Thursday, April 23, 2015
Preparing for Shotgun Interview
6 Tips to Prepare for a Shotgun Interview With Just 24 Hours’ Notice
KAZIM LADIMEJI | April 8, 2015
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Preparing for an interview is relatively easy if you have enough time. However, interviews don’t always go according to plan: life happens, and for whatever reason, you may find yourself requested to attend an interview with extremely short notice — the next day, even!How can you possibly prepare for an interview with only the few hours that remain after work, when you will already be tired from a full day? Can you really prepare enough with just 24 hours’ notice?
While you might not be able to conduct the kind of exhaustive preparation that would enable optimal performance, you can prepare yourself to perform at a pretty high standard, if you know how to prioritize.
If you do find yourself facing a short-notice interview, you might find these six tips helpful:
1. Avoid Buying Any New Interview Attire
You really don’t have the time to spend in checkout queues, buying shiny new interview clothes, so make the best of what you have. An iron and a bit of spit and polish should be sufficient to address most wardrobe malfunctions.
2. Get Home as Early as You Can
Avoid after-work drinks, pick up a healthy takeout meal so you don’t have to cook, and consider taking a taxi if it saves you waiting at a bus stop for 30 minutes. If you can get out of work early that day, do so. Your goal should be to get home as soon as you can, buying you as much time as possible.
3. Research and Preparing for the Interview (in 30 Minutes)
You’ll need to prioritize, as you really can’t do thorough preparation here. Ideally, you want to research the following information so you can demonstrate your prior knowledge of the business, which is what recruiters will be looking for. You’ll only have time for a surface scan, so prioritize the following information:
Names of the hiring manager, department manager, and CEO, and one positive fact or piece of information about each of them.
Names of the company’s flagship product(s), two of the company’s competitors, and at least one of the company’s differentiating features.
Geography of the business and where main offices are located.
How long the company has existed.
What you like about the company’s business/products/employer brand.
4. Prepare to Answer Behavioral Questions (in One Hour)
You won’t know exactly what questions the interviewers will ask you, but you can be pretty sure they’ll ask you behavioral questions like, “Can you tell me about a time when you handled an angry customer?”
You’ll be expected to answer these questions in a STAR format, which stands for: Situation, Task, Action, Result. This means: describe the situation you were in when you faced an angry customer, what your duties were, what action you took, and the outcome of the scenario – e.g., did you placate or satisfy the customer?
You’ll be able to find lists of typical behavioral interview questions online. Hunt down those lists and spend up to an hour practicing your answers.
5. Prepare at Least Three Questions to Ask at the Interview (in 15 Minutes)
You can’t walk out of the interview without asking some pertinent questions; failing to answer questions will reflect badly on you, making you appear disengaged. It’s best to prepare two or three questions to ask the hiring manager. Examples of good questions to ask are:
What will be my key objectives for the first six months?
What keeps you up at night at the moment, work-wise?
Can I tell you an idea about how the product could be improved?
6. Planning the Journey (in 15 minutes)
Allow yourself 15 minutes to do journey planning, mapping out your route to the interview to ensure you arrive on time.
This shotgun-interview plan gives you two hours of study time, which you should be able to squeeze into an evening. This leaves you with the remainder of your night to prepare your interview attire, relax, and get a good night’s sleep, so that you are energized the following morning.
Tips for Recruiter Jobs
Recruitment Agency Employment via
http://work.chron.com/prepare-job-interview-
recruitment-agency-19161.html
Step 1
Photocopy your resume, cover letter and references as you would prepare for an interview as a corporate recruiter or any other position. Make several copies in case it's a large recruitment agency and you have an opportunity to meet others who are interested in learning about your qualifications and background.
Step 2
Draft an elevator speech about your recruiting expertise. An elevator speech is approximately a 60-second, well-rounded introduction concerning your experience, core competencies and work philosophy. Talk about full life-cycle recruitment duties you've had and how much you know about the overall talent acquisition process. If you are interviewing for your first job as a recruiter, create an introduction about the transferable skills you have that will serve you well in a recruiter role. Transferable skills useful for a recruiter include verbal and written communication skills, negotiation techniques, consultative sales knowledge and the ability to grasp new processes in learning specific job fields and occupations.
