Archive for April, 2010

Designers/Copywriters: Your Portfolio NEEDS To Be Online!

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

We were discussing this topic in our morning meeting last week.  Regardless of the type of designer/writer you are, an online portfolio is critical.  Here’s why:

1.  Visibility. You greatly expand your reach simply by having an online presence.  People (ie. recruiters and hiring managers) can find you more easily.  And the more well-versed you are in various social media and SEO tactics, the more visible you will be!

2.  You need to be able to compete. Your “rivals” are getting the interviews–and ultimately the jobs–because they understand how to promote themselves on the internet.

3.  You’ll be viewed as more savvy. Corporations, agencies, and recruiting firms all like to see that you’re involved in this “capacity.”  They will take you more seriously.  I’ve seen some great books, no doubt.  People with loads of talent.  But as soon as I find out they’re not online, I will always take the time to emphasize these three points!

Options (aside from doing the entire design/development from scratch of course ;) ):

a.  At the very least, you should have a PDF portfolio.  Merely having an “electronic” transferable file of samples makes a big difference (just try to keep your PDFs under 5MB!)

b.  Check out FREE portfolio sites such as Creative Hotlist, Coroflot, Carbonmade, FigDig… even Flickr.  For showcasing video samples, Vimeo or YouTube will do the trick.

c.  Your own URL.  It’s so easy, a caveman can do it.  There are numerous ways you can go about this, but I will use my own blog as an example:  I went to GoDaddy and registered a domain name.  It was dirt cheap (like 24 bucks for two years).  Then I had a friend set me up with a WordPress account.  This same friend is hosting my site.  I have admin privileges, so it allows me to do whatever I need to do on the “other side.”  There are a variety of templates online (ie. Joomla, Drupal, Flash, Sandvox, etc.) that make it relatively easy for you to build your own site.  And if you’re a Mac user, you may want to check out the iWeb tool… super user-friendly.

Hopefully this is helpful info.  I’m always learning too, so if there’s anything I should add, please tell me about it!

Posted in Recruiting | 1 Comment »

The ONE-PAGE Resume (and why it’s important)

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Why?  It’s simple: The purpose of a resume is to ELICIT A PHONE CALL.  That’s it.  Once that happens, the “open forum” has begun, and you can start the process of selling yourself. :)   The mistake that many job seekers make?  Putting the details of their entire career on a lengthy (2, 3, 4+ page) resume.  Metaphorically speaking, they’ve spilled all their popcorn in the lobby… and haven’t saved any for the movie!

As a recruiter who is constantly trying to educate himself (in addition to remembering the important things I’ve already learned), I wanted to share some key information acquired from my previous position at an executive search firm:

Based on heavy research regarding the marketing trends of today’s employers, recruiters, and job seekers–in addition to understanding the difference between the “published” job market, and the “unpublished” job market–it is highly advantageous to have a ONE PAGE resume in addition to the traditional reverse-chronological document. A job seeker has about 15-20 seconds to sell themselves when a hiring manager/recruiter first sees their resume. If the most important information isn’t featured in the top 3rd of the resume, it typically gets filed away–or trashed. With the “one page” version, the short explanation is this…

1. Your education should appear in the top 3rd… especially with someone who has an advanced degree. This is also the section where noteworthy highlights and key words should appear.
2. It’s important to feature 4-5 brief S.O.A.R. stories (Situation/Opportunity/Action/Result) in the middle of your resume to help you stand out. People remember specific stories of accomplishments much more easily than they do “facts” and “numbers.”
3. Though where you worked and acquired your skills is certainly of interest, it’s still the least important section of the one-page resume… and can therefore be positioned in the bottom 3rd (this is essentially a highly abridged version of the reverse-chronological resume–with just the basic info).

Whether or not a person looks into utilizing a one-page resume in their job seeking efforts, it is important to know its potential impact.  Now, if you work in a Creative profession, your portfolio will always be your primary “ammunition”… but you’ll still need to have that piece of paper with something of value on it. Here’s an example of a one-pager that was designed for me a couple years back…

Posted in Recruiting | 2 Comments »

Ebbs and Flows: The Life of The Recruiter

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Some positive things happened at work today.  As a recruiter (or any type of salesperson for that matter), your job is a constant emotional roller coaster.  I never “planned” to recruit for a living, but things happen, and here I am.  For the last three and a half years, my job has been to provide companies with talent.  This has officially become my “livelihood”; my clients rely on me, my company relies on me, my boss relies on me, and most of all, I rely on myself.  And this has been the case–in some capacity–for almost 12 years.  I have good days, average days, and at times, really bad days.  Today was a very good day.  Did I land a hire?  No.  Did I make promising headway with a client or two?  Abso-friggin-lutely.  The funny thing about recruiting is, just when you think you’re dead in the water, something can happen that changes your entire perspective… and takes you from 0-60 in one email, or one ring of the phone.  Conversely, the exact opposite can happen just as quickly… and all you want to do is go home and challenge whether or not it’s in your best interest to continue doing what you’re doing.

Since working in sales & recruiting (which technically began in July, 2004) I can’t even count the number of times I have thought about heading in a different direction… taking on a new industry… doing something more “creative.”  And then I get sucked back in.  I can’t help but ask myself… Am I lazy? Am I not proactive enough to actually commit to making a change?  And then I wonder… Is a higher power trying to tell me something?  Maybe it’s time for me to stop trying to escape from what is inevitable, and dare I say, appropriate?

The reality is this:  For the most part, I enjoy getting up and going to work in the morning.  I enjoy communicating with various personalities from various backgrounds.  I enjoy building professional relationships — and at times, building genuine friendships from these relationships.  I like getting people excited about things.  I like building the confidence of others, and giving them hope.  This is a tough time economically… for candidates and clients alike.  I feel like it’s my duty to call people back, respond to all emails (though I’m human and fall short at times), and give them the minimal courtesy of “contact.”  I expect the same from my clients, but some are simply better than others when it comes to communication.  Does it frustrate the hell out of me?  Yes.  Mainly because I feel obligated to treat my candidates the way I would like to be treated.  Does it make me want to quit my job?  No.

Obviously, I want to be successful.  I want to make money, and more importantly, I want to be happy.  And I see no reason why I can’t have both.  For right now, I am enjoying the journey… and THAT is the most important thing.  This is a lesson I have learned from my father, and a question I will continue to ask myself for many years to come.  AM I ENJOYING THE JOURNEY?

Are you?

Posted in Recruiting, Self Reflection | 7 Comments »