Jobing.com: Albuquerque Community Blog

Senior Controller - Robert Daniel - Pulakos CPA's PC

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:22:34 GMT

We have an exciting opportunity for the right individual to take on the Senior Controller role for an Albuquerque company with multiple operating entities. Please see our Jobing ad for more details.

Social Recruiting 102 - Peter Weddle - Weddle's New Mexico

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:32:05 GMT

Social recruiting is now emerging from its adolescence. It’s moving beyond the wide-eyed exultation of early adoption to the squinty-eyed assessment of mature users. The focus is less and less on what we can do with social media and more and more on how best to put it to work.

That’s especially apparent in the subset of social recruiting we call networking. Social or professional networking online now clearly falls into two general categories of activity. They are probably best described as content and contact networking. Both can help you access high caliber passive prospects for your organization, but each is performed differently.

Content Networking

Content networking occurs in the discussion forums on job board and association Web-sites, in blogs on corporate sites and in Google’s newsgroups. These destinations attract visitors who share a common career field or occupational interest and like to communicate and commiserate with each other about it. The interaction is social—a community of sorts does form—but it’s primarily based on the topic being discussed.

In most but not all cases, the members of these communities are passive prospects. They are not looking for a job. More often than not, however, they are interested in advancing their careers. Indeed, that’s why they are engaged by the content. They want to be smarter in their career field and better able to put their occupational interests to work. Said another way, they are top talent.

The only way to connect with these prospects effectively is by practicing the Golden Rule of Networking. That axiom is simple yet inviolate—you have to give in order to get. In other words, if you want the participants in these discussions to consider your openings, you have to first contribute to their content.

How can you do that? By being the expert you are. You know more about what employers are looking for in their field than they do. You have a much better understanding of how to interact with a group they consider exotic and hard to understand: recruiters. And, you have a more realistic sense of what employers will pay for certain kinds of expertise and different levels of experience.

So, don’t pretend to be someone you are. Be yourself. Then, when a participant’s contributions to the discussion single them out as a gem of a prospect, you can reach out to them privately and they’ll know who you are. You will have established the familiarity and trust necessary to move even the most passive of prospects into a more active frame of mind.

Contact Networking

Contact networking occurs on professional networking sites such as LinkedIn, Ryze, Yorz and Ziggs. These sites enable people to build out their connections in the workplace and thereby enhance their stature in their profession, craft or trade and/or make themselves “findable” by recruiters. While the groups within LinkedIn and similar sites do facilitate content networking, most of those who join these sites do not participate in them. They are simply interested in creating passive links that may prove helpful to them right now or at some point in the future.

The majority of those who sign on to professional networking sites would normally be passive prospects. In today’s economy, however, it’s likely that a significant percentage are, in fact, active job seekers. As in the real world, they are forging connections with others in the hopes of bumping into or being referred to a recruiter with an opening appropriate for them.

Networking in such a population, therefore, is basically an exercise in doing old-fashioned cold calling by email or InMail. Just as executive search consultants have done for years, it involves moving through concentric circles of contacts to uncover candidates for an open position. With the exception of the first circle—your own direct connections—the contacts are not personally known to you. They are, instead, leads that may either identify a genuine prospect or provide yet another lead to someone else who could be.

The key to successful contact networking, therefore, is two-fold. First, as with cold calling, the activity is basically a numbers game. You have to keep pouring a lot of contacts into the top of the funnel in order to reach even a small number of legitimate prospects at the bottom. Second, you have to know how to message with clarity and impact. Long and windy communications are unlikely to be read so active job seekers are more likely to apply when they shouldn’t and passive prospects are unlikely to read them at all. In effect, you have to find just the right balance between speed and engagement.

While we are still developing the best practices for both content and contact networking, these tools already represent some of the more mature applications of social recruiting. They are not, however, a substitute for the array of other sourcing methods we employ to identify top talent. They enable us to tap the power and promise of the social Web, but they incur a cost—the time commitment of the recruiter—that must be carefully managed within the context of your overall recruiting strategy.

Thanks for reading,

Peter

Visit my blog at Weddles.com/WorkStrong

Peter Weddle is the author of over two dozen employment-related books, including Recognizing Richard Rabbit, a fable of self-discovery for working adults, and Work Strong, Your Personal Career Fitness System.

Things We Wish We Had Known - Peter Weddle - Weddle's New Mexico

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:54:37 GMT

The positive growth turned in by the American economy in the third quarter of this year suggests that maybe, just maybe this Great Recession is now in our rear view mirror. As it fades away, of course, the tales will begin about what we did during this terrible time. While recounting those legends is surely important, so too is sharing the insights we’ve acquired from our experience.

