Human Resources

Power posturing during an interview: should you do it? That all depends where you are in the recruitment process. Most applicant systems, and telephone screeners want to know if you are in the salary ballpark. Does that mean you should blurt out a number when a recruiter asks you what’s your salary range? Just say: nothing. A moment of silence say it all, often it prompts the telephone screener to give you a range first. The safe answer is: I expect that your organization pays a fair wage commensurate the the duties the position require. Some still choose to say: I’m negotiable, and leave it at that.

Chances are the person on the other end of the phone wants you to speak first. Sometimes answering a question with a question can work in your favor, such as, “how about if we wait until the second or third interview until be begin discussing salary? I’d much rather be assured that we have established that we are a mutual fit for one another.” Isn’t it smarter to be sure you are a fit for the position, and have an offer on the table before launching into salary discussions? Let’s not let our phone screeners put the cart before the horse. Remember, it’s up to you to hold your salary cards close to your chest.

What about recruiters who disagree with my strategy? To them I suggest that it is in the candidates best interest to allow the recruiter for the position be the first to discuss salary ranges. If it’s that important of a screening tool recruiters, put your cards on the table first. The candidate will decide if the range is acceptable or not. The strategy I’m suggesting works. I used it all the time during my own transition.

What about applicant tracking systems where companies make a salary range mandatory, or fields that require you to input your current salary? This is a conundrum that confounds, and frustrates career development professionals. There’s no easy answer. This requirement can hurt if you had to take a cut in pay due to the recent downturn in the economy. I suggest finding someone in your linkedin network immediately, and asking for an introduction to the hiring manager or recruiter. You can either input what you made input negotiable. If it requires a number you can take a risk and put in $1.00. That will surely flag someone’s attention and make them smile. It might make them mad, but either way you are making a point. Applicant tracking systems are looking for buzz words, key words that match the industry.

The best way to identify the tag cloud for the given job is to go to google, bing and search key word, search industry, job title, and see what pops up. An excellent tool is visit tagcrowd.com. Chandlee Bryan wrote an excellent blog post about how to make your resume shoot to the top of applicant tracking systems. Read her post here.

Once you’ve identified the key words prevalent in your industry, pepper them in your linkedin profile and resume. It is also important to search several different companies for job descriptions to discover what your job title, cluster, and job family is called in different organizations. This way you can strengthen you positioning in applicant tracking systems, and with recruiters.

I want to leave you with one last thought: make sure the photo on your twitter and linkedin profile is appropriate for your career search. Read this article posted on recruitingblogs today for great suggestions by recruiter, Hung Lee.

I now offer today’s theme song: Don’t Stop Believing-Keep Believing In Yourself, and Others Will Believe In You. Know this, I will keep believing in you until you believe in yourself!

That’s right, Monday, August 30th marks the first ever HireFriday show on Compassionate HR (my blogtalkradio show.) It brings me great pride to bring you the HireFriday Community members that make our space such a special place to be. In addition, The HireFriday All-Stars Show brings its with the best career development professionals in the business. People like Chandlee Bryan, author of The Twitter Job Search Guide will be one of our all-star panelists. I am hoping to convince Julie Walraven, Karen Siwak, Janice Worthington and other great resume writers to appear. Shally from Arbita will make an appearance. He’s the God Father of Candidate Sourcing. He is pointed to as the man who made internet research for candidate sourcing a valid, and respectable career.

I’ve invited the entire job search community to participate in tomorrow’s show. It will be fun to see who shows up. One never knows what will happen on blogtalkradio, and that’s part of the excitement. I’ve invited the best and brightest career coaches to call in our show. It will be a HireFriday job search free for all. We will stray from the Compassionate HR interview format in order to accommodate as many callers who want to speak

All the phone lines will be open, so anyone wants to call in to make a job search comment, ask a question about how to cope with unemployment, deal with limited resources, you are all welcome to pipe in–this show will provide useful ideas and tools for the taking. You will get so much free advice you’ll want to down load the episode free on I-Tunes so that you may listen to it again, and again. My hope is people will have a safe place to ask questions and discuss the ups and downs of the job search process. Unemployment is hard. HireFriday can help.

