Tag Archives: Social media

LINKEDIN – HOOKUP FOR WORK

Posted on February 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

BY: Adam  Gavriel 

You may have found yourself reading our last blog here on why submitting resumes online is like throwing them into a black hole, and perhaps gotten a bit down in the dumps. We understand that not everyone is going to have that “inside man” that they need to get their resume to the right person and get that best chance of being hired (that’s why we so highly recommend using us! More on that later).

What LinkedIn provides to the user is a way to try and meander their way inside.

LinkedIn, in its essence, is the everyday market place for hiring, looking for work, and making connections. The big three in what it takes to get from the unemployment line to the bank. LinkedIn has its uses whether you’re a recruiter, someone looking for work, or a company looking to expand your market value and awareness.

First off, if you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, make one today. If you Google yourself, you’ll find that the first thing that comes up (if you have a profile) is your LinkedIn profile. If I Google my own name, it goes in this order: LinkedIn, and my two Twitter profiles. If a company is seriously looking at making you their new hire, you better believe that they’re going to be putting in the research on you.

With a LinkedIn profile, these companies will find all the useful information they need to find on you in one place. LinkedIn is like having another digital resume to re-affirm everything you’ve already told to the company.

Some quick tips for LinkedIn users:

Make sure your profile is 100% complete. This means having all of your work experience on there (benefit, it can be longer than one page on LinkedIn), having a photograph of yourself (keep it professional, this isn’t Facebook!), and even including what areas you’re looking for work. Right away companies can see everything they need to know about you. This is your “home base” for LinkedIn, and what hiring managers will be looking at.

LinkedIn provides a much deeper service though, as it is also an online job board. Utilize the “saved searches” function and make sure you set it to update to your e-mail as often as you need it. You can have multiple saved searches where you change a keyword, or you can have a saved search for all the locations that you’d like to keep available to you. With the e-mail update function, you’ll have a weekly reminder that there are more jobs that you should be looking at within your saved searches.

One of the most underrated functions of LinkedIn is that on all the job ads, it is visible who posted the ad. Not just the company, but the LinkedIn user that posted that specific job ad. This makes it much easier to personalize your cover letter and trust me, that goes a long way.

Unlike Facebook, on LinkedIn you can even see who views your profile page. If you upgrade to LinkedIn pro (which comes highly recommended) you can see a full list of those who view your profile. LinkedIn pro also gives you the opportunity to send an “InMail” to another LinkedIn user, providing another way to get your foot in the door, and keep those connections climbing.

In a recent update, LinkedIn has allowed users to “endorse” other users on their skills. We understand the want to keep all your connections happy; however we HIGHLY recommend that you do not endorse anyone whose work you cannot specifically vouch for. If you endorse blindly, it looks bad for you and the user that you have endorsed. If you are going to take the time out of your day to endorse another user, make it count, and make sure it’s from the heart.

That should be enough to get you going and get yourself started on LinkedIn and building your professional network.

If you do decide to join LinkedIn today, remember to follow us at Crossroads Consulting to keep up with all things in our recruiting world.

At Crossroads Consulting we want to be your first step in busting out into the career of your dreams. With job openings spanning across the nation, and a resume service, there’s no excuse to not be contacting us today!

Remember, we’re here to put the ‘human’ back into ‘human resources’

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YOU WANT TO DO WHAT?

Posted on July 14, 2011 | 1 Comment

Resume Objective

BY: Adam Gavriel

Searching for a job right now? Take a look at your resume quick. If next to the objective you have something like “Looking to obtain a job in the marketing field” you have already found one of your problems. There’s a reason your objective is to be placed at the top of the resume and that’s because it is the gateway to the rest of your experiences and skills. It is used to prepare the reader, and hopefully future employer, about what your resume entails and what kind of skills you have built up over the years. However above all, you can use your resume to show the employer that you’re interested in helping them, but not just yourself.

Take a look back at the objective at the top of the blog here: “Looking to obtain a job in the marketing field.” One way to easily beef up this objective would be to simply add “Looking to obtain a job in the marketing field where I can apply my social media skills.” Right away you’re showing the employer what you’re all about, or what your biggest strength in the marketing field is. Then when the reader continues to read further down your resume they don’t need to be surprised that you have experience with social media.

Let’s take it even further.

