(Read more “Monday Staff Meeting” posts by Dr. Harry)
Posted by Dr. Sean Harry
One of our clients recently shared this networking story with us.
“Joe” found a job posting online that looked perfect for him. He checked his LinkedIn network and found that a former work colleague was working at that company so he reached out. Following good networking etiquette, Joe didn’t ask for help getting to the hiring manager or for any favors from his old friend. Joe simply called to re-ignite the relationship and to ask some questions about the company culture, how his friend liked working there, etc. Joe focused the conversation on what he could do to help his old friend. They talked for about 30 minutes. During that time Joe and his old friend caught up on work, family, their careers, and a variety of other topics. It felt good to reconnect.
After half an hour or so, Joe said, “Well, I better let you get back to work. That’s about all of the questions I have. I’d ask you more about the position I’m interested in applying for, but you probably don’t know much about it.”
Joe’s friend responded, “Actually, I know quite a lot about that position. I am the hiring manager.” Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve been busy creating auto-listing tools this month. We haven’t tweeted that much, but we’ve put up some good jobs in several different areas.
Portland Jobs Listings/Tweets from the various accounts the last few days (plus tweets from friends on twitter):
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KGWNews:
RT @PDXJobs: (Please Retweet) Have a Portland job opening/know of a job opening? @, email, DM. Looking for a job? Follow me. #pdxjobs
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——————————–Related Posts– Read the rest of this entry »
Posted By Dr. Sean Harry
A reader recently commented: “Dealing with recruiters, hiring managers, and HR is a game where the odds are stacked way against you. One never knows what it is that gets you eliminated from consideration. And often times, they just go with an internal candidate they identified way before they advertised the position you applied for.”
This is a VERY interesting observation. Many people feel its true that applying for a job is a “game” and that the odds are stacked against the applicant before the game ever begins, but think about it from the standpoint of the employer. Who would YOU rather hire? Someone you don’t know that you pulled out of a stack of 1,000 resumes? Or someone you know or have met through someone you know? I’m sure MOST of us would rather hire the latter. People hire people they know, because finding someone who is the “right fit” is often MORE important than finding someone who has the skills you need. You can always train people new skills. But if someone is not a good fit for your organization. . . well, you can’t really change that, can you?!
Then there is the cost of hiring. Consider that it costs about 1.5 to 2 times the annual salary of the employee per hire. That means, if I am paying someone $70k per year the cost to hire them is somewhere between $105k and $140k. If they end up not fitting into the organization I might have to pay that out again in 6 – 18 months. However, if I hire someone I know (or meet through a friend, colleague, current employee, etc) my chances of finding a good fit are much better – thus saving the cost of hiring someone else within 6 to 18 months. Again, which would YOU prefer?
Since THAT is the game, the secret for job seekers is to activate your network to be the person with the odds stacked in YOUR favor. Use your Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve been really busy making some auto-listing tools this week, We haven’t tweeted that much, but they are some good jobs here for sure.
Portland Jobs Listings/Tweets from the various accounts the last few days (plus tweets from friends on twitter):
By Dr. Sean Harry*
Thank goodness for spring! You are looking for a job, and spring is Job Fair time. But before you head off to your next Job Fair adventure, there are a few things you should know
- There are going to be LOTS of people there and very few jobs . . . if any. You may be going to a Job Fair looking to find a job, but employers go for a completely different reason. Most companies don’t show up with jobs to offer. Companies are there to promote themselves and assess job seekers. They are seldom there to offer jobs.
- Company representatives will see dozens (perhaps hundreds) of job seekers at the fair. The chances of them remembering you from the Job Fair are slim. Your best bet is to get a verbal commitment for a conversation at some time in the future. Get a name and email address, and follow up immediately after the event.
- Take plenty of copies of your resume and business cards. Give them out liberally – even to other job seekers.
- Have a strategy, set goals, and know what you want to get out of the Job Fair. Since landing a job at a Job Fair is not realistic, your goals should simply be to make a certain number of connections that will lead to a face-to-face meeting within the next week or two. A good goal is to come away with 3 solid follow-up “leads”.
- Other job seekers might be your best bet for making contacts. Don’t neglect making connections with other job seekers. They can be a great source of information and support.
- Use the job fair to assess opportunities. While specific jobs may be few and far between, you can tell what areas of the economy are gearing up for growth. Companies are not going to waste their time or money by going to a Job Fair if they have no Read the rest of this entry »
Portland Jobs Listings/Tweets from the various accounts the last few days (plus replies from friends of PortlandTwitterJobs)
Read the rest of this entry »
Obviously, here at Portland Twitter Jobs, we believe that social media (and twitter in particular) is good for business and job seekers. But don’t take it from us, see what Portland Search Marketing company engineworks has to say. They even mentioned us!
From engineworks:
Should my business be on Twitter?
Everyone is Talking about Twitter
Twitter is gaining a lot of attention lately, for um…gaining a lot of attention. The site’s popularity even warranted a news story on CNN this week, leading to millions of social media laggards to ask two questions: ‘wait, what is Twitter?’ and the more introspective, ‘Do I need to be on Twitter?’ Read more at engineworks
———————–Related Posts– Read the rest of this entry »
The Portland Shop Symposium isn’t a job fair or job panel but these are definitely the kinds of people to network with and learn from. This is especially true if you can provide services that local retailers and entrepreneurs are looking for (sales jobs, creative jobs, service jobs).
From Shop Symposium:
35 Local Business Leaders Join to Educate Business Owners
Second Annual SHOP Symposium for Portland Retailers and Entrepreneurs
Tickets are still available to the second annual SHOP Symposium, a one-day conference for small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to draw an edge in what may seem an over-saturated market. Like last year’s selling-out SHOP/08 (touted as “fabulous”, “uplifting” and having “contagious energy”), Portland’s unique SHOP Symposium is a forum fit to educate and equip Portland’s business-minded individuals, with 35 leaders in the Portland business community speaking on panel, adding to a lively, educationally rich dialogue followed by an audience-approved Q & A. Read the rest of this entry »
Portland Twitter Jobs was on KGW tonight. Excerpt from the story:
Getting back to work: “Tweets” help job searchers
09:27 PM PDT on Monday, March 30, 2009
By ANNE YEAGER, KGW Staff
PORTLAND — Lloyd Bagtas, 26, and John Brown, 26, have a lot of time to kill because they were recently laid off.
They worked as web programmers and designers for one of the largest interactive web companies in the country.
“You would know our clients. They are big names,” Bagtas said.
Bagtas won’t forget when he was called into Human Resources. “I really don’t even talk to my boss, he’s so high on the food chain. So when I saw him with the HR person, I said uh-oh.”
The company had lost some high-end clients and had to lay off 20% of their work force.
It was Brown’s first job. “It was hard. Everyone kept telling me, you’re not going to be laid off,” he said.
Both Bagtas and Brown have been on Twitter since it started two years ago. But for the rest of those who aren’t connected, it’s one of the hottest networking tools out there.
Bagtas and Brown “tweeted” that they had lost their jobs…Continue at KGW
Update: The TV/video segment is online now
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Julian Chadwick at KGW Newschannel 8
Portland, Oregon
March 27, 2009
KGW has a story tonight on using social media to find jobs and they had me in the studio to talk about @pdxjobs. They had a couple other Portland twitterers on as well. One has been in interviews as the result of twitter and one has found a job through twitter (hopefully through @pdxjobs!) It airs tonight at 11. Hope you enjoy & I hope I look good 
(Update: Story & TV/video segment)
In the meantime, we are working hard to make this site useful to you.
Features we will be adding shortly after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »
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