Mail me your resume?

There is a school of thought that mailing or faxing your resume to a company is a bad idea........well, schools out on this topic. Don't mail or fax your resume. It's one of those things that you learn growing up. Use nice paper, write a professional cover letter.....that advice was good in 1989, but today it's old fashioned and shows a potential employer that you are behind the times. Here are few tips one how you REALLY want to go about submitting a resume.

1) Apply online - Um, yeah, resume black hole? Maybe. But doesn't matter you absolutely positively have to apply for a job online. Why? It gets your resume into play officially and also puts it into a format that the company can use to manage and track your application. Every company needs to track its applications, make it easy for them to hire you.

2) Find someone who works there and have it submitted as a referral - Companies hire employee referrals at a much higher rate than any other type of candidate. Does it matter how strong the referral is? Not really. What really matters is that someone within the company thinks you are a potential hire. So, ping your network, reach out to friends, do whatever you need to do and find someone to refer you to the company. Trust me on this one, it works

3) Email it to the recruiter - That's right, it's that easy....but don't do this until you've applied online. Why? Because the first thing recruiters do is go and check if you've applied and are already in the system. If you are, then the application is easy for the recruiter to manage and allows them to quickly get the ball rolling.

4) Find a good agency who can help get you in - Sound crazy? Depends on the company. Some companies don't have an HR or recruiting team to do this stuff....so they outsource all of it to agencies. They are selective and only work with those vendors......find them engage with them and work with them to get the interview.

That's it for now, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and that your job search is heating up!

Are you ready to hire?

Most economists seem to agree our economy is starting to turn around and experience positive growth. Unemployment is still high, but as the economy grows eventually the job market will take off again. When it does...will you be ready? In order to remain competitive here are a few tips to help make sure your organization continues to hire the best!

1) Get lean - Is your interview process too long? Take forever to get an offer approved? Now is the time to streamline your process. Reduce your time to fill and start hiring those great employees that you'll need to take your business to the next level. Why get lean do you ask? Because your competition is not only getting lean but getting mean.

2) DO NOT get mean - I'm of the belief that trashing your competition is the worst thing you can do. Lots of companies do it, and lots of recruiters do it. Waste of time, in my opinion. You should want to work with me because my company is better than your other options. I don't need to trash the competition, I know we're better and so do you.

3) Hit your network - When hiring ramps up, and it will...referrals will be your lifeblood. People you know are trustworthy, qualified and easy to find. So, is your LinkedIn networking current? Maybe it's time to start hitting those alumni events again.

4) Be prepared - You really need to understand who's hiring, what they are offering and be able to prepare your organization. If you are trying to hire a bunch of new college grads, it helps to know what the hip new startup across town is doing. Competitive intelligence in recruiting? Absolutely. You can't beat the competition if you don't know why they are successful.

5) Beef up the Staffing team, NOW - You don't want to need 5 recruiters and have a hard time finding them because the market took off while you were debating 4 or 5 new hires on your team. My advice, while you are figuring it out....start interviewing. You can always hold off on making offers until you have budget or approval but waiting for the ink to dry is setting you up for failure before you even start.

Anyone else have a few tips/tricks for getting ready for when the job market heats up again?

You can always say no!

I have a motto that I use a lot, "You can always say no". It's really great advice if you are looking for a new job but keep turning down interviews. You should never, ever turn down an interview if you are looking for a new job. Not related to your current job? Take it. Not really in the industry you are in now? Take it. Interviewing for jobs is the only way you can be sure to really, truly find a job that makes you happy. Here is why:

You don't know what you don't know - How do you know you don't want a job if you don't interview? Need I say anything else? Really, if you don't take the time to talk to people you are letting preconceived opinions and biases influence your decision making. Stop doing that! Take the interview, learn as much as you can and make a decision based on the facts.

Practice makes perfect - Interview much? Most people don't.....so most people aren't good at it. So, what better practice than the real thing. Seriously, think about how much more relaxed and "on" you'll be when you have an interview you REALLY want if you've had a few practice interviews over the previous months. Plus, see tip above.

It's all about the network - Not the right fit for a job? Decide to pass? That's ok, maybe the person you met would be a great future contact or lead for you. Sound like a long shot? It's not, I've got a few folks who I've interviewed with and now keep in touch with professionally as well as personally (HUGE shout out to Sanjay here!)

So that's it, take the interview. Doing this will allow you to make decisions on jobs based on the facts, meet new and exciting people and fine tune your interview skills for that job you really want to get.