When an employer is thinking about hiring a new employee they’re not thinking about how they can help that employee but how that employee can help their firm. Knowing this it’s never a bad thing to show the employer that you’re interested in applying your skills not to further your career but to aid the firm in their ultimate goal. “Looking to obtain a job in the marketing field where I can apply my social media skills in order to build and maintain rapport with clientele.” This objective notes that the main goal of this firm is to increase consumer opinion via social media. Going back to a few weeks ago where we blogged about researching the company before you interview, it would also be of great importance to research a company before you write your resume. If you can learn what the main goal of that firm is, and can somehow work it into your resume’s objective the hiring firm will know you’re serious when you send in your resume.

If this same firm’s main goal with social media was to increase consumer activity or consumer spending, that would work in the objective too: “Looking to obtain a job in the marketing field where I can utilize my social media skills in order to build sales and consumer loyalty.”

Right off the bat an objective that appeals directly to the firm will be of greater importance to the hiring manager rather than an objective that is bland, or only in place to build up the interviewee.

This is just one part of what Crossroads Consulting can offer you with our resume service. We will tackle your resume from top to bottom increasing its efficiency and making sure that when an employer reads your resume it best outlines your skills and presents you perfectly.

Remember that we’re always updating our job openings and also make sure to like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter!

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FAST FIVE TIPS ON INTERVIEWING

Posted on July 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

BY: Adam Gavriel

After a long holiday weekend one might find it very hard to remain prudent on their job search. However it is of most importance that you stay keen on your skills and continue to hone your craft. What better way to do that than to sit down to start the week and read these 5 easy tips on interviews. Welcome back to the work week, he’s how we hope to help get you through it…

1. In June we posted here on out of our mind the key phrase: “Know before you go” and it still rings true. Proving to a potential employer your interest in their company through prior knowledge you bring into the interview could make or break your chances at getting a job. Think of it this way, if you were interviewing for a job at Google, how impressed do you think they would be if you could tell them all about their newest social media venture Google+?

2. Another simple one. If you’re on time you’re late, if you’re early you’re on time. It would be in your best interest to get to a job interview at least 15 minutes before it is scheduled. Sitting in the lobby waiting for the interviewer will only give you extra time to prepare for potential questions. It will also show the company that you can be a loyal employee.

3. Dress the part, feel the part. Confidence can show in any manner be it the way you dress or the way you conduct yourself in the interview. Make sure you’re looking sharp.

4. Be prepared. Going back to the “know before you go” saying you should also come to an interview prepared. Just because you have already sent your resume and or cover letter to the company doesn’t mean they always have one handy. Make sure to bring enough copies so you’ll have plenty for anyone who may ask to see a copy at the interview. Also make sure that the resume you bring is as up to date as possible.

5. Know yourself. In short, know who you are, what your skills are, and be sure to be confident and explain yourself thoroughly. How can the interviewer get a grasp of how you can be as an employee if you don’t even know yourself? Make sure you can come up with real-life examples to answer your questions. Talk about a time where you displayed excellent team building skills or took on a role as a leader in a group work environment. Make sure when you leave the room you can walk out with your head held high and that you said everything you wanted to say.

These 5 tips are just a few of what we at Crossroads Consulting can offer you. Along with our resume optimization service and interview preparationwe are updating our current openings every day. Feel free to drop by the website and browse all of our services.

Also make sure to like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter!

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, and good luck getting back to work!

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IT’S ALL ABOUT THE HASH

Posted on June 27, 2011 | Leave a comment

BY: Adam Gavriel

When twitter launched in mid Mid-July 2006 it launched itself as a social media tool that could be used for micro-blogging or consumer management. Fast-forward to today and twitter has evolved itself into its own monster. With upwards of 200 million users, twitter has become one of the main focal points of social media along with Facebook, LinkedIn and other tools.

What Twitter has over Facebook and LinkedIn are quick easy services that allow users to easily find what they want. One of these features is the hashtag. For those of you that don’t know, a hashtag on Twitter is when you precede a word with a pound sign (#), so, #CrossroadsConsulting for example.

Hashtagging becomes a useful tool because it easily opens up a group for other Twitter users to monitor similar tweets. The origin of the hashtag can be placed back to older chat based clients on computers like IRC (internet relay chat). In these instant message and chat clients, users would all be able to join the same chat room by theme or general interest. Some of these chat rooms included #NHL, #HRManagement, and #Recruitment. Internet relay chats like mIRC still exist and are still used today.

When Twitter launched it aimed to do the same thing as clients like mIRC by opening up these hashtagging capabilities. For example, when watching a new show on TV, let’s say comedy central, you may notice that in the bottom right-hand corner during the new episode of South Park #Southpark. This is an example of hashtagging being used the right way as Comedy Central uses it to open up a gateway to easily monitor what their fans think of the new episode, as well as allowing their fans an easier way to quickly communicate with one another.