I kid around about being a fierce candidate advocate, and opened up the twitter profile for my alter-ego “GangstaHR.” She’s a kick-ass, take no prisoners, boots on the ground problem solver and candidate advocates. She vigorously debates people who pick on job seekers, and sometimes offends. Like me, my other persona has a heart of gold. GangstaHR gives me a chance to freely express my first amendment rights as an opinionated big-mouth who is fearless when it comes to defending job seekers, and their rights.

HRMargo, however is far more interested in providing useful information, job search strategy, and boot camp workshops to teach unemployed people how to find work using online resources. HireFriday and Compassionate HR are not just careers of mine, they are a way of life, and my way of serving my community. It’s my passion to be a candidate advocate. I care deeply about the plight of unemployed people. I will one day start a not for profit organization to serve guide women coming out of battered Women’s Shelters how to re-enter the workforce. I will serve disadvantaged populations, and teach them job readiness skills so that they too can re-join the workforce. While this is in the future, this is my ultimate vision.

In the meantime, I will offer job search strategy coaching, workshops, e-books, and useful tools to accelerate your re-mployment. Please tune in Monday evening. I secured a toll free number for job seekers 877-230-4601. Our listener call in line is 347-426-3215. You may also listen to the HireFriday All Stars show by pointing your browser to http://blogtalkradio.com/comphr. Thank you friends.

Your theme song today is by the Black Eyed Peas: One Tribe because The HireFriday Community I started back in February is truly one tribe y’all.

Why am I adamant about keeping the #HireFriday stream on Twitter for job seekers only? It’s simple really, job seekers, my unemployed friends deserve the spotlight. The deserve the validation, and confidence to know they are not alone; they are not forgotten, and most importantly, a community focuses exclusively on their interests to network, connect them to people who are in a position to leverage their networks to find jobs.

The job seekers tweet is retweeted multiple times, and soon it goes viral. This increases not only the chance to get in front of decision makers, it gives the the boost that open their job search network world-wide. There are colleagues in the recruiting world who disagree that this is a good idea. They insist on posting their automated commercials about their jobs into our stream. Untargeted job commercials are the very definition of spam. I’d argue this is fruitless, and the rate of return is low when job postings are strategically targeted. Nobody appreciates the spray & pray approach to job broadcasting. This is why I suggest that recruiters set up a global filter to find the candidates in the twitter stream. A targeted, effective job post on a high profile job board yields far better results.

Bill Boorman suggests otherwise (Please know I like Bill dearly.) He and @CathyRecruit Cathy Richardson set up HFUK (HireFriday UK-see his post here.) They chose to replicate their stream for mostly job postings. They’d like to see more job seekers in their stream, but their stream was primarily set up from the beginning to accommodate job posts. Hence, they are not gleaning job seeker participation. Why is that? Is it culture? Is it because once job seekers see that it’s just another twitter job board they aren’t interested in competing with postings? Is it because passive candidates who don’t want people to know they are looking for a job seek out anonymous ways to conduct their search?

I am the founder of HireFriday, but it’s not my job to be community manager of their stream, or HireFriday movement. They have complete autonomy, and I am willing to bend over backwards to provide promotional support within the US Community. I’m willing to share my business model, and consultation should they want my help. I embrace their efforts. With that said, I do not meddle in how they choose to replicate HireFriday in their country. HireFriday is in Canada, France, Sweden and is growing in leaps and bound.

