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This Common Job Advice is Actually Setting Grads up for Failure

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This Common Job Advice is Actually Setting Grads up for Failure

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You're about to graduate, and it seems like everyone has job advice for you or wants to know, "have you found a job yet?"

I wish that your well-intentioned advisors would stop asking the wrong question. After all, you're not going to school and getting a degree to get a good job. I'd even argue that graduating from college shouldn't center on getting that first job at all. If you approach things from that perspective, it's highly unlikely you'll experience long-term success. Here's why.

Job vs. career

When you compare job prospects, it's easy to get caught up in the immediate factors: salary, benefits, location, and signing bonus. Your advisors will tell you to look at these things. But you shouldn't see a job as your objective. Your goal should be starting a career.

This might seem like semantics to you, but switching your mind-set from getting a job to establishing your career changes everything. Here's a smart way that some MBA students put it: a career is long-term, requires strategy and is something you own. It's something you actively manage throughout your working life.

Why you should choose your career like VCs choose investments

Try to think about your career through the lens of venture capitalists. VCs look for companies with raw ingredients to be great, and then they invest capital and expertise so that those companies have the best chance of success.

When VCs invest in startups, they know they're investing for long-term returns. They have a simple but powerful rubric when considering companies to invest in-market, team, product. Just like a VC, you're investing in your career. But unlike a VC, you're investing in something much more valuable than capital: your professional life.

Tribe, brand, and domain

I personally like to consider the following rubric when I make career decisions-tribe, brand, and domain. The people you work with at the beginning of your career are the people you go through the trenches with. You get to know each other exceptionally well, and by definition, they become your tribe.

If a member of your tribe runs into an exciting career opportunity down the road, they'll call someone they know and trust. Think about companies that were started by former PayPal or Google employees. These are people who continued to work together throughout their careers. When you're going through the job-search process, meet with potential colleagues and your boss in interviews-not just HR and management. Ask yourself these questions: "Are these people I would choose to start a company with?" "Do they push me to work harder?" "Are these 'my people'?" If the answer is yes, you've found your tribe.

The companies you affiliate with also become part of your brand. You've already chosen the brand of your alma mater; now it's time to determine what other brands you will put on your resume. Sometimes, this means choosing to work at a company with strong brand recognition, and other times no one will have ever heard of them. As you consider your brand, ask yourself, "will I be proud to talk about this experience in the future?" You may be excited about the mission of the company, the product, the success-or maybe the recognizability of the brand. In any case, you have to be proud of it, because it will stick to you. And if you're not proud of it, keep looking.

Lastly, the professional you is a set of layered capabilities and experiences. Not every job will provide you with everything you need to become a fully formed executive. You need to decide who you want to be professionally, what skills and experiences you need and how to accumulate them. Say that you want your domain to be an industry vertical, like retail. You would then strive to learn every aspect of that industry (branding, sourcing, logistics, merchandising) to become a well-rounded candidate for the executive level. You can also approach it horizontally, by gaining experience in different roles related to that function. For example, if you want to be a CFO, you'll probably want to get experience in accounting, financial planning, and investor relations. Getting the right opportunities may involve changing roles, companies and even industries. But if you treat yourself like the architect of this journey, you'll gain relevant experience to become the ideal candidate for your future career.

Yes, most of you will end up accepting a job after graduation, but don't make that the be all and end all. Remember that your career journey is a marathon, not a sprint. By using tribe, brand, and domain as a guiding principle, you can make decisions that lead to long-term success in your professional life.

Dave Boyce is the Chief Strategic Officer of InsideSales.com.

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This common job advice is actually setting grads up for failure

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You're about to graduate, and it seems like everyone has job advice for you or wants to know, "have you found a job yet?" I wish that your well-intentioned advisors would stop asking the wrong question. After all, you're not going to school and getting a degree to get a good job.

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How to Decide Between 2 Awesome Job Candidates

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How to Decide Between 2 Awesome Job Candidates

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At the end of the day, having two seemingly perfect candidates and only one role to fill is really a good problem to have. It's often hard to find one star hire, let alone multiple, and either way you decide you'll probably end up with a great new employee.