Cataclysmic events often alter our perceptions of the world around us. That was true during the Great Depression, and it will be true as we emerge from this Great Recession, as well. Some of these new views are opinions about what happened and why, but others are actually lessons that we’ve learned about how best to survive and prosper. They’re the things we wish we had known before the event occurred because that knowledge would have undoubtedly enabled us to fare better than we did.

I think the sharing of this wisdom is good for us—it’s cathartic to acknowledge that we’ve earned an advanced degree in the school of hard knocks—but it’s even more helpful for our kids and grandkids. In a very real sense, we are giving them a gift, a roadmap for the future that may help them avoid the dead ends and dangerous potholes they are sure to encounter.

Each of us has our own view of the lessons we should pass along. For me, the following four insights are among the most important. They are realizations everyone must have in order to chart a successful and fulfilling career in the 21 st Century world of work.

Seeking job security makes you vulnerable. In today’s turbulent economy, employers have no idea what will happen tomorrow or the day after. They may promise you job security, but they can’t deliver it. So, counting on it is likely to put you out for the count. A far better objective is career security—the ability to stay employed in a job of your choosing regardless of the condition of any single employer or the economy as a whole. Unlike job security, career security is a state you create for yourself. You don’t have to rely on the good will of some employer. You anticipate the changes in your career—the timing of a move from one boss or organization to another, the refocusing or reskilling that’s necessary to accommodate shifts in your industry or profession—and then you plan and execute those changes so they benefit you.

Recognition is something you give yourself. Most managers and supervisors mean well, but if you wait for them to recognize your accomplishments at work, you’re likely to be disappointed. Some have the social skills of a brick and others are too worried about their own security to take care of yours. That’s why it’s important for you to keep track of your own “career victories.” Sure, it takes a little effort to maintain a contemporaneous record of what you’ve done and how well you’ve done it, but that account will give you more satisfaction than most managers ever will. Don’t just write it out, however; also review it regularly. Take the time to remember what you’ve done and pat yourself on the back when you deserve it or give yourself a little counseling if you’ve let yourself down.

Working tirelessly is a sure way to get tired. Sadly, many people in today’s world of work find themselves wired up with no place to go. They’ve learned the hard way that staying continuously in contact with the office doesn’t protect you. It exhausts you. We’re all worried about the H1N1 flu becoming a pandemic, but workaholism already is. If you have any doubt about that, look left and right the next time you’re lying on the beach. Every other person will be glued to their Blackberry or iPhone checking their email. The impact of such behavior on both individual performance and wellbeing is already acute and likely to get worse. In a knowledge-based economy, your worth is measured not by your connectivity, but by your contribution. And, your contribution suffers when you don’t give your mind and body a chance to rest.

Taking care of your career is the best way to take care of you. The conventional approach to career self-management has been to get an annual checkup and leave it at that. Historically, we paid attention to our career just once each year—during our performance appraisal and salary review. That approach was dangerous then; today, it’s a sure-fire way to induce career cardiac arrest or what most of us call unemployment. The only safe course in a workplace as turbulent as the one we now have is to develop career fitness the same way you develop physical fitness. You have to commit yourself to building up the strength, endurance and reach of your career every single day. Yes, that’s a lot of work, but it’s also a smart investment. You spend one-third or more of your day in your profession, craft or trade, and you deserve an experience during that time that is every bit as good as the rest of your life.

We have acquired many insights from our experience over the past two years, but these four maxims are the key lessons we have learned. They are the things we wish we had known so they are now the things we want others to know.

Thanks for reading,

Peter

Visit me at Weddles.com

A Set of Master Keys in Words - Peter Weddle - Weddle's New Mexico

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:52:27 GMT

Keywords are a central feature of our business day. We use them to search our resume databases and to parse through the profiles and resumes posted on job boards and social networking sites. The problem, of course, is that we pesky humans have a bad habit of using different words to express the same idea. That variability in human expression makes it difficult to know which keywords will actually identify the best candidates for each of your openings.

So, what should you do? How can you select the right keywords when there are so many competing alternatives? The answer, I think, is to create a keyword taxonomy—an annotated list of search terms—that is rich in the language of the top talent in the specific career fields for which you are recruiting. Think of it as a “set of master keys in words” that can unlock the candidate databases you are probing.

Creating such a tool is not particularly difficult. Doing so, however, is a departure from the current practice in many organizations. It involves temporarily stepping outside the press of individual, day-to-day assignments and taking a longer term view of how keywords can best serve your recruiting strategy. Here’s what I mean.

