Spring Cleaning: Spruce Up Your Job Search Tools

By Kristen Harris

It’s spring…flowers are blooming, showers are falling, and grass is greening. The freshness of the season often inspires a rash of spring cleaning, but spring is also a great time to freshen up your job search materials. In-between washing your windows and scrubbing the floors, take a look at your resume, portfolio and other job search tools.

Clean Up Your Resume. Update your work history, recent achievements and any new education you’ve gained. Clean out anything that is no longer current or relevant. How far back does your work history go? Most resume experts will recommend listing your last ten years of experience, and no more than fifteen years. If you’re still including your first internship from 1993, take it off. If the experience is absolutely relevant to the job you’re applying for, you can add it back in for that job or mention it in your cover letter. No one is hiring you for twenty-year-old internship experience. Organize software skills showing the most current programs first. If you have programs or skills that are really old and not used anymore (I’m looking at you, Pagemaker), take them off. Showing dated skills will date you. If the job really requires the use of specific legacy programs, they’ll be listed in the description. While you’re at it, make all of the same changes to your LinkedIn profile. It’s often the first place someone will check you out, so your profile needs to be as current as your resume.

Scrub Down Your Portfolio. A portfolio should only be your best work, not all your work. Enlist the help of a friend or professional colleague. They’ll be able to quickly identify pieces that feel dated or don’t fit without suffering from any personal attachment that you may have. Remove pieces that don’t fit with the type of work you’re seeking or don’t increase the overall quality of your portfolio. Keep narrowing down and removing the weakest piece until every item left is so critical that the overall portfolio would be worse without it. Now you’re only showing your best and most relevant work. It’s better to have eight fantastic pieces that showcase all of your skills, rather than fifteen pieces of which only eight are truly outstanding.

Freshen Up Your Look. While you’re packing away the sweaters and coats, take a good look at your interview outfit(s) as well. This may be a good time to shop for a current and seasonally appropriate interview outfit if that’s within your budget. You can put together separate pieces that you also wear with other outfits, but when you get a call for an interview there should be no “what should I wear” panic. Have a pre-determined outfit that makes you feel confident and comfortable. Your classic basics can be freshened up and made more seasonal with a change to the shirt or blouse, a new tie or accessories, and seasonally appropriate shoes. Also take an honest look at your haircut and make-up or grooming (guys, that means facial hair too). You don’t have to be a trendy fashion plate, just look current and like you would fit in at the place you’re interviewing. The main goal is to not put anyone off—you want to be remembered for your work and experience, not your unusual grooming or outfit.

By doing some simple spring cleaning, you’ll be ready for that next interview or client meeting with a moment’s notice. No panic, no scrambling, and plenty of time to put a shine on those windows!

LinkedIn Skills & Expertise: What’s the Value?

When I initially received a flood of notices that I had been “endorsed” by lots of people for a variety of skills in LinkedIn, I had questions. Mainly “What is this” and “Why do I care?”  Since this seemed to be the general sentiment, I did more research and discovered more about LinkedIn's recently launched Skills and & Expertise feature.

This could actually become a valuable tool, especially for job seekers, freelancers, and people interested in growing their career through connections. In a nutshell it’s a “point and click” way to endorse someone, or to have someone endorse you. It adds tags that make your profile more easily found by search engines and LinkedIn searches, and provides a consistent set of search terms. For example, you might call yourself a Writer, Copywriter, Marketing Copy Chief or endless other variations. But when the Skill “copywriting” is attached to your profile, you can be found regardless of your title. LinkedIn also has a Skills & Expertise search function, currently in beta, which utilizes these tags and suggests people with related expertise.