But, well, it's still a problem.

When it comes to deciding between two people you really want to hire, it's time to ask yourself some tough (but telling) questions. Your answers will give you more clarity regarding their skills, their fit with your organization, and the administrative issues that might impact the hiring of either one.

Determine What You Really Need

The candidates' most important characteristics are their fit for the role they will need to perform. As a hiring manager, you've probably already considered each one's skill overlap with the job description. And since they're neck and neck in the final round, they probably both have a good number of those skills.

So you need to go deeper than just seeing how many boxes they check off by weighing the importance of the skills. Maybe one candidate for a sales position has six out of seven of the qualifications, and the other has four out of seven-but has sales experience with a specific company product. You might decide that the employee with the unique sales experience has a better background for the job than the one who actually has more of the required skills.

Of course, only you will know how to weigh factors within each category. A great question to ask to help figure this out it: What is the #1 thing I need most in this hire? It may be most important to you that the new employee is an energetic powerhouse who can hit the ground running ASAP, or you may be more interested in a highly organized and analytical teammate who could eventually complement your big-picture approach.

You should also look at the candidates' skills as an indicator of their future potential. Ultimately, you want your new employee to operate independently and be able to advance to the next career stage. The more capable your new employee is, the more you will be able to leverage your own time. Try thinking about who could really grow in the organization or, put simply, who you think your boss would be most impressed by.

Do the Beer Test

Organizational fit is no small concern. A good percentage of candidates don't make interviewing cuts solely because they don't feel like they would mesh with the culture of the company. So, beyond thinking about which candidate really "gets" your company, is excited about your mission, and has goals that match up with the organization, you should think more carefully about how each of these people would work in your office day to day. Has one candidate more than the other successfully spent time in workplaces such as yours? Has the other candidate chosen companies with dissimilar cultures intentionally or has he just not had the opportunity to work in similar companies?

Moreover, which of the two would you rather have a beer with after work? There's no way you can know everything about how a candidate will interact on a daily basis, but you can usually get a pretty good sense based on your gut reaction to whether you'd want to hang out with him or her. Some companies even have what they call "social interviews" where they take candidates out for happy hour with some of the team to let them socialize. If you think this would fly at your place of work, it could be a good way to differentiate between two candidates. But even if not, just considering it can be a great step.

Remember That Hiring is a Two-Way Street

And lastly, even if you decide which candidate is best, you have to think about whether you can get him or her. If they've made it this far in the application process, they're probably both excited about the job, but a lot more goes into play when considering an offer. You need to think about what it takes to attract this awesome hire to your company.

What are each candidate's levels of experience, and therefore likely compensation requirements-and are you able to fulfill those demands? Has one candidate spent the last few years working for a company with exciting perks that you aren't able to match up to? Will you lose either one completely if you don't make an immediate offer? It's often tough to think-and be realistic-about the logistics, but it can often help you tip the scale one way or another.

The good news is, when you're starting with two great candidates, you're likely to end up with an awesome hire. So, if you've weighed the skills, cultural fit, and offer considerations and still aren't sure, go with your gut. (Or, well, take them both out for a beer.) Then rest assured that, whoever you choose, you'll be welcoming someone great to the team.

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How to Decide Between 2 Awesome Job Candidates

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At the end of the day, having two seemingly perfect candidates and only one role to fill is really a good problem to have. It's often hard to find one star hire, let alone multiple, and either way you decide you'll probably end up with a great new employee.

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Why Women of Color Get Less Support at Work

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Why Women of Color Get Less Support at Work

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Since the genesis of the #MeToo movement, and the proliferation of studies exposing gender pay inequality, sexual discrimination, and harassment in the workplace, women's voices are being heard louder than ever.

But are those voices loud enough when it comes to career advancement, especially for women of color? And are men in those positions of power to promote more women of color into leadership roles really listening?

They should. Because according to a recent Harvard Business Review article, "83 percent of Asian women, 80 percent of black women, and 76 percent of Latinas say they want to be promoted," compared to 75 percent of men and 68 percent of white women.