Step 3
Talent Acquisition via https://www.recruiter.com/i/talent-acquisition/
Talent acquisition is the process of finding and acquiring skilled human labor for organizational needs and to meet any labor requirement. When used in the context of the recruiting and HR profession, talent acquisition usually refers to the talent acquisition department or team within the Human Resources department. The talent acquisition team within a company is responsible for finding, acquiring, assessing, and hiring candidates to fill roles that are required to meet company goals and fill project requirements.
Talent acquisition as a unique function and department is a relatively new development. In many companies, recruiting itself is still an indistinct function of an HR generalist. Within many corporations, however, recruiting as a designation did not encompass enough of the duties that fell to the corporate recruiter. A separate designation of talent acquisition was required to meet the advanced and unique functions. Modern talent acquisition is a strategic function of an organization, encompassing talent procurement, but also workforce planning functions such as organizational talent forecasting, talent pipelining, and strategic talent assessment and development.
Talent acquisition is quickly becoming a unique profession, perhaps even distinct from the practice of general recruitment. Talent acquisition professionals are usually skilled not only in sourcing tactics, candidate assessment, and compliance and hiring standards, but also in employment branding practices and corporate hiring initiatives. Talent acquisition as a function has become closely aligned with marketing and PR as well as Human Resources. As global organizations need to recruit globally with disparate needs and requirements, effective recruiting requires a well thought out corporate messaging around hiring and talent development. Talent acquisition professionals often craft the unique company message around the approach the company takes to hiring and the ongoing development of employees. The employment brand therefore encompasses not only the procurement of human capital, but the approach to corporate employee development. The unique needs of large companies especially to recruit and hire as well as attract top talent led to the development of a unique talent acquisition practice and career.
Recruiting professionals often move between agency recruiting and corporate recruitment positions. In most organizations, the recruitment roles are not dissimilar: the recruitment role is responsible for sourcing talent and bringing qualified candidates to the company. However, modern talent acquisition is becoming a unique skill-set. Because talent acquisition professionals many times also handle post-hire talent issues, such as employee retention and career progression, the talent acquisition role is quickly becoming a distinct craft. Some recruitment industry advisors even advocate for a talent department unique from the HR department, because talent acquisition and development is so intertwined with a company’s ultimate success and effectiveness.
As a craft, talent acquisition is of course not new; it is the simple process of recruiting good talent to meet company needs. As a profession, however, talent acquisition is quickly evolving into a unique and important job function.
Sourcing viahttps://www.recruiter.com/i/sourcing/
Sourcing is the process of finding resumes within the recruitment process. Recruiters, both third party and corporate, need to find qualified candidates for their open job orders, oftentimes with very unique or niche work experience. Sourcing refers to the initial part of recruiting (actually finding the candidates through a variety of methods.) Some recruiters perform the sourcing function through to placement; other recruiting professionals specialize in only one aspect of the recruitment cycle. Professional recruiters who specialize only in the initial procurement of names and candidates are called sourcers. Many larger companies and specialist staffing firms employ teams of sourcing professionals that concentrate only on the initial procurement of candidates. The sourcers then “hand off” the candidates to a different department of team of recruiters which handle qualification, interview, and placement.
Sourcing is many times used to refer to highly specialized talent searches. For example, a company might be looking for an individual with a background in mechanical engineering who understands object oriented programming. Recruiting and sourcing professionals understand how to source this specialized talent through a variety of means. Sourcing professionals will often have a comprehensive understanding of Internet sourcing tactics. They will mine candidate lists from the Internet and also source talent from competing companies. To ascertain the best keywords and background to look for, a solid understanding of the job requirements are necessary. Effective sourcing, therefore, requires a much deeper understanding of the industry and job order that they are working on than simply looking at clusters of resume keywords. To source candidates productively, an experienced sourcing professional knows the best places to look for great talent and the kind of experience to look for in individual resumes.
