work.6.He shares where his career path could go from here, and the pros and cons of moving into management within IT.7.He also describes the time demand of some companies and roles, and why it’s important to lay your cards on the table and be up front during the interview process in order to find the best fit for you and the employer.8.Orrett discusses some of t he challenges that come with his job. Technology changes quickly and an IT professional has to be able to stay on top of it and adapt.eval9.He also talks about how important it is to know when to handle things on your own, and know when to escalate things to the next level, or ask for help.10.Some of the perks of his job are a pretty good salary, the ability to work remotely, and the diversity of fields he can be involved in.Quotes“When I originally started in IT, It wasn’t a passion of mine”“There is the possibility to do whatever you want in IT”“For a person who is starting out, I would say the best thing to do is to do contract work”“Be very careful about moving into management very early”“In the interview process, as much as possible, try to find out what the work life balance is”“You’ll have to know when you need to escalate an issue and when you can solve it yourself”“I hate going into a job and just doing the same thing every day”Links Resourc esevalTo learn more about Orrett Morgan II, you can connect with him on LinkedInor through this website.Intro Music provided courtesy ofAccelerated Ideas(www.accelerated-ideas.com). Soundtrack â€"Siren KickbackEnding Music provided courtesy ofAccelerated Ideas(www.accelerated-ideas.com). Soundtrack â€"No Need to Rush

What a Hiring Manager Looks for in a Résumé

What a Hiring Manager Looks for in a Résumé As a hiring manager, I always checked an applicant’s résumé for familiar company names. My bias is “the bigger, the better.” Recognizable company names add credibility to a candidate’s application, plus an ability to navigate complex organizations and politics. Next, I look at the applicant’s past job titles to get a sense of whether or not they progressed through a function or industry. Often titles are misleading, so I look at the quantitative indicators of scope: Did the candidate progress in his or her career by managing more people, more revenue, or a bigger territory? That’s why data is so important on a résumé. Last, I look at tenure with the listed companies. Although more people have shorter stints at companies due to economic downsizing, it is still important for a résumé to reflect commitment. Once you have those details in order, polish your résumé with these simple upgrades: Use bullet points so that your achievements are easy to navigate. Most résumés focus too much on the target company and not enough on the candidate. Instead of a bland job description, include detailed explanations of your skills and previous experience. Write a cover letter that makes the résumé relevant to me. Tell me: Why are you the best candidate for the position? Also avoid these resume pitfalls to stay ahead of the competition in your job search: Check and double-check for grammatical errors, typos, and misspellings. Always define your acronyms. Edit yourself â€" too much text can kill a résumé.

How to Make a Resume With No Experience

How to Make a Resume With No ExperienceWhile there are many ways to make a resume, some are better than others. There are two types of resumes that are in widespread use - those with experience and those without experience.A resume is usually the first thing a potential employer looks at when evaluating your skills and knowledge. An experienced resume is definitely more desirable than a blank one. But if you lack experience, why should you bother to write one?In the world of today, we tend to assume that all jobs are going to be highly competitive. There is no question that many jobs that are available in this type of industry require some experience. Yet, just because you have experience does not mean you will automatically be hired. With the way the economy is right now, you may have a better chance of being re-assigned or promoted than you would have at a typical job.Consider this scenario. You are a stay-at-home mom who has no prior experience and you get a job working in the com puter support department for a call center. You are quickly promoted to work in a higher profile position in the company and you become the lowest-paid employee.To see where you stand now, consider this. You have the job and you are making less money than ever before. It's obvious that if you had some experience you would be making much more.So even though your resume may lack experience, it still can boost your chances of being hired. Perhaps your bosses are under pressure to cut costs. Perhaps they know that if they lose you to another company, it will cost them some money.They might not realize that if they keep you around, they might lose your loyalty to the company and that might mean they will lose you the job. Even though your resume is lacking any type of experience, they will still see that you have the ability to perform tasks. This alone can help you land a better job.If you've had trouble writing a resume, no matter what it says, just try to remember that you should be t hankful for the opportunity you have. Most people don't consider this, but it is extremely important. Without a job, it will be very difficult to pay the bills, let alone fulfill other goals that need to be accomplished.