Now maybe it is unfair on how to say someone is using hashtagging the right way over others, but as time has gone by and more and more people have jumped on to twitter, hashtagging has evolved.

Many Twitter users today use hashtagging to quote a theme of their tweet. I see this most among professional athletes and college students. I myself am guilty of tweeting a hashtag as a theme of a tweet rather than as opening a channel for others to discuss when I tweeted “Soccer at 430? Wish me luck #OutOfShape.” This is just the way the hashtag has evolved in even my limited time on Twitter.

Over the next few days we at @EmploymentDepot will be trying to bring hashtagging back to the professional Twitter world. Within our tweets you will now begin finding #NewBlog, #Recruitment, or #JobOpportunity. Opening up these channels will make it easy for our fans to find what they are looking for from our twitter account as easy as possible, and hopefully more professionals jump into these tags and help them become social media fixtures for the recruitment industry.

We look forward to your feedback on these decisions.

Remember to follow us on Twitter, like on Facebook and connect with LinkedIn.

Be sure to continue browsing our Job Openings at the Crossroads Consulting website and never hesitate to mention us on Twitter or send an email with any questions you may have.

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INTERVIEW PREPARATION

Posted on June 9, 2011 | Leave a comment

BY: Adam Gavriel

In this blog today, we’ll give you just a preview of what Crossroads Consulting can do you for as part of an interview preparation guideline.

To steal a saying from the local weather and traffic channel: “know before you go” is a key phrase to remember when you have an interview scheduled. You’ve finally been set up with the employer of the job you have been eyeing on Crossroads Consulting’s job openings listand you are ready to go. Your resume and cover letters are set, your suit is ironed, you look good and feel good. But a sinking feeling comes over you, what exactly are you going to be asked in this interview? Who is going to be interviewing you? Do you know anything about the company you’re interviewing for? Again, “know before you go.”

My brother always tells me that one of the most underrated computer skills out there is the ability to use Google. Let’s say for arguments sake that you were in fact interviewing for a position at Google. What can you learn from a simple Google query about your potential interview? In short, it’s everything.

All readily available to you on the internet are the names of the founders of Google, the head of HR, and even the Google ethics code. All major things you can learn about the organization that can be used in an interview. So when the interviewer sits you down and asks why you chose to apply to Google you can reply with facts like…

· CNN money rated Google the #4 best company to work for in 2011

· I agree with many of the ethics codes and conducts outlined in the ethics policy

· I’ve been following Google’s growth for many years and am intrigued at their entrance to social media with Google buzz, Google wave, and the new Google +1 button.

These three random facts, all from the internet out of 100s available to you will help you set yourself aside from the competition on game day. When the interviewer looks back on the candidates he or she met that day they’ll remember the name (insert your name here) and how they knew so much about the company. The fact that you took the time to research the company can go a long way in showing you’re interest in working there in the future.

If you liked what you read here, please make sure to come on over to our website and see all the services we offer including interview preparation.

Also make sure to follow us on twitter, like us on facebook, and connect on LinkedIn.

But especially don’t forget to “Know before you go.”

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JOB CONFIDENCE WANING

Posted on June 6, 2011 | Leave a comment

BY: Adam Gavriel

According to a telephone survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports 31% of American Adults believe that unemployment will be higher a year from today. This report comes at a 5 point increase from March. However, the same study showed that 29% of American adults believe the unemployment rate will go down, while 32% believe it will stay about the same.

Even with the increasing uncertainty in the unemployment rate, 21% of Americans believe that the job market is better now than it was a year ago. The statistics stay consistent when the report continues to say that 39% believe the job market is worse.

Also interesting is that workers under 30 (Generation Y and X) are more doubtful about the future of the job market than the older workers.

Now after the survey recorded in June, 3 out of 4 employees believe that when they leave their job it will be on their terms. This number is up from the 72% that was reported in May, as you can read in a post on out of our mind here. This number remains reasonable as the 19% of the same adults surveyed reported that their firms were currently hiring, while 23% reported that their firms are currently laying people off.

In today’s uncertain economy it all comes down to how prepared you are as an employee. The roughly 75% of workers who believe that when they leave their job it will be on their terms could be in for a hard surprise when it’s not. These same 75% of employees may not have a current resume finished and ready to send to employers while the 25% of those that are wary will more likely than not be prepared to get started on the hunt. It all comes down to preparation.

Stressed in every blog here on out of our minds is having that great resume and cover letter, being prepared for an interview. Knowing everything you can learn about a firm you are applying to can make or break your status as an applicant.