Here’s what I do know:

• As soon as job seekers see that a job stream is primarily filled with jobs, they tend to shy away from posting their information.
• Job seekers require guidance, support and help in how to tweet for information to achieve maximum effectiveness.  They appreciate integration of the efforts on over social media platforms such as linkedin and facegroup where they can interact, and practice a boots on the ground approach to their job search.
• They appreciate networking with resume writers, recruiters, career coaches, and  each other to enjoy the advice and counsel that is abundantly available
• In order for job seekers to feel apart of a larger community, a high level of engagement and communication by a community manager & volunteer leaders is greatly appreciated, and encourages membership on the multiple platforms I’ve established.
• Job seekers appreciate their place in the spotlight.
• Job seekers appreciate it when others RT their tweets, and extol their professional virtues. Their hearts beam with gratitude when their job search tweets go viral.
• Job seekers need, and appreciate a sense of place, and belonging in a supportive, caring, and empowering community
• Job seekers struggle with information overload when following nothing but job posting twitter profiles
• Job seekers don’t feel welcomed to participate in streams heavily populated by untargeted job “commercials.”
• Streams that do not have a community manager often become ineffective, and lose their relevance and impact.
• When the community manager networks extensively with employers, recruiters, and hiring managers to promote the streams job seekers, amazing things manifest for job seekers.

It is well within the rights of my esteemed colleagues to disagree with my brand model, strategy, and tactics.  I welcome civil debate on my blog.  My colleagues know I am a fierce candidate advocate, and will tilt at their windmills if I perceive an attack the morale and esteem of an unemployed person.  Their job search, and emotional vulnerability is difficult without coming under fire.  With that said, it is incredible when my colleagues offer sound, strategic, and helpful advice  In fact, I believe in my heart it can be transformative.  Nothing makes my heart gladder when I see helpful people like Bill Boorman and countless others write posts, create videos, and post helpful articles to move job searches forward.  There are too many helpful people to mention who do just that.  Career development experts, compassionate recruiters, and HR professions are consistently providing meaningful information.  For that, I am truly grateful.

Frequently on Friday I exceed my API limit which is why I have multiple twitter profiles such as, @MargoRose @Hire_Friday, and jokingly @GangstaHR which I just opened yesterday.  There are few people I know who are as passionate as I am about fighting the good fight to accelerate the re-employment as I am.   Yes, I am a purist when  it comes to promoting the strengths of unemployed people.  I will continue to do everything in my power to promote the job searches of people struggling with unemployment.

My brand mantra is “Unemployment is Hard. HireFriday can help. Please won’t you lend a hand and encourage a heart.”  The last thing I want is for HireFriday to become just another spammy twitter job stream.  Twitter doesn’t need another job board.  What I am doing with HireFriday is setting me apart from the rest.  HireFriday is unique.  Why else would a reporter from The Washington Post, and the local media want to interview me?  Why else would famous social media consultants like Chris Brogan, Amanda Hite, Joni Doolin, and countless career development professionals include HireFriday efforts?  I think it is because I made a stand: Instead of Follow Friday, let’s adopt HireFriday and put unemployed Americans back to work.

There are those who say that HireFriday is just another flavor of the week on twitter, and like FollowFriday, will lose its traction and appeal.  I don’t believe this will happen because I made a decision in August to make this movement my career.  I want to devote the rest of my life to the HireFriday endeavor.  I will devote the rest of my life working with the disadvantaged, the poverty stricken, and those coming off public assistance, and females leaving battered women’s shelters to get back on their two feet, and get back into the workforce.

You see, I believe that having a job in today’s flailing economy is not just good for the pocket book, it is equally good for the spirit.  Unemployment can be spiritually debilitating, it can exacerbate and lead to clinical depression.  Unemployment can cause stress that can impair one’s physical health.  I want to equalize the mind, body, and spirit of unemployed people.  My long range goal is to start a 501 C-3 not for profit organization that is solely devoted to helping those in a career transition.

Now, you understand why I value and believe that HireFriday should focus on job seekers.  This isn’t something I do, this is a part of my core belief system.  I love my HireFriday community members.  They feel my love, and emotional support.  Some of them love me too.  I reach out 1 on 1 to offer emotional support when I see them falter.  Constant rejection can really hurt ones feelings.  This much I know because I’ve been rejected repeatedly.  I’m an empath.  I feel their pain.  This is the core reason after attending SourceCon, and ERE that while I love the recruitment skills, it is not my career path to be a full-time recruiter.

