Via WSJ Blogs …
More employers plan to increase college graduate hiring than decrease it for the first time in more than a year.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers‘ index for college hiring rose to 98.2, up from 87.2 in November. The index, based on the organization of career counselors’ survey of 122 employers and released Tuesday, covers employer expectations for January through March.
Via FastCompany.com …
This morning I discovered after taking a 20-minute career assessment test on MyPath.com that, in addition to being a writer (a career I’ve built happily over more than a decade), I also possess the skills to be a teacher or a public speaker. It’s certainly not as far-fetched as the results of a similar five-minute quiz I took on Careerpath.com, which indicated several, let’s say, alternate jobs that also matched my skills and knowledge. They were … wait for it … coroner, economist, and electrical engineer.
Via The Daily Beast …
With unemployment over 10 percent for the first time in 26 years, The Daily Beast crunches the numbers to determine the careers with the best—and worst—prospects. The results: the 10 high-growth and 10 worst-growth jobs out there.
Via philly.com …
For thirty years as an employment counselor I spent a lot of time getting jobseekers to write résumés that would capture the attention of a human reader. Occasionally, companies would assign initial résumé screening to trainee fresh out of college. I taught 1970s jobseekers to write catchy résumés with impressive bullet points and bold print. The challenge I gave my charges: “Your job is to write a résumé that gets through to Bill, my mythical screener, in 15 seconds.”
Via Ars Technica …
More employers than ever are researching job candidates on sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter in order to find out more about their activities and character. And, it turns out, many candidates are doing a great job of showing their potential bosses poor communication skills, inappropriate pictures, and even how many workplace secrets they can leak.
Via CareerBuilder.com …
Employers throughout the world are increasingly struggling to keep pace with expanding hiring needs. A recent workforce planning study conducted by Aon Consulting for one of its clients showed that nearly 60 percent of its key knowledge workers and leaders would need to be replaced in the next five years.
But, demand for talented employees exceeds the supply, leaving many organizations wondering what strategies to adopt to retain and expand the workforce to maintain competitive advantage. Systematic workforce planning linked to key strategies and business challenges is a foundation for informed talent strategies and processes that will impact the bottom line favorably.
Via CNN / Careerbuilder.com …
Recently, Stephanie Somogyi Miller was interviewing candidates for an entry-level public relations position at her company, Spread PR, a Miller/Hamilton company. Over the course of 20 candidates Miller quickly realized — much to her shock — that many job seekers were unprepared when she asked them, “Why should I hire you?”
“I thought it gave people the opportunity to tell me what they wanted to tell me, versus me asking a million questions,” Miller says.
Via New York Times …
GETTING a rejection letter is a painful part of job hunting, but at least it means you’ve been noticed. These days, I’ve been hearing about more job hunters who respond to online job postings, only to hear nothing back from the company. Ever.
Was the position filled? Is the company just taking a long time to fill it? Did the hiring manager even see the application? You may never know.
Via CollegeRecruiter.com …
There’s been an interesting discussion in the NACE JobPlace discussion list about the perception by many employers that students who do a more effective job of searching for employment opportunities will have a better chance of being hired.
I agree but caution those who believe that the best candidates are those who try the hardest to be hired.
Human resources research and information site Staffing.org has published an excellent report titled, “Internet Best Practices,” which details how candidates are finding and applying to job opportunities.
It is packed with interesting stats that most recruiters will find useful and informative, for example, “While the Internet is it not yet a universal tool, it approaches that in certain demographic groups. And as it continues to mature, usage patterns are continually changing. Three years ago, major job boards were all the rage. Then niche job boards started gaining ground. Now it’s all about Twitter, Facebook and social media.”
Here is a link to the report: http://staffing.org/library_ViewArticle.asp?ArticleID=450