This is where Crossroads Consulting comes into play. Not only do we have the job listings for you, but we’ll walk you through every step of the way if you need us to with resume optimization and interview preparation services. At Crossroads Consulting we take pride in every resume we handle to make sure we are showing you off to the employer in the most efficient way.

Stop being so down on the economy and start doing something about it. Reading in that Rasmussen report that some potential employees looking for work have given up their search was extremely disheartening. It’s time to exhaust every opportunity you can. Have your resume optimized with us and begin sending it out to employers. Get your name out there and start making an impact on the job market today.

Make sure to follow Crossroads Consulting on twitter, like us on facebook, and connect with us on LinkedIn. Building that connection on social media could be your first step towards that new job.

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Twitter – Where Is the Intimacy?

Posted on May 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

By: Adam Gavriel

Lady Gaga (@LadyGaga) is currently the most followed account holder on the micro-blogging website Twitter.com. Her followers, numbering 10,121,059 at the time this blog is being written, could mount a huge offensive against a number of countries if organized the correct way. About 15 times the population of North Dakota, you can say Lady Gaga has affected many people in her 38 months on twitter. Or has she?

Further research discovers that at 9:26pm on 5/17/11 @LadyGaga received upwards of 100 mentions. In her 38 months on twitter, Lady Gaga has tweeted just 755 times. If she’s receiving more than 100 tweets a minute, and only tweeting approximately 20 times a month, it’s safe to say that this is a one way street. Now obviously the more followers you can gain on your twitter account the better off you are in terms of how many potential clicks you can manage to direct. However what you’re losing with this is the ability to connect.

As a research method I sent out a tweet from the official Crossroads Consulting twitter account @employmentdepottelling our 690 followers (pales in comparison to 10,121,059) that we are looking for new and interesting accounts to follow. In the 26 minutes following that tweet, @employmentdepot has received 0 mentions from its 690 followers, and 36 new tweets from the 99 accounts we ARE following. Even when a tweet is sent out to put out a white flag, and say we’re ready to follow you gets lost in the mess that is twitter.

On any given moment, twitter is receiving ~3000 tweets per second. Here’s a graph of Sunday 5/1/2011 during the night where the news was all over Osama Bin Laden’s death and the twitter explosion that followed:

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Twitter does offer options to keep things organized and make sure you manage the intimate connections you want to keep. Features like lists come in handy when you want to separate certain categories of twitter users that you’re following. What’s also useful with lists is you can find out how your followers perceive your tweets. For example, @employmentdepot is listed via 29 twitter users ranging from “jobboard” , “NJ-CT” , and “recruiters.” With these lists we can find out what certain followers are interested in. A tweet specific to one of these topics may be better served including a mention to that follower to make sure it breaks through the clutter and reaches the target.

What seems to occur with twitter overload is that good stories may be lost. Learning from an important account you follow can be hard to isolate in the clutter.

Lady Gaga’s now 10,122,111 followers are part of quite a clique, but how great of an experience are they receiving because of it?

Conversation is what we at @employmentdepot are trying to build. Take a look at the twitter page and shoot us a mention, we’ll be happy to respond.

Our goal is to put the “human” back in human resources, and we mean that on every level.

Also remember to keep looking out for the job you’re waiting for on the Crossroads Consulting current openings page.

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CONNECTIONS

Posted on May 2, 2011 | 1 Comment

By: Adam Gavriel

While celebrating the last day of classes and going through my normal computer routine, New York Rangers news, funny pictures, more Rangers, fantasy sports, some Call of Duty, and finally if I’m feeling educational I like to jump on over to www.adage.com and see if I can learn anything about the Marketing industry I plan on entering when I leave school.

Today what caught my eye was an article titled “If Your World Is Your Office, You Won’t Learn or Grow” and it caught my eye for all the wrong reasons. I have to admit I am a person who would enjoy sitting at the computer alone rather than getting out there and networking, something I truly have to work on in the near future. I decided to click the link and find out what I’m missing in the big bad world.

The passage from the article that made me think of Mitch Beck and Crossroads Consultingread:

“Imagine if every day was routine: same drive into town to the office; sitting at my desk; meetings in our conference rooms — you get it. Now imagine a break in that routine by spending more time with thinkers from other industries. Consultants. Attending conferences. Hearing alternate points of view. Meeting new and fascinating people”

The author of the article, Marc Brownstein, really drives home his point with this passage but not only that, he drives home the fact that networking and building new connections is the name of the game.