This is especially true for ambitious, high-achieving, educated, and talented women of color looking to break the glass ceiling and rise to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder.

The Problem.

But there are several factors that limit women of color from being promoted into leadership roles, including double standards, microaggressions, and unconscious bias. But there's more.

According to HBR, "despite representing about 18 percent of the U.S. population, women of color represented only 4 percent of C-Level positions in 2018, falling far below white men (68 percent) and white women (19 percent).

In one study, women of color were found to be the group most likely to experience harassment in the workplace, while in another study, black women, in particular, are "often held to a much higher standard than their white and male peers and presumed to be less qualified despite their credentials, work product or business results," states the HBR report.

Managers are obviously to blame for many of the roadblocks affecting women of color. In a McKinsey and Leanin.org study, women of color are less likely to receive mentoring and sponsorship critical for advancement and typically report to bosses who fail to promote their work contributions to others. These obstacles often leave women of color out of the "informal networks that propel most high-potentials forward in their careers."

The Solution

What can leaders actively do to remove these obstacles from the path of women of color, and help them advance in their careers?

Zuhairah Washington, an SVP at Expedia Group, and Laura Morgan Roberts, professor of management at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, co-wrote the Harvard Business Review article referenced above, and propose six immediate actions.

1. Help them feel connected.

It's been noted that women of color find it harder to assimilate and share their personal lives as openly as their white and male counterparts. In turn, leaders must be better at expressing genuine interest in getting to know them better and personally inviting them to attend office gatherings and corporate social events.

2. Praise more.

Because women of color often feel invisible at work, leaders should raise awareness against unconscious bias and "openly call out instances where good work is being underappreciated or ignored," state the authors. That means, as managers, make the extra effort to praise them for their contributions, through formal and informal communication channels.

3. Provide honest feedback.

Not all feedback is created equal. When race or gender is involved, today's managers fear being perceived as racist or sexist, thus women are less likely to receive specific and honest feedback tied to outcomes, performance, or development, which may hold them back from getting to the next level. The solution is for leaders to "deliver feedback in a manner that shows they care deeply about their employees' personal growth and advancement but are unafraid to call out the areas for improvement," state the authors.

4. Assess potential, not just qualifications.

Women of color are often screened out of the hiring process by more rock-star candidates with desirable qualifications "on paper." This biased practice excludes women of color who "haven't been given the same opportunities as their white and male colleagues," explain the authors. The key? In addition to qualifications and experience, "widen the candidate pool by recruiting and assessing for potential as well."

5. Eliminate bias by being data-driven.

Managers should be better at measuring progress and tracking the performance of women of color versus their peers. Here's a great example by the authors: "If the average manager being promoted during a review cycle has driven less business growth, managed smaller teams and been responsible for a less significant P&L than an Asian woman who has also advanced, or one who hasn't, that is clear grounds for further investigation. Without the data, however, such cases might fly under the radar."

6. Conduct mandatory exit interviews.

Exit interviews here are meant to capture anecdotal data and provide rare insight on the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion programs by systematically asking women of color why they are leaving. By tapping into the experiences of women of color, managers can devise strategies to improve the overall employee experience before talent walks out the door. To ensure confidentiality and anonymity, the authors suggest third-party software solutions like tEquitable and All Voices, especially when employees have to report things like harassment and sexual misconduct.

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The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Why Women of Color Get Less Support at Work, Research Confirms

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Since the genesis of the #MeToo movement, and the proliferation of studies exposing gender pay inequality, sexual discrimination, and harassment in the workplace, women's voices are being heard louder than ever. But are those voices loud enough when it comes to career advancement, especially for women of color?

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The Best Email a Boss Could Send a New Hire Before They Start

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The Best Email a Boss Could Send a New Hire Before They Start

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No matter how ready someone is to leave their job and how thrilled they are about a new opportunity, giving two weeks notice can be a draining and emotionally taxing experience. Even if all goes smoothly, it can take a lot out of a person-leaving them a little frazzled as they head into their new role.

