JTL Services, Inc. has been getting hammered with new jobs so far this year. If you or someone you know is looking for a new position, I will list a link to our job page. I’m not sure what people are thinking about what 2012 is going to be like but I figured that it would be a good year for new hires based on the upcoming election.
Let’s face it, if this year turns out like the last 3 years in the private sector, there will be a new sheriff in town. If this year turns out to be a good one, let’s HOPE that people don’t forget how bad the past few years have been. Bad policy decisions are bad policy decisions. As an owner of a search firm, I don’t need to ask anyone if the hiring situation is good or bad. I KNOW! I can tell you that the past 3 years have been the slowest I have seen in the past 15. I hope that this time people vote for real CHANGE and not pocket change!
I heard a great analogy the other day that really sums up socialistic policies. Ask a student if he/she would donate 1/3 of their GPA to a student that needs a higher one. Now, think of that for a second. Will the donation really help that person out in life? Hell no! It didn’t make them smarter. It might help them out temporarily to get into a better school but can they do the work to succeed? This scenario reflects that of the 50% of the American people who don’t pay taxes: They expect monetary handouts from those of us who do pay taxes. It doesn’t help them out long term, and in fact, it kills their self esteem. Teach a man to fish…
As you can tell, I am someone who believes in freedom and less government intrusion. These guys, regardless to which party they belong to, are nothing more than politicians! I’m an honorable, respectable person who pays his fair share and believe me, the last thing I need is more dependents! You know what I mean if your kids are out of the house. You’ve worked hard to put them through school and then you wake up and have to double down for 4 more years of hope and change. ¡Aye carumba! What a nightmare!
Now let’s do some good and help those help themselves by getting a job and a job in the government is NOT a job!
We need: Division Managers, HSE Managers, Lean Mangers, Manufacturing Engineers, NPI Project Engineers, Project Engineers, Quality Engineers, Turbine Component Repair Engineers, Value Stream Mangers, Product Managers, QA Testers, UI/UX Architects, Web Developers, Web Architects, Engineering Technicians, and Technicians just to name a few.
Have you been asked any odd questions during a recent interview? How about this one “If you were a color what color would you be?” How about “If you were a superhero which one would you most resemble?”
I know you’re thinking, what the hell does this have to do with the job I am interviewing for? Am I going to clash with the color on the walls of my office? Are you thinking perhaps my body is not worthy of the tights that I have to wear?
Questions like this are being asked more and more. My best guess is that some HR Brainiac came up with the theory that these types of questions give better insight on a job candidate’s ability to perform. Perhaps it was just a good idea to sell a book.
Instead of these types of questions perhaps you might want to substitute them for some of these:
1) How often do you have to pee during normal work hours?
2) Are you married and if so are you open to an affair?
3) After you close a deal are you open to yell out “touch down for Jesus?”
Whatever questions that you might be asked whether dumb or valid, just don’t act shocked or surprised. Answer them the best you can with the upmost professionalism and with a smile of course!
If you are one of the fortunate ones that still is working today where and when will it end? That’s the million dollar question everyone needs to ask. The way I see it is that you are on borrowed time when it comes to a job. I know it only happens to the other guy but I have met a lot of other guys!
What we are seeing is that companies are investing in college work study programs. Instead of getting cheap help they are actually training them and finding something exciting for them to do so when they graduate they will go back and work for them. Another thing that they are trying to do is to keep the talent from leaving every few years by offering them new opportunities in house. Studies have shown that a new graduate will keep their first job for 2-3 years before moving on for a better opportunity. For a company to invest in a new grad just to prepare them for their competition has not been a good thing.
We all keep reading about layoff’s and the one’s that are being let go tend to be the “seasoned” employee. What I see as a recruiter is that employers hire the “newer to work force” talent and not the “seasoned” talent. The cutoff is around 12-15 years of experience. After that good luck! Now I’m not saying you can’t get a job but what I am saying is that your career is now going downhill. I see job candidates who were making $120k apply for jobs offering $65k and not getting an offer. Will companies stop laying off workers that have been through their programs that are now “seasoned”? Will the job candidate still be left in the same position as today’s “seasoned” worker?
The generation before me was all about loyalty and most people worked for the same company for most of their career. Retirement package was a big part of that but today they do not exist! 401K RIGHT! You will be lucky if you have any money left in it by the time you retire.