The rule of thumb in developing a list of keywords has usually been to rely on the information provided to us in a job description or requisition. The problem with this approach, of course, is that those documents are typically formulated by hiring managers—one of the least articulate populations on the planet. The terminology they provide, therefore, is necessary but insufficient to unlock the best talent in an ATS or job board database. It is a part of the master keyword set, but not all of it.

How can you fill in the gaps?

I suggest you borrow a page from your colleagues in sales and marketing and form a focus group. Such a group is only useful, however, if it is composed of the right participants. You’re trying to uncover the language used by the best talent for your openings, so your focus group should be populated with the same kind of people. And, you have a ready source of such individuals among your organization’s “A” level performers in the career fields for which you’re recruiting. They, better than anyone else, know exactly which terms their peers will use to describe their qualifications.

Top performers are usually very busy, however, so you may have a hard time breaking them free for such an exercise. If that’s the case in your organization, you can also build your set of master keywords by conducting a similar survey with your new hires during their orientation. This approach is clearly more challenging to implement, however, because you will have to base your selection of the group’s participants not on their demonstrated excellence at work, but on your judgment of how they are likely to perform once they are on-the-job.

In either case, your focus group will yield the best results if its work is conducted in three steps.

· First, build your baseline. Ask the participants to list all of the terms they would use to describe the qualifications required for an individual to be able to perform their job effectively. These attributes can include specific skills, occupational and/or industry knowledge, prior work experience, personality and any other factors that would bear on their ability to contribute. If the group has a hard time knowing where to begin, ask them to review one or more of the keyword references that are currently available. These include Google’s Keyword Tool, which will suggest keywords based on previous Google searches; Wordtracker, an online research tool; and WEDDLE’s 3 volume set, Finding Needles in a Haystack, which lists over 25,000 keywords and keyword phrases, across 5400 job and position titles in 28 industries and professions.

· Second, restate the terms in order of their importance. Ask the group to prioritize each of their terms according to its impact on an individual’s job performance. While there may be some disagreement among the group about the placement of specific terms, encourage them to arrive at a consensus rank ordering of the overall list.

· Third, group the terms into search baskets. The best way to probe a resume or profile database is to conduct your search in concentric circles of ever greater specificity. This approach enables you to hone in on and eventually determine a reasonable slate of the most qualified prospects in a database. Therefore, ask the group to break their list into the following categories: absolutely critical, very important, somewhat important and nice to have.

Those four baskets of search terms should then be added to the terms you derived from the hiring manager’s job description or requisition. If those documents enable you to do so, assign each of those terms to one of the categories used in Step 3 above. If not, the most politic course to assign them to the absolutely critical category. The resulting integrated list of search terms is your set of master keywords.

The above process is clearly labor and time intensive so think of it as an investment to develop an asset. The product you create—your keyword taxonomy—is just such a resource. It is a state-of-the-art search tool that can be used over and over again by the entire recruiting team. No less important, that tool gives them a genuine competitive advantage because it will increase both their efficiency and their performance. It should, therefore, be password protected and carefully monitored. As with all assets, it will require updating from time-to-time, but the effort involved will be substantially less than of the original development.

Keywords are typically viewed as one of the basic tools in our profession. For better or worse, everybody uses them so it’s easy to assume they have little or no differentiating value. When forged into a powerful asset, however, keywords can help an organization unlock talent other employers can’t reach. That’s why no recruiting team should be without “a set of master keys in words.”

Thanks for reading,

Peter

Visit me at Weddles.com

Sign up for Facebook updates via text. - Doug Mayes - Jobing.com Community Relations - NM

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Hello New Mexico. We're all about keeping you posted with the latest employment news, so we'd like to invite you to sign up for updates via SMS text. If you're often away from your computer or can't use Facebook at the office, this is a killer way to stay current. Here's what you have to do.

1. Visit our Facebook fan page.
2. Become our fan.
3. On the left side of the page, click "subscribe via SMS."
4. Follow the instructions to set up the text service on your phone.

It's that easy. See you on the trail.

Career Victories - Doug Mayes - Jobing.com Community Relations - NM

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Back in the day, accomplishments at work were only accomplishments if they were acknowledged by a supervisor. That reality had at least two downsides for you. First, it limited the definition of an accomplishment to whatever made sense to your supervisor, whether or not it made any sense at all for you. And second, your accomplishments were only recognized if your supervisor bothered to do so, and sadly, not all supervisors have good human relations skills.

The net effect of this situation was to diminish your perception of your accomplishments. If you have any doubt about that, think back to the last time you wrote a resume. Remember how hard it was to recall your achievements in your most recent job, let alone those in jobs you held before that? That fuzziness indicates how little impact your accomplishments have had on your own sense of success at work.