As a manager who wants this person to hit the ground running, you'd obviously hate for your shiny new employee to start off on a stressful note. The good news is that you, as their soon-to-be boss, do have some control over this.

The day Muse Career Coach Leto Papadopoulos resigned from a former job, she came home to find a box of chocolate-covered strawberries with a note from her new boss and team saying how excited they were for her to start.

"It was such a nice surprise to come home to," she says. "People want to know they matter," she explains. They don't want to feel like the company's "just filling a position." The best thing a boss can do between the moment an offer's accepted and a new hire's start date, then, is to ensure their new direct report knows this: "You're the one we want on the team and we're really happy about it."

And don't worry, you don't need to send anything fancy-like chocolate-covered strawberries-to express that. You can convey the same message in a simple email that'll take you just a few minutes to write.

Here's a template to get you started:
Hi [New Hire's Name],
Hope you're having a great [week/week off]!

Just writing to say we're so excited for you to join the team and we're really looking forward to working together. If you have any questions we can answer before you arrive, feel free to reach out.
See you on [Day]!
If there's a big project that was a major topic during the interview process, you can weave that into this note as well, Papadopoulos says, with a line like "we can't wait to get started on [XYZ project]!"

If you know your company's HR department hasn't reached out yet, you can add a note about when they should expect to hear about details like arrival time, who'll be greeting them and showing them around, and what they need to bring. Depending on the size of your company and how it functions, you might want to send this information yourself.

Tanaz Mody, Head of People Operations for the audio fitness company Aaptiv, recommends including "anything HR wouldn't cover that might make them feel more comfortable." That's especially true if for some reason the hiring manager won't be around on the first day.

She also advises being respectful of a new hire's time before they start, since they're "most likely taking time off to unwind." That means avoiding giving them any significant work to do before they arrive.

Papadopoulos agrees, saying you should, at most, send a link to something short to peruse. "I would hate to try to make it seem like you're already giving [an] employee work before they're getting paid," she says. "It's a turnoff." In short, all you need to send is a short note expressing your excitement to get started, just not right now.

About a week before I started my job at The Muse, I got just such an email from my new boss saying how excited she and the team were to start working together and checking in to see if I had any questions they could answer before I arrived. It also included a dog GIF and a note explaining the team's (higher-than-average) affinity for them.

I felt wanted and welcomed, and let into the loop with a little piece of insider info about my new team's culture. It reassured me one more time that they didn't regret their choice and that I'd made the right one too. And it made me think that's a gesture I want to remember when I'm a boss.

Now, assuming you're really excited your new hire is finally going to join the team and do some awesome work, wouldn't you want them to know?

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The Best Email a Boss Can Send a New Hire

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No matter how thrilled a new hire is about the opportunity, giving two weeks notice and leaving an old job can be a draining and emotionally taxing experience. If you're a boss who's really excited a new hire's finally going to join the team, wouldn't you want them to know?

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How to Reject an Internal Candidate (Without Driving Them Away)

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How to Reject an Internal Candidate (Without Driving Them Away)

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As a manager, this is probably something you've had to communicate at least once before, if not many times.

While turning down job applicants is common enough (hey, everyone can't get the spot), it's more likely that you've said "no" to folks applying from outside the company, not from within.

So what happens when an internal candidate applies and you have to let them know that they didn't get the job? How exactly do you break the news to someone you already work so closely with-and appropriately manage their expectations moving forward?

Answering these questions is more nuanced than rejecting an external candidate. After all, this is someone who believes in your company and wants to grow their skills and responsibilities there rather than somewhere else-that's why they went after that internal transfer to begin with.

As the CEO of PhotoShelter and someone who's dealt with this situation a lot, I've learned five key lessons about navigating the murky waters of turning down internal applicants.

1. Don't Do it Over Email

Email may be a blessing and a curse (my inbox screams curse at the moment), but we can all agree it makes communication easier and faster. It's not, however, the right channel for breaking bad news to your employee.