Do most people really have an idea where they are heading? Are the problems we all face solvable? America has always bounced back right? Is bouncing back even possible?
MELT UP This video is very educational.
Have you ever seen “H1B’s and Non-Green Card holders wanted” in an ad? I have not but what I have seen is the opposite being stated. What I usually see is an ad that states the “right candidate must be a US citizen or Green Card holder” yet people who do not have this status still send their resumes.
Can you tell me why? Has anyone with an H1B ever gotten a job they applied for when the ad specifically states no sponsoring??
They then get pissed off when you do not respond to them with an email. Is it really my job to respond to someone who sends me their resume when they clearly do not qualify? That’s like applying for an accounting position when you’re experience is in landscaping!
Let’s say we are working with a client who tells us that there is no relocation money for the position. We will then put that information in our ad that goes out to various job boards. A potential candidate applies for this position and happens to live in another state. As a recruiter, you tend to assume that they read the part where there is NO RELO. During the first conversation we have with this potential candidate we discuss the fact that they would have to move for this role and more times than not they tell you that they need relocation money. This does not have anything to do with negotiating; this really is about being stupid! As a recruiter I’m about bringing two sides together and creating a happy scenario, which is how we get repeat business. We try our best to find talent within the parameters of our clients’ needs. What we don’t do is disregard our client’s needs and throw anyone at them. That would be like showing them a great candidate that happens to have died six years earlier.
My question is:
A) Do people really take the time to read a job ad?
B) Do they just forward their resumes off to any job ad?
C) Are they just arrogant enough to think that they have what no one else has and therefore things like Citizenship and relocation money does not apply to them?
D) None of the above.
As a job candidate you need to make sure that no one is sending your resume to a company without your permission! That means your recruiter needs to tell you the name of the company that they want to send your resume to.
Three good reasons are:
- Has your resume been submitted to ABC Company within the past year?
- Do you have any issues with ABC Company?
- Would you be interested in this job description with ABC Company?
Some recruiters have relationships with hiring managers who are always looking for top talent regardless to whether they have an open position or not. This too needs to be explained to you up front before the recruiter sends your resume. This is what we call “clearing the candidate”.
I can’t get over the fact that recruiters, I use the term recruiters “loosely”, still send resumes without clearing their candidates. An ethical recruiter clears their candidates every time. The problem is that certain recruiters have weak relationships all around and they are simply trying to make something happen for themselves, but what ends up happening is the job candidate gets hurt. If your resume makes it to the same place by two different recruiters then it will become a problem for you. Two recruiters, same job, both recruiters say that they are working with you. Icarumba! You see the company is going to need to get to the bottom of this to determine who gets the credit if you happen to get the job. You might not even get that far. The last thing a company wants is a fight over who is really the one working with you on this job. It creates a negative reaction from all parties and starts you off on the wrong foot regardless to what you may think.
Today, more than ever before, you need to protect your resume. There are people out there that if they were to get a hold of your resume would send it all over the place. Some recruiters will ask their job candidates if its OK to send their resume to some of their contacts and most job candidates think “sure, why not”. The problem is that you are going to get burned by this tactic. You should never allow anyone cart-blanche with your resume.
Another excuse that I hear from recruiters is that they could not get in touch with the job candidate so for the sake of time they submitted the resume. Listen, we all understand that in the contingency market it can be a race to submit a resume but when you cannot clear a job candidate then that’s just too bad. You the recruiter have no right to hurt this job candidate’s opportunities.
Some recruiters will send a resume to a company to try to get a job order. This happens a lot and they could be using your resume to do it. Did you ever get this phone call before? “Hey I got great news! ABC Company wants to interview you. I would be like “great news who said you can send my resume there”? Some recruiters will send a resume to test the waters to see if this is the type of candidate they are looking for based on a job description. I don’t have a problem with that as long as they remove the job candidates’ name, address, phone number, email address and the names of prior companies that the job candidate worked for. This allows your client to see the talent and to tell you that they would be interested in meeting this candidate, however, you have NO claims to this candidate with your client if your candidate has already been submitted. What we would do in this scenario would be to notify the contact at the company and to tell them that the candidate told us that their resume has already been submitted.
This approach of always doing what is best for our clients and our candidates seems to work well for us!