A few tips about making Skills & Expertise work for you:

1. Add Skills. Go to your profile, select Edit, and add any relevant Skills to the list that may already be there. Others are more likely to select a Skill already on your profile rather than thinking to add a new one. Also add related Skills and other phrases or terms people may associate with your main Skills. The system allows up to 50 tags. The Skills will be listed in the order you add them until you start getting endorsements on them (see #3).
2. Endorse and Get Endorsed. When you see a prompt to endorse someone, if you can vouch for the expertise then provide an endorsement. If you do it for them, they will likely do it for you. This activity shows in the newsfeed, providing exposure for you and may trigger that person to contact you. However, please, please only endorse someone if you truly believe the item listed is a Skill or area of Expertise for them. The system only works when the data is accurate. Garbage in, garbage out.
3. Prioritize Skills. The system lists your Skills in order of how often you have been endorsed for each. The only way to have something list higher for you is to have more people endorse you for that Skill. However, if you think that an endorsement is wildly inaccurate and you don’t want it to show, you can choose to hide it.
4. Say Thanks. If your account is set to notify you that an endorsement has been received, you’ll receive an email. This is a great opportunity to thank the person, and perhaps an opportunity to reconnect. You were on their mind and they said something nice about you…what better time to reach out?

How does Skills & Expertise compare to Recommendations? LinkedIn has offered written Recommendations for quite some time, but asking someone to write a recommendation is a longer process requiring a closer relationship. So keep that in mind…it also means that when you read a recommendation, someone took the time to specifically think and write about that person rather than just clicking a couple of buttons. Recommendations still hold more weight than Skills & Expertise, but this new feature can be a nice overview of someone’s experience as viewed by others.  And, once more endorsements have been given and data collected, it will start to become a much more valuable tool for you to find others and to be found.

An Important Factor in Choosing a Staffing Partner

By Catherine Lang-Cline

You call a staffing company, you tell them what you want, they send someone over and you are invoiced. Done! Or is it? Do you know if the company you work with has a team that is up-to date on employment law? Can they work with people professionally and ethically? Can they help you stay in compliance regarding issues of taxation, virtual employment and discrimination?

Employment law is far more complicated than it used to be. There was a time when you could just call an individual and pay them for completed work. But laws of discrimination, harassment and entitlement have all gotten more complex. In many cases, the law favors the individual over the company, making it more challenging to address staffing needs properly.

You may not know that within the staffing industry there is a designation that separates the true professionals from everyone else.  It’s called certification.  Certified staffing professionals can help you well beyond placing a person in your office.  They can avoid missteps that result in costly legal proceedings, help clients understand their employment responsibilities, and add value to the overall process.

That’s why our staffing company has found it very important to have members of our team be certified. Our certification of choice is CSP or Certified Staffing Professional and it is obtained from the American Staffing Association. Certification starts with passing a 100 question exam that covers both state and federal employment laws, ethical issues and professional practices.

The process doesn’t end after passing the exam, either. Individuals must then maintain their certification through continuing education programs. They must complete at least 30 hours of approved continuing education every three years with at least six of the 30 hours pertaining to employment law. Other programs consist of finding better candidates, offering better service options and staying up on current trends in the industry.

This knowledge not only helps us stay legal, ethical and professional in how we talk to the people we employ, but it also helps our clients avoid pitfalls when bringing in new people. We are able to guide them to make better decisions and we are able to answer questions they may have regarding how employees need to be handled. Not to mention, offer ideas and suggestions in how to find the candidates needed to serve the client better.

Having our team be Certified Staffing Professionals is a very small investment to have current, educated people speak for our business and it also allows us to deliver a valuable additional service to our clients. It is definitely a quality to look for when selecting a staffing partner for your company.

Your Career in the New Year: Three Resolutions Worth Keeping

By Kristen Harris

I love a new year! It always feels so filled with possibility. It’s a fresh start and time to try something new. Instead of the same old resolution to lose ten pounds, exercise every day, or give up chocolate (gasp), this year make some resolutions worth keeping. Here are three ideas that will make a difference in your career over the next year, and for many years to come.