As busy as you are, it's critical to sit down face to face to explain your final decision. In these scenarios, your tone, facial expressions, and body language can all make a tremendous positive impact on how your employee feels about the outcome. The fact that you're willing to take time out of your day to have this conversation in the first place also speaks volumes.

2. Be Clear About the Reasons Behind Your Decision

An in-person meeting requires a bit of planning on your part. You'll need to think critically about what you're going to say and how you're going to say it (writing your thoughts down or running them by a colleague or your HR department might help).

It's important that you're clear not only about your decision, but also the reasons behind it. The thing about an internal transfer versus an external candidate is that the person is already deemed a culture fit-which means the reasons they didn't get the job are most likely about their experience or lack thereof. So, you're in a better position to give them honest, direct feedback that will make sense to them and ultimately help them improve.

For example, if the applicant didn't have an important skill needed for the job, specify what that skill was. If another candidate was a better fit, explain why. Whatever you do, don't leave the person without any explanation at all.

3. Ask About Their Professional Goals

Often, an employee might apply for an internal transfer for the wrong reasons. Maybe they feel stuck on their current team and are just looking for something- anything -new. So, the position they applied for may not actually be in line with their own career aspirations.

This is where it can help to have an open conversation about their professional goals. What title would they love to have one day? Who do they admire professionally? What part of the company or their job gets them most excited? Understanding these aspirations will help you recommend ways they can build on these skills and passions in their current role (and thus get them to stick around longer), and pursue future roles that better align with these goals.

4. Find Other Opportunities for Them to Grow Within the Company

As someone higher up, you know better than anyone where the company is headed and what opportunities for growth are realistically available.

For example, what additional revenue streams or product developments are you considering? And what kind of team will be required to tackle those pursuits once they're set in motion?

Share these future opportunities with your employee by explaining where you're hoping the company will go and how they could potentially take part in fostering that growth. Additionally, come up with a plan to help them be best aligned for such a role when it eventually comes along. They may get even more excited about those possibilities than the original job they went after.

5. Don't Forget to Check in

After all is said and done, you should still check in with the person after a few days or weeks. Offer to grab lunch, step out for coffee, or schedule a quick meeting.

To put it simply, this shows you care. You care about how your employee is feeling, how their current work is moving along, and if they have further thoughts after your discussion. Checking in makes employees feel valued and heard-which builds lasting affinity for and loyalty to your company.

My experiences of having to reject internal candidates have taught me that even when you have to deliver bad news, it's actually a very good sign when someone's expressed genuine interest in new opportunities at your company. It means your employees like working for you and can see themselves there for the long term.

Most importantly, it's your job to foster that spirit and help them get to where they want to be-regardless of the fact that they didn't land this specific role. Doing so will only strengthen your relationship and the overall success of your business.

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What happens when an internal candidate applies and you have to let them know that they didn't get the job? While turning down job applicants is common enough (hey, everyone can't get the spot), it's more likely that you've said "no" to folks applying from outside the company, not from within.

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Whether you're just entering the workforce or are currently between jobs, it can be frustrating and stressful to be looking for a job. And the longer that the job search has dragged on, the worse it feels. The initial hope you had may turn to anger and then resignation. You may find your motivation flagging.

Here are a few things you can do to deal with a long job search, adapted from my new book Bring Your Brain to Work.

Diagnose problems

There is a lot of randomness in the job search process, and so it can be hard to know why you haven't landed a job yet. Sometimes a firm already has a person in mind for a particular job. Sometimes there were just a lot of qualified applicants for a position. But, sometimes there are things you're doing that are getting in the way of success.

That means that you need to take a pretty clear look at your entire application package to make sure you're not doing anything that is causing problems. If you're having trouble getting interviews at all, then sit down with a good employment coach to get a thorough evaluation of your resume and the cover letters that you're sending out. Perhaps you're not expressing your qualifications in the right way. For example, many people making the transition from the military to civilian jobs have difficulty translating what they have learned out of the jargon of the armed forces and into the language that hiring managers use.

If you are getting called in for interviews, but aren't getting positions after that, then it's time to work on your interview skills. After each interview, write down all the questions you can remember and jot down notes about how you addressed those questions. Then, practice answering those questions with someone who has experience doing interviews. They might be able to suggest a few things you can do differently in the future.