However, sourcing is also more than specialized resume search and candidate name generation. Sourcing is also an integral part of any company’s overall hiring and talent acquisition strategy. Sourcing also refers to the strategy surrounding large portions of hiring effort. For example, it might be necessary to source the next generation of management talent through a comprehensive college recruiting program. A company might need to formulate a sourcing strategy for skilled machine operators in a certain city where they open a plant. Sourcing is therefore not relegated to unique searches, but the term can encompass deep organizational talent strategy issues and in general, the practice and need to acquire human talent for any source of business need.
With the trend of globalization, sourcing strategy is at the forefront of recruiting issues. Recruiting talent in different countries and in different languages presents a very difficult challenge for any talent acquisition team. You can imagine that recruiting professionals would not know where to begin to find talent overseas in a market that they do not understand. In many cases, the sourcing team might be local to the actual hiring effort, and then send qualified candidates to a centralized corporate recruiting team. Modern sourcing efforts are an incredibly complex aspect of the global talent supply chain. Effective sourcing strategies not only leverage effective employment brands and marketing efforts, but take into consideration hyperlocal factors of economy, education, and specialization of labor markets.
In the recruiting industry, therefore, sourcing when referred to as a tactic, often means the practice of finding specialized candidates on the Internet or through phone work. When referred to as a strategy, sourcing can mean a number of different broad hiring initiatives or approaches to particular labor markets. Because of factors contributing to increased complexity in sourcing, the trend of specialization within the recruiting function continues unabated. Sourcing as a separate function will most likely continue, and the sourcing role will continue to develop as a challenging and unique profession.
Calculate the number of placements you have completed by quarter or month, or whatever period for which your current or previous employer tracked your metrics. Practice describing your technique for sourcing both active job seekers and passive candidates, interviewing applicants, assessing their qualifications and communicating with hiring managers. Assemble evidence of your placements, especially if you're interviewing for an executive-level recruiter position.
Tips
- Recruiters use a two-pronged approach to assist you in finding the right job. They ask questions about your expertise and questions about your preferred work environment so they can present your qualifications with in-depth knowledge of your capabilities to the clients they believe will be most satisfied with your skill-set and interests.
- Don't expect the recruiter to do all the work for you. Recruiters often have contracts with employers -- not with the job seeker. Therefore, their allegiance is to the company that pays their salaries. Make a favorable impression with the recruiter so she will feel comfortable in presenting your qualifications to her clients.
Warning
- If you are dealing with more than one recruitment agency to find a job, refrain from sharing anything other than the names of companies other recruiters sent you to interview with. Avoid being critical of other recruitment firms, even if you sense the agency you're meeting with is a strong competitor. Provide only the information necessary to prevent conflicts of interest in your conversation with recruiters you want to place you in a job.
About the Author
Ruth Mayhew began writing in 1985. Her work appears in "The Multi-Generational Workforce in the Health Care Industry" and "Human Resources Managers Appraisal Schemes." Mayhew earned senior professional human resources certification from the Human Resources Certification Institute and holds a Master of Arts in sociology from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Talent Acquisition via https://www.recruiter.com/i/talent-acquisition/
Talent acquisition is the process of finding and acquiring skilled human labor for organizational needs and to meet any labor requirement. When used in the context of the recruiting and HR profession, talent acquisition usually refers to the talent acquisition department or team within the Human Resources department. The talent acquisition team within a company is responsible for finding, acquiring, assessing, and hiring candidates to fill roles that are required to meet company goals and fill project requirements.
Talent acquisition as a unique function and department is a relatively new development. In many companies, recruiting itself is still an indistinct function of an HR generalist. Within many corporations, however, recruiting as a designation did not encompass enough of the duties that fell to the corporate recruiter. A separate designation of talent acquisition was required to meet the advanced and unique functions. Modern talent acquisition is a strategic function of an organization, encompassing talent procurement, but also workforce planning functions such as organizational talent forecasting, talent pipelining, and strategic talent assessment and development.