1. Gain new skills. In the creative industry we can never stop learning. Today individuals are responsible for the growth of their own skills and career; an employer may help fund or provide learning opportunities, but you are responsible for guiding your own growth. Stay up-to-date (ideally on the cutting edge) of what’s going on in your industry and your discipline. Take a class, learn new software, or build complementary skill sets. Learning comes in all shapes and sizes, from formal to informal. There are great classes offered at local schools, community centers, and through our Illumination Bureau. Informally, you can also learn from peers, other industry group members, at a presentation, or in a seminar. Creativity often happens when you try something new, something outside of your discipline. Go to an architecture presentation, take a cooking class, learn to weld. You never know where inspiration and ideas will come from, or how you’ll use that skill in the future.
2. Connect with inspiration. To be interesting, be interested. Read everything, research a new idea, go to an exhibition, listen to a speaker, watch a movie, or just walk around your neighborhood. There is content, information and data everywhere. In fact, it often feels overwhelming; you’ll never be able to read or consume everything available. Choose a few interesting blogs, newsletters, facebook pages, or publications to follow. Every so often allow yourself to follow an interesting path down the rabbit hole. Click, click, click…suddenly you’re exposed to artwork you’ve never seen or are reading an author you’ve never heard of. The joy of discovery can lead to fresh inspiration. 
   
3. Meet interesting people. The creative industry is a tight ecosystem, it always seems like everyone knows everyone else. At your next industry event, make a point of talking to someone you don’t know. Interesting conversations happen with people who are different from you. Attend events for your industry, or for another industry you are drawn to. Find a hobby or an organization to get involved with, related to your professional discipline or not. Connect, or re-connect with former teachers, supervisors, classmates or co-workers. Find someone you consider a mentor (formal or informal, really a mentor is just someone you respect and can learn from). Meet to chat with them periodically. 

By focusing attention on one or more of these areas, you’ll have an intriguing and engaging new year while building skills, experience, inspiration, and connections that will serve you well for years to come.

Nobody Hires in December and Other Holiday Myths

By Kristen Harris

As we head into the festive season, and before you get distracted with turkey, pumpkin pie and after-meal naps, let’s talk about job hunting during the holidays. I’d like to dispel a couple of common myths that hold people back in their job search, especially during the holidays.

Myth #1: Nobody Hires in December. Or November and January, so you might as well take some time off, enjoy the festivities, and get back to looking for a job after the New Year. Au contraire! Actually quite a few jobs are filled in November and December. The business world does not shut down for two or three months, and neither should you. Companies have open positions to fill—people leave and need to be replaced, and other roles haven’t been filled yet with the right candidate (maybe it’s you). Often departments or clients have budget dollars that need to be spent by the end of the year, generating new projects that need people to complete them. Businesses are also wrapping up annual planning, with new positions identified to support initiatives for the next year.

Myth #2: Everyone’s on Vacation Anyway. So you might as well be too, right? Wrong. No one is on vacation for two entire months (if they are, then I’m jealous). It’s true that more people are out around the holidays for several days or a week at a time, and when one person gets back another seems to leave. So it might be more difficult to coordinate meetings, but most people are actually working the majority of the days in November and December. Even better, depending on the industry, these two months might be a slower time for them, which means they can get to some of those things they were planning to do. Like hire someone, meet candidates for future roles, or wrap up a large project that’s been lingering.

Myth #3: Just Get Started (Again) in January. Everybody else is waiting until January, but companies need to hire people now. Which means there are fewer candidates and less competition for the jobs that are open during November and December. Since so many people put their job search on hold or really slack off during the holidays, when you do apply you’re going up against fewer other candidates. And since you’re awesome, you have a much better chance of getting the job. Plus, if you slack off, you’ll lose a lot of momentum. Think about it like exercise—if you work out every day then suddenly decide to take two months off, it’s much harder to get back into the routine again. But if you keep exercising day in and day out, you’ll be in better shape at the end of those two months.

So don’t let yourself slip into a holiday coma that starts with the over-abundance of Halloween candy, and has you waking up on January 1 with no progress made on your job search. Keep moving forward, stay active, even during the holidays and you’ll be much further ahead when January does roll around.