Candidate advocacy is my career path.  Thank you for reading my essay.  G-d speed to you, and yours.

Sincerely,

Margo Rose, M.Ed. HRD

Founder & CEO of HireFriday

Now for your Theme Song: To Dream The Impossible Dream.  It is the theme song from Man of LaMancha

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Every now and then I wonder why shocktalkradio, shocking blogposts, and controversy sells. I spend hours researching and writing about my guests for my benign blogtalkradio show, Compassionate HR. those blog posts are rarely retweeted. As soon as I write a shock talk post, everyone retweets, and links back to it. Strange. My google analytics spike when I write something slightly mean spirited, and controversial. It’s ironic because I am the Compassionate HR blogtalkradio post. I am a servant, steward leader. I spend 99% of my time helping others grow, and get HiredFriday.

Yet, my kick-butt posts are read furiously. Why? Is it because people don’t expect it? I really don’t know, but I find it frustrating because I spend no time researching controversial posts. I spend hours researching the meaty posts chocked full of tools and tips you can use.

I grow weary of this sad fact. Particularly when I hear those crazy posts are texted, emailed, and passed on like hot cakes on a yum-yum griddle. People love racy stories. It’s why shocking stories, and bad news is reported voraciously on network news. One day, I hope to present my findings about HireFriday, and Compassionate HR. Let me track back to the denotative definition of the word, Compassion. It means acknowledging suffering, and having a desire to express empathy, and a quest to alleviate suffering. It also expresses the power of equanimity.

Compassion doesn’t sell on my blog. Should I re-think my methodology? I am in the process of developing my new HireFriday website. It promises to be chock full of treats, and tools, and career related gems you can use. It will not be the least bit controversial. Albeit, my job search methodology is a bit unconventional, it is powerful. I have learned so much about career development through my Master’s Degree training, my experience as an outplacement facilitator with an international outplacement firm, and through my own painful career transition back into human resources after my 4 year stint in the Pet Industry.

Pain is a powerful motivator. Pain has been my greatest teacher. Compassion, and empathy are my teachers too. I am a spiritual woman. While my behavior falls short of my goal sometimes, I realize that like my Mother, my personality is an acquired taste. It’s not for everyone. My quirky personality is the result, in part, to the fact that I am in the midst of menopause. My hormones rage at times. I get hot flashes, and post shocking posts reflect that fact. I refuse to take estrogen, because I don’t want to suffer health related risks. My physician suggests that estrogen replacement should be a resort.

So, I will continue to be moody, and get angry and just plain stupid stuff that I never bother me when I am serene. As I grow, learn, and strive to become the woman I want to be, it is my hope to first do no harm. When I do so, I must make restitution immediately.

I now leave you with today’s theme song. It is one of my favorite songs by Aretha Franklin. R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Instead of ending my post with a daily theme song. I’m beginning with one, and here it is: Dynamite. Why: Because he sings, ” I want to live my life, and let things go.” “I want to celebrate my life,” and sometimes, that means letting things go. Yesterday, I encouraged the online community I created, HireFriday to boycott Animal’s blogtalkradio show, when in fact, today I found it most entertaining, and informative. I lifted my boycott which didn’t last 24 hours. Here’s why: This song explains it best…

Now, wasn’t that fun? Yes, that song makes me chair dance too. It’s joyful. It’s a celebration. It’s a dance, and when I’m at my best, I feeling like singing and dancing, and genuinely enjoy being helpful.

Most of you know I was raised by a very famous Olympic Boxing Team Manager, and Olympic Committee Executive, and AAU President, and 7 time Hall of Famer, so yes I will name drop. His name, of blessed memory was Rolly Schwartz. He taught me, through his example to tilt at windmills, and stand up for what I believe in, passionately and to do so with every fiber of my being.