Talent acquisition is quickly becoming a unique profession, perhaps even distinct from the practice of general recruitment. Talent acquisition professionals are usually skilled not only in sourcing tactics, candidate assessment, and compliance and hiring standards, but also in employment branding practices and corporate hiring initiatives. Talent acquisition as a function has become closely aligned with marketing and PR as well as Human Resources. As global organizations need to recruit globally with disparate needs and requirements, effective recruiting requires a well thought out corporate messaging around hiring and talent development. Talent acquisition professionals often craft the unique company message around the approach the company takes to hiring and the ongoing development of employees. The employment brand therefore encompasses not only the procurement of human capital, but the approach to corporate employee development. The unique needs of large companies especially to recruit and hire as well as attract top talent led to the development of a unique talent acquisition practice and career.
Recruiting professionals often move between agency recruiting and corporate recruitment positions. In most organizations, the recruitment roles are not dissimilar: the recruitment role is responsible for sourcing talent and bringing qualified candidates to the company. However, modern talent acquisition is becoming a unique skill-set. Because talent acquisition professionals many times also handle post-hire talent issues, such as employee retention and career progression, the talent acquisition role is quickly becoming a distinct craft. Some recruitment industry advisors even advocate for a talent department unique from the HR department, because talent acquisition and development is so intertwined with a company’s ultimate success and effectiveness.
As a craft, talent acquisition is of course not new; it is the simple process of recruiting good talent to meet company needs. As a profession, however, talent acquisition is quickly evolving into a unique and important job function.
Sourcing viahttps://www.recruiter.com/i/sourcing/
Sourcing is the process of finding resumes within the recruitment process. Recruiters, both third party and corporate, need to find qualified candidates for their open job orders, oftentimes with very unique or niche work experience. Sourcing refers to the initial part of recruiting (actually finding the candidates through a variety of methods.) Some recruiters perform the sourcing function through to placement; other recruiting professionals specialize in only one aspect of the recruitment cycle. Professional recruiters who specialize only in the initial procurement of names and candidates are called sourcers. Many larger companies and specialist staffing firms employ teams of sourcing professionals that concentrate only on the initial procurement of candidates. The sourcers then “hand off” the candidates to a different department of team of recruiters which handle qualification, interview, and placement.
Sourcing is many times used to refer to highly specialized talent searches. For example, a company might be looking for an individual with a background in mechanical engineering who understands object oriented programming. Recruiting and sourcing professionals understand how to source this specialized talent through a variety of means. Sourcing professionals will often have a comprehensive understanding of Internet sourcing tactics. They will mine candidate lists from the Internet and also source talent from competing companies. To ascertain the best keywords and background to look for, a solid understanding of the job requirements are necessary. Effective sourcing, therefore, requires a much deeper understanding of the industry and job order that they are working on than simply looking at clusters of resume keywords. To source candidates productively, an experienced sourcing professional knows the best places to look for great talent and the kind of experience to look for in individual resumes.
However, sourcing is also more than specialized resume search and candidate name generation. Sourcing is also an integral part of any company’s overall hiring and talent acquisition strategy. Sourcing also refers to the strategy surrounding large portions of hiring effort. For example, it might be necessary to source the next generation of management talent through a comprehensive college recruiting program. A company might need to formulate a sourcing strategy for skilled machine operators in a certain city where they open a plant. Sourcing is therefore not relegated to unique searches, but the term can encompass deep organizational talent strategy issues and in general, the practice and need to acquire human talent for any source of business need.
With the trend of globalization, sourcing strategy is at the forefront of recruiting issues. Recruiting talent in different countries and in different languages presents a very difficult challenge for any talent acquisition team. You can imagine that recruiting professionals would not know where to begin to find talent overseas in a market that they do not understand. In many cases, the sourcing team might be local to the actual hiring effort, and then send qualified candidates to a centralized corporate recruiting team. Modern sourcing efforts are an incredibly complex aspect of the global talent supply chain. Effective sourcing strategies not only leverage effective employment brands and marketing efforts, but take into consideration hyperlocal factors of economy, education, and specialization of labor markets.
