"I'm sorry… Why are you here?"

There are thousands of articles, blog posts and "how-to's"  advising job seekers how to prepare for a phone screen, a video interview, and in-person job interview. But what about the other side of that desk or conference table? The hiring manager, recruiter, HR manager,  and others tasked with interviewing and evaluating candidates?  …

Children around the world grow up listening to a simple saying ‘Do what you Love’. However, following those words might make the scenario worse for education professionals. People, who have passed one year after another studying their favorite subject, and have achieved many degrees to secure the most appropriate jobs, might not be able to enjoy a delighting paycheck at the…

By now you’ve probably heard and maybe even read at least one of the 129,732 industry blogs or news articles about Zappos’ new job posting-free world of recruiting. Sounds awesome, right?

Boring ads,…

While browsing Twitter recently I noticed an organisation that was offering an all in recruitment advertising service for less than £200 (about $335), so I got in touch. Not because I have any jobs to advertise, but because I was curious. Here's what they told me:

"We will write your advert ensuring it is fully key worded to show up in the relevant searches. We will…

Looking for a job is stressful – just ask Google. A search for ‘job search stress’ returns about 55,000,000 results.

Whether the job seeker is a member of the long-term unemployed, recently out of work, or even employed but exploring their options it’s important to understand that they are going through a stressful, time-consuming process. The easier you can make…

You may have all the right degrees that can get you through a job interview, if the interviewer decides to stay to the questions that relate job and how well you think you can perform it. But it has been noticed that employers like Apple, Yahoo! and more try to judge a person through some weird and tricky questions. Here are some examples of top 10 weird interview questions…

After The Shore Groups created its first ever infographic last week, we thought it would be a good idea to take on another spin on job seekers using social media.

Networking sites like LinkedIn can be such a powerful tool for job seekers, if used correctly. The ability to create relationships with recruiters, add CEO’s of businesses, and apply for jobs via the website with a few simple clicks. LinkedIn has grown massively…

Recruiting and hiring are highly competitive fields, and those parties on both sides of the transaction have a vested interest in getting ahead. Companies are eager to beat out their competitors by hiring the best possible people, and meanwhile, job hopefuls are looking to do everything they can to find the ideal positions. They want more money, better benefits and so…

A significant percentage of people involved with screening and selecting job candidates fancy themselves detectives, mind-readers, psychics and psychologists. They’re almost always willing to trust their own gut. But not much else slips unscathed through the scrutiny of these trust deficient evaluators of talent.

When this takes place do we end up with a talent…

I've never found that to be a good "call"

I've been hearing from people that they are getting contacted by companies and staffing firms to come right in for an in-person interview without going through an initial phone screen first. These are educated, experienced mid- to senior-level career workers pursuing professional positions.

In my personal experience as a job seeker I never had a worthwhile interview experience with a company that skipped the phone interview. And,…

No matter how far we think businesses have come with respect to recruitment and employment practices, there are always plenty of reminders that old habits die hard. 

One of these old habits is the classic client response to a recruiter who requests a job description; ‘I don't need a job description, I'll know them when I meet them'. 

This would be…

Over the last 12 months I have lost count of the amount of recruiters that have told me their career’s site is responsive which is great but when you actually delve deeper the main thing I have found is very few sites are you able to complete the application process from start to finish on a mobile device. Put yourself in the job seekers shoes how annoying and time consuming it is for you to find that dream job on your device only to find out in order to upload a CV you need a laptop or…

The median number of years that US, wage and salary workers stay at each job is around 4.6, as reported by the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics in 2012, giving them enough time to hop around as many as 10 times. Sourcing, recruiting, hiring, training and replacement costs could potentially come down to a loss for…

A few of us non-traditional, mold-breaker, non-conformist, square pegs in a land of round holes occasionally jokingly refer to ourselves as unemployable. And, in certain ways that isn’t far from accurate.

If we look throughout history we find plenty of well-known business and leadership success stories that wouldn’t have been possible if those responsible didn’t push…

If you are hoping to land a job or want to keep your current job, you have to realize that your personal brand will affect a company. A wrong step could leave a company a lot of clean-up—your picture gets placed in the paper for something illegal; you guest post a controversial article; a joke on Twitter gets misinterpreted; etc. For this reason, companies are looking for…

Once upon a time, and a beri-beri good time it was, there was a poorly-researched article about e-recruiters in The Atlantic magazine recently, which prominently featured me, without acknowledgment, and without any effort at journalistic integrity or any effort to determine the truth of the situation:…

Who needs boring book-ish data when you can get cute, colorful, cartoon data? Behold, the rising popularity of image-infused content for the copy-averse crowd. Depicted in this infographic are results from LinkedIn’s December 2013 survey of 18,000 employed professionals in 26 countries.

Based on the pictorial, we are initially led to believe that “around the world…

The good news: for at least a few people I’ve spoken with recently, the job market seems a bit warmer so far this year than it has been in quite a while. Let’s hope so!

The bad news: applying and interviewing for jobs is just as cumbersome as ever.

The ugly news: many employers must have missed the memo about candidates actually caring how…

Every recruiter has had, or will have, the experience of a candidate declining a job offer, contrary to everything the candidate has said or done up until that point. 

This is a very expensive failure of your recruitment process because at the time of the offer you have completed around 95% of the necessary work and have collected (if you are a contingent…

Although I understand how and why it happens, it is not in my nature to make assumptions, jump to conclusions or surmise. My analytical bent prevents me from forming critical decisions or taking action without adequate evaluation of tangible evidence or factual data.

That proclivity has served me well in countless complex and sensitive work situations involving…