That is how he trained Cassius Clay to rise to greatness when he was a young man living in Kentucky. That is how he trained me. He was a citizen diplomat, and world traveler. My Mother, his polar opposite was a colorful, multi-talented artist Pearl Schwartz.(do not click that link unless you want to see a photo of me as a teenager dressed up like a belly dancer+I did it for one of my Mother’s crazy costume parties–and I was her little entertainer

She was the kind of woman who would take me to the art museum dressed as if she were taking me to the Opera. She had a flare for the dramatic. I adored them both. They lived joyful, celebrated lives. Pearl’s art still hangs in 11 museums around the world. Her art was owned by Dina Shore, William Holden, and O.J.Simpson (and no I don’t know what happened to her painting after his life bit the dust. I do know this, he wasn’t gunning for it in Vegas. This gives you a little insight into my world, and why I grew up to be such a character. Through my parent’s fame and glory, they raised me to be a good, kind, and decent human being who cares about the little guy. I don’t have a $1,000 handshake, and a $10.00 handshake. My handshake is always the same. My goal in life is to help those less fortunate in a meaningful way.

What this also means is that I’m feisty, like a terrier, who acts like a pit bull in the dog fighting ring when she thinks an innocent job seeker is being attacked. I absolutely hate it when people pick on the unemployed population. It makes me ignite like a fire cracker. That’s just what I did (again) last night. I laid into Animal like bitch in heat with a bone to crush. It’s funny because right before I did, he was whining that he was bored, and the questions he was being asked were boring. Well, I put an end to hat in a heartbeat by acting out like a screaming hyena, just as he does on his blogtalkradio show.

What happened next was a woman named Barb lit into me for attacking Animal. I sliced into her like yesterday’s pastrami. I’m not proud of the fight that ensued on The RecHouseParty show. Poor Cathy didn’t know what to do, so she muted me which was the thing to do. I deserved to be muted. My behavior was over the line (even for me). I did not hang-up although I was tempted, like a tenacious terrier, I stubbornly saw the show through to its completion. I’m glad I did. It was great ShockTalkRadio, the kind of programming that makes Jerry Springer’s ratings go through the roof.

The question begs to be asked, Is that how I want to be remembered? No, that was not my shining moment. But, I wouldn’t take back one word I said to Animal. I meant everyone of them. I would apologize to Barb for challenging her to a fight offline. It’s not good for my Compassionate HR brand when I box other women about the ears so hard I leave them with nothing left to work with but a bleeding stump. I need to leave that to my childhood friends Sugar Ray Leonard, Howard Davis and Aaron Pryor. It isn’t lady like when I behave that way. My dear friend Kimberly Roden pointed out to me today that it is dangerous to go negative in social media. Even when all I’m doing is sparring with my friend Animal. It has its rewards, but it also has its risks.

One doesn’t have to look far in my history to see where this pattern has repeated itself. It isn’t good for me professionally to be a boxer in social media. That’s what I learned in the last 24 hours. I need to take off the social media boxing gloves. I need to stop threatening to vomit on people when I’m on their blogtalkradio show. That’s not lady like either. The fact is I am a lady. I am classy in real life. I’m also well educated, and should no better than to engage in broadcast fights. I’m a pundit. Truthly, I’d rather be a talking head than a screaming head, so it’s time to learn my lesson.

I doubt anything will ever take the fight out of my might. Being a fighter is part of my DNA. I must learn to channel that fight into the right places, and fight the good fight, not the stupid one. Sometimes it’s hard to determine which is which. This year, I challenge myself to do so. I must temper my passion with wisdom, and reason. Today I heard an amazing webinar, “Voices Of Your Career.” Mark Stelzner was the moderator. His guests were Miriam Salpeter, and Dawn Bugni. They were all brilliant. Their message was clear: be positive on all social media channels. Our brands are at stake. Unless you are Animal, don’t go negative. He can get away with it, but most of us can’t.

Now I leave you with another theme song. Yep, today’s a two-fer I dedicate this song to my twitter spouse, Animal. It’s called “You’re Not The Boss.” This is probably what we would have looked like had we dated in high school (falling off my chair laughing)…