In the recruiting industry, therefore, sourcing when referred to as a tactic, often means the practice of finding specialized candidates on the Internet or through phone work. When referred to as a strategy, sourcing can mean a number of different broad hiring initiatives or approaches to particular labor markets. Because of factors contributing to increased complexity in sourcing, the trend of specialization within the recruiting function continues unabated. Sourcing as a separate function will most likely continue, and the sourcing role will continue to develop as a challenging and unique profession.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Brainerd Ice Fishing Extravaganza is on!
The Brainerd Jaycees $150,000 Ice Fishing Extravaganza scheduled Jan. 24 on Gull Lake's Hole-in-the-Day Bay was given the go ahead Wednesday by Crow Wing County Sheriff Todd Dahl.
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Fargo FX movie series
The series "Fargo" on FX is based upon the classic Coen brother's film. I'd say the dialogue is pretty accurate in terms of the lingo found on the tundra of Minnesota and North Dakota. This series is a must watch of fans of Billy Bob Thornton, which plays the bowl haircut main character. I haven't seen any of the episodes yet, but just watched the first seven minute clip below. Check out this series...it is easy to relate to the endless snow, jello salad, ice fishing, hot dishes, fishing, hunting, and other stereotypical elements distinguishing this part of the country.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Brainerd Jaycee Ice Fishing Extravaganza Ice Check!
The Brainerd Dispatch reported the official ice check of for the January 23rd $150,000 Ice Fishing Tournament will be conducted this Wednesday, but I don't think anyone planning to visit for the event should stay up late worrying about the results. While warmer weather will return to this area on Thursday (spring-like highs in the 30's) the last few weeks have been below zero cold. I am sure the ice on Gull is plenty tick...I meant to say thick, and it may even be seasonably warm for the event this year. I don't plan on catching any fish at the tournament, but after attending for the last few years, it is an event for people watching and the entertainment is priceless. Pick up your ticket and support a great cause! You can't win the truck or money if you don't attend. Good luck out there and keep your line in the water!
Monday, January 12, 2015
Tim Cahill on Writing with Obstacles and Interviews
Life's a Wild Trip by Tim Cahill via Outside
http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/africa/south-africa/Here--Sharky--Sharky.html
Via http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2005/03/wild-life-interview-tim-cahill
http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/africa/south-africa/Here--Sharky--Sharky.html
Via http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2005/03/wild-life-interview-tim-cahill
Tim Cahill
"I see many people trying to write well about the wilderness, and essentially failing. To me there are basically two aspects of a failed outdoor story. One is the phony epiphany on the mountain top. Listen, I've got 30 years in this – you don't have an epiphany on the mountain top. You might have it five days later when your down the hill and you're in some third world hotel room with the ceiling fan wobbling around over your head, but probably not. Sometimes you figure out what it all meant when you sit down and write it – often that's the way.
The second thing is that many people go into the wilderness to experience it, and if they experience it in comfort, there's very little in a literary sense for them to write about. Remember, my concept of drama requires obstacles, and there's no obstacles in comfort. So they get all spiritual about it. Sometimes I read somebody's spiritual reflections on their wilderness experience and I think to myself, "Hey! Nothing Happened!"
The way one approaches a wilderness story is to fashion a quest – find something that you are truly interested in finding or discovering. That works pretty well because either you find it, and that's nice, or you don't – and failure often makes just as good a story. So in the context of the quest, this provides a literary element of suspense – it’s a page turning device, and you can slip in those ideas of spiritual renewal or the like in the context I guess."
Check out more interviews with Tim Cahill at the following links:
http://www.amygigialexander.com/conversations/2014/10/14/in-conversation-with-tim-cahill
http://www.mercurynews.com/travel/ci_15213240
http://www.outsidebozeman.com/community/people/tim-cahill-mishap-maestro
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