Podcast thoughts

Listening to another Recruiting @animal podcast right now. And they are grilling this Gen Y wannabe marketing person @lexiKubrak. I find it really strange when one person starts to generalize from her point of view based only on what she saw in her circle or what the professors sold to her during school.  Seriously there are different classes within a society and gen Y experience is not universal. I would say that it not productive to generalize like that. It would serve better to stick to social classes and consider the age, not the generation. For example, lower to middle class university grad most likely held a McJob during university and accumulated plenty of retail experience, where as someone from the upper class may have more internship experience and great connections. It’s clear that each party has certain strengths and you really need to recognize them and try to capitalize on that.

If you are stuck in the job search rot answer these questions:

-       Who did you talk with yesterday about your job search?

-       Who are you talking with tomorrow about your job search?

-       How much time are you committing to a job search? If you want a full time job you should commit full time hours during the search to find employment.

Growing your professional blog. Step 1: Starting

I would like to share some ideas on how to grow your professional blog. I currently somewhere along these steps, but I believe that I can contribute some information on what worked for me when I was writing a blog.

Ok so you have a want to post your thoughts about something in your field online. I’ve had that thought for a couple of years before I actually started writing this blog.

First of all, you should act. Don’t second-guess yourself and think about serious commitment yet, just go to a free blogging site either blogger or wordpress and just create a blog and post your first article. It’s really painless to do and you will feel better about yourself right after you do it.

Second - don’t expect any kind of hits on your blog right after you post. That’s the reality of it; your blog is not going to get any views for some time other than your friends and family if you tell them in person or on facebook. Frankly speaking I am still convinced that my blog is in the same boat, although the stats claim that I have over 2000 views in the last 2 years.

Third – try to educate yourself on how social engines work. Boolean search logic specifically is key to understanding how your page gets discovered, so you need to figure out how to tag your pages.

Fourth – keep posting. Like anything online it’s all content driven. Before you get any kind of exposure from your blog there needs to be enough content there to attract people. Which means that you are going to be filling your blog with posts and for a long while you will not see the kind of result you may have hoped for, other than for the odd mention every once in a while.

Fifth - don't be afraid to change gears. Personally I've had 3 blogs before I settled on this blog that you are reading. I've tried different hosting options and different topics. I decided that I would rather have a place to record my thoughts with a varying degree of relevance to human resources than to try to maintain different kinds of blogs. It's just a matter of committing to maintenance of the blog on some kind of reoccurring basis. Right now I try to do a post every week or two. And if I want to start writing more in the future, it will not be starting from scratch again, which is great. I could always adjust the topic of the blog and start delivering more content. I think that, since blogs are living websites, change is good for them.

Unreasonable job requirements

I am sure that everyone has encountered these at some point. Being a recent graduate, you come across a lot of job postings during your job search and you see some crazy requirements posted by companies. Specifically I remember coming across an entry-level HR position that asks for 3 years of HR experience. Wait a minute, this company either thinks that their entry level is above other entry level jobs or they have another classification for the people that are entering their HR department without any experience. Intern or temp job titles come to mind. 

Last week I went into a dollar store and saw a job requirement for their store clerk position – it read: “5 years of retail experience required”. That’s excessive in my opinion, but there may be something else attached to that figure. Competence wise I am certain that 1 year of retail experience should qualify anyone to work at all stores that do not require product knowledge. This job certainly appears like one of the jobs that should not require product knowledge. They could be looking for somebody more “mature”, which is a more covert way to select people above a certain age without getting in trouble for age discrimination. And I have a problem with that.  I feel like the youth are already getting squeezed out of entry level jobs, and to discourage them from applying is wrong.

Siesta at European workplaces is another point for flexible work schedule

During my vacation to Spain I have encountered a mass siesta for the first time in a foreign culture. It was really curious to see mostly everyone just close up shop and go home in the afternoon for a couple of hours. Evidently this is a practice deep rooted in their history to cope with the climate, which is really hot in the afternoons. It sounds really nice to be able to go home in the afternoon and just nap for an hour or so. Apparently this is in line with our biorhythm of the afternoon slump that makes it desirable for us to take a nap. http://wellbeing.doctissimo.com/lifestyle/getting-a-good-nights-sleep/siestas-as-workplace-performance-enhancers.html

I feel like the presented benefits of the afternoon naps, just make it more enticing to adopt a flexible work schedule in the back office environment. It wouldn’t be anything new to the new employees coming in, that have more likely gotten some retail and shiftwork experience. Besides with the technological advancements many jobs in part can be completed remotely shall there be a particular deadline. I think that introducing flexible work environment would also prove to be a move towards becoming more competitive for the female talent. It’s rather widely known that majority of women value work flexibility more than money. To me it seems like a competitive edge type of move to make your job more flexible and more attractive.

Funny Job Application by a Yorkie

The Hiring manager should have had a sense of humor and done something about this situation, at least attempted to get the girls actual resume and cover letter.

Somehow i am not surprised that this happened to a York student.

Nevertheless this made me smile

here's her blog but i imagine she has way more visitors than me at this point

http://buenastardis.tumblr.com/post/26600983066/jesus-christ-i-accidentally-sent-my-potential

Cool, you graduated, but your dream job is not there

It means that you are one of the 300,000 other lucky new graduates with minty fresh diploma looking for work on the job market. Add to that the number of the unemployed people and a few thousand of people looking to change their job and you have your competitors of the job search marathon. Some are holding out for that perfect job that you thought you would be doing after school. Yep those are the new grads like you.

Hate to break it to you but it’s simply not there.

Why?

1.     You don’t have experience for your dream job.

The job may physically be there but don’t let that fool you, for you it does not exist. You simply have no idea how much time it would take for you to practice to become proficient enough in that job to be considered competent.  You need to pick up some practical skill along the way to do well in that job with minimal training.

2.     Your dream job is way too popular

Face it, really nice jobs are usually in high demand. They have sought after titles, pay and benefits. So they have plenty of people to choose from. What makes you think they would choose you?

3.     You don’t know what it is

Your dream job is defined right now by your assumptions of what the job entails. You don’t know what you like yet because you don’t have the complete idea of what is done during the day. You don’t know if you like the industry and so on and so forth.

It’s not all spoiled milk and eggs however.                                          What do you have?

1.     flexibility to move for work

You just finished school, and presumably looking to move out, so you should be super mobile and be open to move anywhere for work. Do you know that it’s easier to get a job in provinces that have employment boom like Alberta, and Saskatchewan?

2.     clean slate and opportunity to find a job in any field

Most entry level jobs don’t require you to have prior experience within the industry which means you can choose any industry you think you like. And you can switch easily if you don’t like it. It’s not going to kill you.

3.     Tenacity

Roll up them sleeves, and put in work. It’s 4^th quarter mentality all day everyday.

Why do I write a Blog

I have recently read this book Rework that talks about the importance of writing in the business, as a main tool of communication which is clearly essential. Good writers have plenty of transferable skills like omission of irrelevant information, larger vocabulary and clear understanding of ideas that help them write well. These are great skills that I should try to improve in myself and hence it gives me the reason to write on my blog. Hopefully with time i will become interesting to read, but for now I keep on practicing.

Blogging is a great medium for this kind of sparring, as it opens your work up to the world and allow for people to discover your writing. The better you become at writing the more people you will attract It's really that simple, so all you should do is start writing an with time you shall see results.
I came across this little video that talks about blogging today and it highlights some of the benefits of blogging, specifically the process of explaining yourself.