Such a malformed view of your role at work is a threat to you and to your career. It undermines your self-image and, ultimately, your self-confidence in your own capability. And, it clouds how people see your contribution on-the-job and potential in the workplace. If you are only as accomplished as your supervisor acknowledges, they are in control of what happens to you and your career, and nothing could be more dangerous in today’s much more demanding world of work.

What should you do about this situation?

Throw out supervisor-defined accomplishments and focus, instead, on personal “career victories.” A career victory is different from an old fashioned accomplishment in several ways:

· First, a career victory is defined by you. You set a goal—I will improve my work skills or I will increase my output on-the-job—and you determine what constitutes reaching that goal—I will improve my work skills by completing this course of instruction or I will increase my output on-the-job by learning how to use that software program.

· Second, career victories occur wherever you say they do. They may happen on-the-job or outside it, in an academic institution, a professional association or a volunteer activity. A career victory is not limited to what happens in your employer’s workplace; it describes what happens to you—the self-improvements you realize by reaching goals you set—in whatever venue you select.

· Third, career victories occur however you say they do. They are not dictated by what best serves your supervisor or employer. A career victory may certainly do that, but its purpose is to reinforce your self-esteem and advance your career. You decide what self-improvement will do you the most good and the conditions under which it will be realized.

· Fourth, career victories occur whenever you say they do. They don’t depend upon your supervisor’s ability to recognize them or their willingness to express that recognition in a way that will do you any good. A career victory is a success that you recognize, and it is a well deserved pat on the back that you give yourself.

Career victories are based on a very simple, but powerful premise. It analogizes achieving career success to riding a bicycle. In other words, you can coast for a short while in your career, but most of the time, you’re going to have to peddle—you’re going to have to engage in continuous self-improvement—to keep making steady progress. If you don’t, your career will start to wobble and eventually topple over.

Although this concept may seem a bit strange at first, it’s not all that hard to get used to. After all, almost all of us know how to ride a bike. And even if we haven’t done so for awhile, it’s one of those skills you never really lose and thus can quickly regain. Achieving career victories, therefore, is something anybody and everybody can do. They are a democratic activity. And, unlike accomplishments, where recognition can be colored by the biases and limitations of your supervisor, they are an equal opportunity form of celebration.

You can use your career victories in several ways. To start, I suggest that you memorialize your victories in writing by creating a “career record”—a diary of sorts that describes all of your work-related successes. This document isn’t a resume, although it can certainly make writing a resume much easier. It is, instead, a simple listing of your self-improvement goals and what you did to meet them. That record, in turn, can help you see your progress in the world of work so you can celebrate your successes (whether or not they are recognized by your employer’s performance appraisal system). And, it can provide a wake-up call if you find yourself coasting along and losing momentum in your career.

Focusing on your career victories doesn’t mean that your contributions on-the-job are any less important. Indeed, they can and should be career victories to which you aspire and for which you strive. The reason you do so, however, is not to gain the recognition of your supervisor, but instead to express and experience the best you can be. That’s the true definition of success in the modern workplace.

Thanks for reading,

Peter

Visit me at www.Weddles.com

Peter Weddle is the author of over two dozen employment-related books, including his latest, Work Strong, Your Personal Career Fitness System.

JSEC Meeting Next Thursday - Doug Mayes - Jobing.com Community Relations - NM

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 11:34:42 GMT

Don't forget this month's JSEC meeting. We have a great community project starting with Peanut Butter and Jelly Family Services, Inc. and breakfast of course!

Thursday,  November 12th
8:00 am to 10:00 am
ITT Technical Institute
5100 Masthead St. NE
Theory Room 4

You must RSVP to: tlieber2@comcast.net
Designated parking is recommended for all guests located
on the East Side of the building.

New Mexico SHRM State Conference Keynote Speakers Announced - Doug Mayes - Jobing.com Community Relations - NM

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 17:15:53 GMT

The New Mexico SHRM State Council is pleased to announce an impressive lineup of keynote speakers for its 2010 conference. This event provides an opportunity to hear some of the brightest speakers on HR matters working today. The conference will feature China Gorman, Chief Member Engagement Officer for National SHRM, employee recognition expert Chester Elton, an engagement guru Robert Van Arlen. Click here to see more information about the conference. Early Bird discounted rates are in effect right now. Sign up today.