If you don't have the resources to hire a coach, there are often groups that meet in your local area for people who have been dealing with long job searches. They typically have a few people who donate their time to help people looking for work.

Cast a wider net

The randomness in the hiring process has another implication. There is a tendency for people to apply for the jobs that look ideal to them and perhaps a few others that are just on the border of the ideal. The problem is that you often overestimate your chances of getting a job, just as people overestimate their odds of winning the lottery just because they bought a ticket.

Consider applying for a wider range of jobs than you think you should. That will increase the chances that you'll get an offer.

You might be concerned that you are applying for a job you'll hate. But research suggests that you can learn to love almost any job-provided that you feel like the position is allowing you to serve a goal that you think matters. Be less concerned about finding your passion than about bringing your energy to the job you get.

Plus, you are not obligated to take a job just because it is offered to you. If you go through the recruiting process and decide that you simply don't want the job you're offered, you can decline it. At least you'll gain some confidence that you can get an offer.

Keep active

Work days often go by in a blur. But days when you are out of work can drag on, because you're not mentally engaged. A few days playing video games might be fine, but you really need to stay active during the job search. The best thing you can do is to put yourself in situations where you can encounter people who might consider hiring you.

One option is to sign on with a temp agency. In the past, temps were mostly people who did menial jobs for low pay. Now, though, agencies also have jobs for more skilled workers that can fill in at firms while someone is on leave or can bridge the gap until the firm can afford to hire a full-time person. A great way to get yourself in the queue for a position at a company is to be working for them already.

Another option is to volunteer for an organization that needs your skills. It is easy to think about volunteering as being primarily about walking dogs or delivering meals. Those are wonderful opportunities, of course, but nonprofit organizations also often need help in their offices to keep finances in order, maintain websites, do marketing, or do outreach. Working in that context can help you hone your skills and may also bring you in contact with people (particularly board members of the nonprofit) who might be hiring. Even one day a week of this kind of volunteer work can add a lot of value during a long job search.

Stay connected

Finally, don't bear the stress of a long job search alone. Many people deal with their stress by looking inward and shunning social interactions.

Find some people in your life that you trust and let them know how you're feeling. That will help to keep you motivated to continue your search rather than giving up hope. It will also make the hardest days more bearable. There will be days when it is hard to treat yourself with compassion. On those days, you need the energy of friends and loved ones.

Don't feel like you are being a burden to the people around you. You would help a friend or relative in need just as they are willing to help you. And when the job search is finally over (and it will eventually end), you can always buy them flowers, take them out to lunch, or cook them a nice meal.

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Whether you're just entering the workforce or are currently between jobs, it can be frustrating and stressful to be looking for a job. And the longer that the job search has dragged on, the worse it feels. The initial hope you had may turn to anger and then resignation.

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6 Job Search Tips That Are So Basic People Forget Them

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6 Job Search Tips That Are So Basic People Forget Them

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The irony of job search advice: There's so much available that you don't have to spend more than four seconds Googling before you land on some nugget of wisdom or another.

Yet, at the same time, there's so much available (some of which completely contradicts other advice you'll find) that it can easily overwhelm you. Which, in fact, is probably the exact opposite outcome you're looking for when you go sleuthing for genuinely useful counsel in the first place.

So let's do this: Let's boil things down to a short list of sound, timeless job searching tips that'll help you fine-tune your strategy so that you may sail through the process (or at least cut out some of the unnecessary time and frustration).

1. Make Yourself a "Smack-in-the-Forehead" Obvious Fit

When you apply for a job via an online application process, it's very likely that your resume will first be screened by an applicant tracking system and then (assuming you make this first cut) move onto human eyeballs. The first human eyeballs that review your resume are often those of a lower level HR person or recruiter, who may or may not understand all of the nuances of that job for which you're applying.

Thus, it behooves you to make it very simple for both the computer and the human to quickly connect their "Here's what we're looking for" to your "Here's what you can walk through our doors and deliver."

