If you’re an IT professional entering the job market , we’ve got something to tell you that will make you smile – maybe even shout for joy.  Here goes….

You may never have to write another cover letter as long as you stay in the technology profession!

See, we knew you’d smile :)

If you’re like the majority of job seekers, you’ve probably spent a fair amount of time during your IT job search writing the perfect cover letter. And you’ve spent all that precious time writing…

One common thread across all levels of clients has been their internal road blocks to recognizing their accomplishments.  They are so used to living and working day in day out that their record keeping of accomplishments fades into oblivion. Although, there are still the handful that have enough ego for the rest of us, those aren’t the people this blog is meant for – not to mention I am sure many of us wouldn’t mind if there were some choking happening there (wink wink).

When…

Back in 2003 while reviewing submitted hardcopy resumes, there were a number of new submissions that came in with mini-CD disks. Unsure as to what they really were, and concerned of potential viruses our IT department scanned them and once given the approval it was my turn to check them out. To my surprise they simply held the soft-copy of the documents that had been submitted – ok thanks but not needed.

During the Global Career Brainstorming Day (held Dec. 3, 2010) and at…

Interviews can be pretty nerveracking, especially when you are desperate for that job.

Imagine a scenario - you have been out of a regular job for a few months; your mortgage hs not been paid for few months; your credit card dues have piled up...you can only be desperate...

Unfortunately the interviewer needs to hire a person, who is calm, cool & collected.

Even under normal scenario, the blank response in an interview can be a deal…

Alban:

Great post. I've always put the fee as a third or fourth priority...

to me I don't win unless the client and candidate win first. Nothing pleases me professionally, more than a successful placement and years later the candidate calls me from the other side of the desk, he'she is now a hiring manager looking for talent and remembers the positive experience we had when they were a candidate.

It takes a while of "paying it forward" but it sure is nice when it comes…

In just about every country that Firebrand operates, we are finding it difficult to hire great recruiters. We have pretty tightly defined criteria, so I guess that’s not a surprise. However, what is a little unusual so soon after a severe recession, is the evident rush to hire recruiters across the board.

In Australia there is such a shortage of experienced recruiters that one ‘Rec to Rec’ recruiter told me she has over…

I am seeing a lot of articles and blogs written about the "interview game", interviewings being like playing poker or how to's about "Playing the Interview Game". 

A game normally connotes a "winner and a loser".  Any interview should be a business meeting between two professionals where both make every effort to provide concise, clear information to the other person involved in the meeting in order that both parties have as much information about the other as possible.  If…

[Note: This was written as we are getting pelted with snow and freezing rain for the past two days in Boston]

As a kid, I loved snow days.  It was a free day to play outside with friends and just simply not doing anything productive.  It was just pure fun.  The problem was that instead of doing homework with some free moments during the day, I would always wait till the last minute and have a race to the finish to get it completed.

As an adult, I see…

Sure, there are some experts out there who will tell you that you can always hire A-Players, but I'm not one of them.  Considering 54% of all hires are mis-hires (according to a 2000 Fortune…

Since President Obama took office, there has been a marked shift in how immigration enforcement is handled. Where immigration raids aimed at capturing illegal immigrants were more common during the Bush administration, now U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is relying on I-9 inspections to find and fine employers who do not follow immigration laws.  As a result, employers are becoming more educated about the inspection process and fines that could be assessed.

As a…

Bzzzzzzz.  Bzzzzzz.  That's the sound of a busy bee.  Click, send, click, send, click, send, new string, new search, click, send, click, send, all while rocking out to some good country music.  Now that is the fun of being a busy sourcing bee.  These days my desk is full from 1 side to the other with Job Descriptions galore, and highlighter gone haywire on every keyword, and key point in my VMS client's good and bad written JD's. 

Ahh, the Job Description - welcome to…

Interviewing - the Texas Holdem of Staffing

When is staffing like Poker? The answer is when you are interviewing. In poker, and especially Texas holdem, you are always looking, and listening for insights into other players hands. These are called tells. Sometimes they come as non-verbal communications, a twitch, or a blink of the eyes. Other times it comes as nervous talk, sometimes you are talking to them asking them questions,…

There is an ongoing wail from the HR profession. We have heard the clichés and platitudes ad nauseum. “HR needs a seat at the table”, “HR is the key to the future” etc, yet nothing ever changes. Ever.

Why is this? Well, it’s simple. The vast majority of HR roles in companies have developed informally over many years. They have…

The current “war” in the web space is presenting new challenges to existing players like Google. Especially with sudden surge of social media, few people doubt how Google will cope-up against Facebook / Twitter. Little we understand that both these channels play with “information” and do very little to innovate with it.

QWiki has been recently released in TechCrunch. It is an excellent and smart example of information is more powerful and impactful…

I'm in a budget crunch environment at work - yes, I recruit/source for the federal government. Needless to say, money that we would ordinarily use for tools is being soaked up to pad our offer/promotion funding - (signing bonus, relocation, ect). 

So what I need... I'm decent with boolean searches without any tools. But I do need a simple, SIMPLE CRM/database that is compliant. I'm losing track of all of the incoming resumes and materials. We have Sharepoint, but I'm not sure…

It is becoming increasingly important in today’s economy that every company needs to try and do more with less.  And in no place is it more present than in the recruiting sector.  Recruiting organizations consistently are asked to do more with their ever decreasing set of resources.

But not all’s lost as recruiting organizations are consistently finding ways to improve their processes and cut the fat of their overall…

Take a quick look at part of the post from…