China Gorman
HR: WHY IT IS CRITICAL IN TODAY’S ECONOMY

Every day, HR professionals are stepping up to the plate to help their organizations confront the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. They are being called upon to address a daunting array of workforce challenges that could significantly impact whether their organizations survive the current downturn and have in place a solid foundation for success when the economy recovers. This presentation will highlight innovative strategies HR professionals are employing to avoid or minimize crippling layoffs, to maintain morale and employee engagement, and to retain and develop top talent during this crisis period. Participants in this session will look at best practices they can employ, drawing from SHRM Economic Stimulus Prize case studies, recent research by SHRM and other authoritative sources, as well as statements by leading CEOs and CHROs.

Chester Elton

The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage their People, Retain Talent and Accelerate Performance

Turnover can absorb resources at an astonishing rate. It is the most significant uncalculated expense in corporate America . Some estimates to replace a departing employee range up to a stunning 250% of that person’s annual salary. Turnover is an issue for organizations, especially in today’s economy, organizations that fail to effectively recognize their employees are losing the workers they wish they could keep. Retaining outstanding performers is critical, whether in a recession or boom. Elton will show how the transformative power of purposed based recognition produces astonishing results for you and the managers in your organization. As an HR professional, learn the tools to help your managers motivate their employees to achieve higher productivity, engagement, retention and customer satisfaction. This exceptional session presents the simple steps to becoming a carrot principle organization and to building a recognition culture in your organizations. Following these simple steps will make you a high performance leader and take your team to a new level of achievement.

Robert Van Arlen

Focused Synergy

Through Focused Synergy, he has developed a process for learning what challenges his audiences to think, react and change to achieve the results they desire for themselves, businesses or organizations. You will walk away with specific techniques to inspire growth, you will learn the value of practicing excellence, teams will improve alignment and everyone takes something away that they can share with others. Robert speaks about the power of Vision and how HR professionals are critical to the process of achieving vision and values alignment within their organization.

Catholic Charities Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program - Doug Mayes - Jobing.com Community Relations - NM

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 10:25:05 GMT

Hello Employers,

I'd like to introduce you to a program that provides rent assistance to prevent homelessness in our community. They are looking to reach out to local business and we're pleased to help. Contact them directly to learn more.

HPRP was made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in Collaboration with the City of Albuquerque and US Department of Housing and Urban Development.Our mission is to prevent community members from falling into homelessness. Through our rental assistance program, individuals can access stimulus funds to pay rent up to 12 months.

· Are you currently being evicted from your apartment? Or are you homeless?

· Are you able and willing to work?

· Have you worked at least 3 consecutive months during the past 18 months?

· Have your hours at work been reduced, or you have currently lost your job?

· Is you annual income at 50% or less than the median income for your household size?

· Does your apartment meet HUD Fair Market Rate?

· Do you have a birth certificate, state issued id and SS Number?

If you answered yes to these questions, you may be able to access support from HPRP. For more information please contact our main office at 724-4615. We will be conducting phone screens to determine full eligibility.

Better Position Yourself through Education - Doug Mayes - Jobing.com Community Relations - NM

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 09:38:06 GMT

What does it mean to “sell yourself”? It’s ensuring that your resume makes it to the top of the stack, or that your name is on the short list of preferred candidates. Sure it starts with a good cover letter. But does it really start there? It’s having confidence in yourself and your abilities in order to convince others that you are the perfect person for that incredible job that you really want.

In order to be the best, you have to know that you’re the best, and that means you have to do your homework. That’s right, education. There are many jobs out there but you may not have the right background. Well get it. You may be busy with a job that you don’t really want, but it pays the bills. Or you may be collecting unemployment for the time being, but that won’t last forever. Take a big tug on those bootstraps and earn the education that you need to better position yourself, professionally.

Going back to school… the idea is quite inspiring, really. But where will you find the time? You have it… you just need to carve it out of your schedule. The good news is that you live in the day-in-age of the Internet and what an awesome tool that is. Because of its widespread access, there are some really great online education options out there that offer you the opportunity to study wherever and whenever you want. The fact of the matter is, online education is booming right now and because of the competition, you have some excellent options.

So here’s the drill: finish your bachelors, get your masters, differentiate yourself with a specialized certificate in an up-and-coming field like Sustainability Leadership, Software Engineering and Networking, or go global with an international business doctorate. Do your homework. Research your options. You may be surprised at the educational opportunities that exist today within our pivotal global economy.

Sell yourself with confidence, knowing you have the right education. Research your educational opportunities at JobingEducation or learn more about one of our sponsored schools, UC Irvine - Extension or California http://tucson.jobing.com/company_profile.asp?i=127019} (online certificate programs) or California Intercontinental University {http://tucson.jobing.com/company_profile.asp?i=127036} (CalU – online master’s and doctorate degrees). Use your time wisely to better your life and let the bidding begin!