ATTENTION JOB SEEKERS:  Join us on April 13th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Conestoga Mall in Grand Island in the rotunda area between Younker’s and Dillard’s (south end).  There will be a variety of open job positions with employers ready to hire!

In today’s world, we are always hearing about the link between hiring and social media sites; and generally speaking, it is a harmful connection to the job seeker.  People do not get hired due to all sorts of reasons, from posting inappropriate photos, such as party pictures, to writing bad commentary that can be easily accessed by hiring companies; thusly negatively impact their decision to employ you.  But, what about the positive impacts of social media?  Can you use it to your benefit?  Yes, you can.

There are actually many opportunities for job seekers to utilize social media to increase their chances of landing that dream job.  First you will want to sift through your social media pages to delete and untag yourself in any and all incriminating photos (think like your Grandma on this).  Remove comments and images with strong belief statements; such as religion and politics.  Also make sure that all of your information is up-to-date and accurate.  Once you have your pages neutralized, it is time to proactively promote yourself for the position you are actively seeking.  First, search social media sites for the company that you applied to, and like their pages, follow their blogs and read their posts to educate yourself and show that you are interested.  Engage in online communities and groups to show where your passion is.  Also, unite with your professional connections via LinkedIn and let them know you are looking for a new job and ask for endorsements in your career field.

After you have done the updating, ask a peer to review your sites for any red flags.  By implementing these changes, you will be able to use the power of social media to your benefit.

Current job seekers should know that in this frenzied, digital era, they are exposed on all of their social media pages.  Whether your social site of choice is Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, or another, anything you post online is conceivably going to be seen by hiring managers or HR directors at the companies you are applying to work for.

This is generally seen as a negative for most people.  However, this is a wonderful opportunity to show some of your attributes that you cannot portray on paper.  Use these spaces to highlight your volunteer career, your diligent work ethic, some of the work you have done in the past, some of your local business connections and anything else positive that could relate to your field of work.

Once you have updated all of your social media pages by ensuring that they are emphasizing your strengths, and after you have removed any unfavorable images, go ahead and put your page links on your resume.  This will give yourself an advantage by taking something others are shying away from and highlighting your own strengths with it.

How much time do you have to exude a positive image of yourself in an interview?  In a recent survey by Accountemps, the majority of HR managers and directors polled stated that they form an opinion of an applicant within the first 10 minutes or less of an interview.

This means that you must do everything correct in the first 10 minutes.  Arrive early, and not a little early, arrive 10 minutes early. Make eye contact with the person you check in with, whether you check in with the front desk attendant, or personal assistant.  Speak clearly and know who you are coming to interview with.  When you meet the interviewer shake hands firmly, look the person in the eye and say a pleasantry such as, “It’s so nice to meet you.”  Be prepared with supporting documents of your work history as needed.  Every second you have matters, use it wisely!

Social media and the utilization of it is becoming an increasingly important skill set.  Klout (and other similar sites) is a website that measures an individual’s influence based on their tweets, blogs and Facebook posts and uses an algorithm to assign a score to them, a Klout score.  This social media user score is becoming ever more significant to some businesses and industries as a social metric factor for hiring.

A high Klout score is particularly valuable in the sales, marketing and service industry where influencing is a highly valuable skill.  Some larger companies are asking for a Klout score during the hiring process and going so far as to use this score as a determining factor when deciding between the top two candidates.  (www.recruiter.com)

The problem with this line of thought is that a person could have a high Klout score by simply sharing information that other people have written, researched and posted.  The value comes from understanding if the person with the high Klout score is creating the content.

Learning doesn’t happen by accident. It always begins with an intention.  What are you learning? What should you be learning? These are good questions all the time and great questions to ask at the beginning of a new year.  There is so much we could learn that would benefit us. How do we identify the most important things to learn at work?

Here are four questions to help you focus on your learning priorities:

Would learning this make me…

…more marketable to current and future employers?

…a better person?

…a more productive employee?

…a larger contributor?

…better at interpersonal skills?

Contemplate those questions and let the answers guide you in designing your learning agenda.

Source:  http://www.marksanborn.com

In 2013 Essential Personnel applicants should expect a less painful job application process when utilizing Essential to help them find work.  With a more streamlined process we will be able to get all of the information in a reduced amount of time.  We also have some items on our to-do list that will make employees experience more engaged and interactive with less stress.  Stay up to date with all we are doing by regularly visiting www.essentialpersonnelinc.com.

How do you make your skill set, job history, volunteering, hobbies and education work for you when job hunting?  You just need to know how to make your skill set applicable to the career that you are aiming for.  Many positions have similar needs; such as, good customer relationship building, time management, and problem solving.  These skills may be attained in a variety of settings, from nanny jobs, serving/waitressing, supervising, project management, study groups, teaching, etc.  Thusly, they can be applied to many different jobs as a valuable skill.

To start, look at the job that you are seeking and identify three important abilities that will be needed to perform the job functions.  Then look over your skills and describe how and where you got them and how they will be beneficial in the job and environment that you are applying for.  Always use a customized cover letter and resume proving your points on how you will be a perfect fit for the job.  By customizing your skills you increase the relevancy of them and your fit for the job while decreasing the importance of areas you may not be as strong in, such as education or job history.

Recently there has been a lot of talk about the new ways of writing a resume. Some of these suggested changes are because of the new Applicant Tracking System (ATS) technology recruiters and hiring officials are using to review and process your resume. Many of these systems will rate your resume based on the skills and relevance that match the recruiters or hiring official’s criteria. So, while it is becoming important to make sure your resume highlights your skills, position and many keywords throughout the resume, there are other items that ruin a resume once it reaches the desk of the decision maker. These items are important to be aware of.

“Salary negotiable” – Yes, they know. If you’re wasting a precious line of your resume on this term, it looks as though you’re padding – that you’ve run out of things to talk about. If your salary is not negotiable, that would be somewhat unusual. (Still, don’t put that on your resume either.)

“References available by request” – See the preceding comment about unnecessary terms.

“Responsible for ______” – Reading this term, the recruiter can almost picture the C-average, uninspired employee mechanically fulfilling his job requirements – no more, no less. Having been responsible for something isn’t something you did – it’s something that happened to you. Turn phrases like “responsible for” into “managed,” “led” or other decisive, strong verbs.

“Experience working in ____” – Again, experience is something that happens to you – not something you achieve. Describe your background in terms of achievements.

“Problem-solving skills” – You know who else has problem-solving skills? Monkeys. Dogs. On your resume, stick to skills that require a human.

“Detail-oriented” – So, you pay attention to details. Well, so does everyone else. Don’t you have something unique to tell the hiring manager? Plus, putting this on your resume will make that accidental typo in your cover letter or resume all the more comical.

“Hardworking” – Have you ever heard the term “show – don’t tell”? This is where that might apply. Anyone can call himself a hard worker. It’s a lot more convincing if you describe situations in concrete detail in which your hard work benefited an employer.

“Team player” – See the preceding comment about showing instead of telling. There are very few jobs that don’t involve working with someone else. If you have relevant success stories about collaboration, put them on your resume. Talk about the kinds of teams you worked on, and how you succeeded.

“Proactive” – This is a completely deflated buzzword. Again, show rather than tell.

“Objective” – This term isn’t always verboten, but you should use it carefully. If your objective is to get the job you’ve applied for, there’s no need to spell that out on your resume with its own heading. A resume objective is usually better replaced by a career summary describing your background, achievements and what you have to offer an employer. An exception might be if you haven’t applied for a specific job and don’t have a lot of experience that speaks to the position you’d like to achieve.

- Information was provided by Charles Purdy, Monster Senior Editor