However, Marc only discusses the in-person method of networking, but with new social media tools being evolved and created every day you may not have to leave your desk to get that new connection that might land you a great job. I know Mitch and I built our relationship via Twitter with general conversations regarding Howlings.netand the New York Rangers. A perfect example about how a connection, built entirely on similar interests, can land you a job.

If you’re not on your social media game, it’s time to step it up. Just today Mitch tweeted and posted on facebookthree huge job opportunities (Chief Marketing Officer in the franchising industry, a SAS Developer & a Business Developer with Gov’t exp) via LinkedIn and without the right connections YOU could be missing out on huge opportunities within your area of expertise.

So head on over to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and get connected.

Get out of the office – away from the computer and your smartphone and have lunch with a few friends, who knows what opportunities they might know about.

But most importantly, don’t miss your chance over at Crossroad Consulting’s job listings on landing that job you always wanted.

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The TweetChat

Posted on March 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

By Amy Schlubach

Social Media is making it easier for organizations to communicate with their customers.  Besides Facebook, Twitter is also a useful site for companies to use.  Companies and customers can chat back and forth using TweetChat.   Twitter’s definition: “TweetChat helps put your blinders on to the Twitter-sphere while you monitor and chat about one topic.”

For no cost, a person, or an organization can search any type of topic, using a hashtag (#), and can join the streaming chat.  For companies, it is a great way to meet others in the industry, or to just share information with interested people.

So, using my own Twitter account I checked out the #unemployment conversation.  Most of the conversation consisted of people complaining about not having a job, facts about unemployment rising, and some of the tweets were just confusing or off topic.

To try to help out the unemployed, I recommended Crossroads Consulting’s great services.  It wasn’t easy to chat “back and forth” because the tweets were coming in so fast and with the broad topic the tweets were all quite different, but I hope my post could help someone looking for a job.

I think TweetChat is a great way to get the word out about any type of topic.  It’s a great way for companies to learn about their industry, and they can chime in the conversation at any time.  It is also good for just the average person to talk to a whole community about a specific topic of interest.

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A BRAND NEW DAY

Posted on November 16, 2010 | Leave a comment

So you’re looking for a job?

Times are tough out there and you find yourself on the outside looking in?

What to do?

You could do like so many others are doing and just quit, give up and collect from the Federal government and be a burden to the rest of society… That’s always an option…especially from a government that seems to be encouraging that these days…

-OR-

You can fight back. Take control of your own life and get yourself into the game.

If you find a recuriter out there that you trust, and I certainly hope that you trust us here at Crossroads Consulting, LLC and try and establish a relationship with your recruiter of choice and hope for the best. One thing you’ll always be assured of here is that you will get nothing but the truth from us, even if that truth isn’t what you want to necessarily hear.

The other thing that you can do is pick yourself up from the kicking to the ground that you’ve taken and get out there.

What do I mean?

Spend some time on the computer and target companies that a) you would have some interest in working for and b) that you think would have some interest in talking with you. The best choice for the latter is to call competitors of your most preficous company…especially if you spent any kind of significant time at all working there. Find out who the person is that you would be reporting to, and here’s the part that takes some courage…JUST SHOW UP and try and get an interview.

That’s bold…there’s no doubt about that, but in this marketplace you have to do whatever you have to do to make something happen for yourself. If you’re in sales, what better way to demostarte to a Sales Manager that you’re not afraid of cold-calling then to show up like a cold -call and sell yoruself.

Essentailly that’s what we as Recruiters are doing for you. We do it slightly differently in that we have contacts with many of the management teams of companies all over a particular region and when we’re impressed with a particular candidate we pick up the phone and start making calls on your behalf.

It sounds a lot simpler than it really is…the recruiting side that is. But the bottom line is that things happen when you shake things up.

It’s not easy right now. I’m not going to kid you. We’ve taken a gigantic hit over the last couple of years ourselves, but I get myself up and into the office everyday even when I don’t feel like it and get right back in there.

You can do it too. Don’t lose faith in yourself. That’s the one thing that nobody should ever be able to take away from you. I’ve had my own battles with it the last two years and it’s a process that you have to go through in order to give yourself that competitive edge to win out on jobs over so many other deserving people.

There are opportunities out there. You just have to get out there and find them.

We’re here to answer any of your questions and help you us much as possible. Feel free to call us at 203-459-9969 anytime Monday through Friday from 9-5 or you can email us anytime at info@crossroadsconsulting.com. A good recruiter who genuinelly cares about the people they work with, which we like to think that we do, are hard to find. That’s why we have the motto, “Crossroads Consulting, LLC., We’re putting the ‘Human’ back into Human Resources.”

This is your wake-up call.

It’s a brand new day.

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