May 302017
 

You’ll find countless studies telling you that quite often, recruiters or interviewers tend to cross candidates off their list of candidates aren’t dressed appropriately, don’t show up on time, don’t know enough about the company they’re interviewing at or don’t seem enthusiastic enough.

Of course, those are a given – and they’re hygiene. If someone is serious about a job, they’ll dress properly, research the company and the work they do, show up on time and be courteous and eager for the role. Beyond that however, there are a couple of things that candidates often forget, something that I’ve experienced in countless interviews.

The importance of asking the right questions to your interviewer during the various stages of the interview process should not be underestimated. The questions you ask in an interview showcase a lot about how you think as a candidate, but more importantly, as an employee. They reveal what your priorities are, what you’re looking for in your next role, and paint a very clear picture to your interviewer and potential future employer.

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May 222017
 
Your technical chops may not give you the edge when you’re new to the workforce, but your network might.

It used to be that the only way to climb a career ladder was to pick up more skills. Learn how to do X, get paid more for it, and earn job-title Y. Up you went. Each new capability you mastered got you to that “next level,” either inside your current company or at a different one. Today, many of those ladders have fallen and shattered, with just a few left standing. Lately there have been efforts to hammer together some new ones, with new skills—usually tech-based—like cybersecurity or coding expertise held up as the new keys to staying competitive in the future job market.

[The common] advice [to develop technical skills] still reflects a “ladder climbing” mind-set in a world that’s looking a lot more like a lattice.

That isn’t exactly wrong. Some skill sets really are in higher demand than others, so it makes sense to counsel undergrads and entry-level workers to brush up in certain subject areas in order to gain an edge. But this kind of advice still reflects a “ladder-climbing” mind-set in a world that’s looking a lot more like a lattice, where talent—and people’s entire careers—are much more fluid.

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  •  May 22, 2017
  •  Posted by at 2:09 pm
  •   Comments Off on Forget Coding – Here’s The Skill You Need Most When You Start Your Career – Lars Schmidt
  •   Career Success, Social Skills
May 152017
 
“It’s more about who you are than what you do,” one LinkedIn insider explains.

If you’ve heard a lot about “soft skills” lately, it’s at least partly because employers want you to develop them. According to our Global Recruiting Trends study here at LinkedIn, more employers are rolling out “soft skills assessments” to test job candidates on the cognitive and personality qualities you don’t go to school to learn: critical thinking, adaptability, learning agility, communication, etc. By all indications, these factors are trading at a higher value in 2017 than they have in the past.

“Come to each interview armed with anecdotes about how you reacted to a major change.”

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May 082017
 
Contact your references ahead of time and go over what you’d like them to discuss.

When an interviewer asks you for a list of references, are you confident about the names you hand over? Do you wonder what kind of questions they might be asked, or whether you’ve picked the right people? Are you supposed to list your current manager, or is it OK not to?

Here’s a quick rundown of the basics that you should know about job references.

[See: Famous CEOs and Executives Share Their Best Career Advice.]

What kind of questions will your references be asked?

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May 012017
 
What catches their eye-or pass you by? You might be surprised.

When you’re looking for a job, your LinkedIn profile is a 24/7 information resource for the recruiters who are looking for talent. In fact, in the Jobvite 2016 Recruiter Nation Report, 87% of recruiters find LinkedIn most effective when vetting candidates during the hiring process.

But what really catches a recruiter’s eye when they’re scrolling through your profile? Here, several weighed in about profiles that make them reach out—or recoil.

INCOMPLETE PROFILES ARE A TURN-OFF

When Cassandre Joseph, senior talent acquisition visionary and strategist at recruitment firm Korn Ferry, looks at a profile, she wants to see your work experience, education, and accomplishments. Incomplete profiles make it more difficult to determine whether you’re the best match for the job, because she can’t get the whole picture. It’s a bad first impression, she says.

“I find somebody’s profile and it says they’ve worked at, according to the profile, four different places simultaneously. They’re adding the new places, but not putting end dates. That says they haven’t updated their LinkedIn profile in X amount of years,” she says.

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  •  May 1, 2017
  •  Posted by at 2:47 pm
  •   Comments Off on This Is What Recruiters Look For On Your LinkedIn Profile – Gwen Moran
  •   Career Success, Resume Tips