Tip

Study the job description and any available information you have on the position. Are you mirroring the words and phrases in the job description? Are you showcasing your strengths in the areas that seem to be of paramount importance to this role? Line it up. Line it up.

2. Don't Limit Yourself to Online Applications During Your Job Search

You want that job search to last and last? Well, then continue to rely solely on submitting online applications. You want to accelerate this bad boy? Don't stop once you apply online for that position. Start finding and then endearing yourself to people working at that company of interest. Schedule informational interviews with would-be peers. Approach an internal recruiter and ask a few questions. Get on the radar of the very people who might influence you getting an interview. (More on that here.)

Tip

By lining up with people on the inside of the companies at which you want to work, you will instantly set yourself apart. Decision makers interview people who come recommended or by way of a personal referral before they start sorting through the blob of resumes that arrives by way of the ATS.

3. Remember That Your Resume (and LinkedIn Profile) Is Not a Tattoo

Yes, your new resume is lovely. Your LinkedIn profile, breathtaking. However, if they don't position you as a direct match for a particular role that you're gunning for, don't be afraid to modify wording, switch around key terms, and swap bullet points in and out. Your resume is not a tattoo, nor is your LinkedIn profile. Treat them as living, breathing documents throughout your job search (and career).

Tip

If you're a covert job seeker, remember to turn off your activity broadcasts (within privacy and settings) when you make edits to your LinkedIn profile. If your current boss or colleagues are connected to you on LinkedIn, they may get suspicious about all the frequent changes.

4. Accept That You Will Never Bore Anyone Into Hiring You

Don't get me wrong-you absolutely must come across as polished, articulate, and professional throughout your job search. However, many people translate this into: Must. Be. Boring.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Realize that few people get hired because they had perfect white space on their cover letters, memorized all of the "correct" interview questions or used incredibly safe, common phraseology ( i.e., clichés) throughout their resumes. All of this correctness is going to make you look staged and non-genuine. Instead, give yourself permission to be both polished and endearing. Memorable, likable candidates are almost always the ones who go the distance.

5. If You're Not on LinkedIn, You Very Nearly Don't Exist

Considering that more than 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn as their primary search tool, this is not an understatement. If you're a professional, you need to not only be on LinkedIn, you need to be using it to your full advantage. Don't believe me? Think about it this way: If tomorrow morning, a recruiter logs onto LinkedIn looking for someone in your geography, with expertise in what you do, and you're not there? Guess who they're going to find and contact? Yes, that person's name is "not you."

Tip

If you figure out how to harness the power of no other social media tool for job search, figure out LinkedIn. It's (by far) the best resource we have available today for career and job search networking, for finding people working at companies of interest, and for positioning yourself to be found by a recruiter who has a relevant job opening.

6. Thank You Matters

I once placed a candidate into an engineering role with a company that manufactures packaging equipment. He was competing head-to-head with another engineer, who had similar talents and wanted the job just as badly. My candidate sent a thoughtful, non-robotic thank you note to each person with whom he'd interviewed, within about two hours of leaving their offices. The other candidate sent nothing.

Guess why my candidate got the job offer? Yep, the thoughtful, non-robotic thank you notes. They sealed the deal for him, especially considering the other front-runner sent nothing.

Tip

Consider crafting, original, genuine thank you notes (one for each interviewer) the moment you get back to a computer, following the interview. The speed with which you send the notes, and the quality, will make an impact.

And finally, remember that the interviewer cares much more about what you can do for them than what you want out of the deal. Certainly, they're going to care a bunch about what you want once you establish your worth. But during the interview, you must demonstrate why you make business sense to hire, period.

Now, go forth and show your job search exactly who is the boss.

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6 Simple Job Search Tips People Always Forget

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The irony of job search advice: There's so much available that you don't have to spend more than four seconds Googling before you land on some nugget of wisdom or another. Yet, at the same time, there's so much available (some of which completely contradicts other advice you'll find) that it can easily overwhelm you.

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Over the course of speaking with almost 500 leaders for my weekly “Corner Office” series, I’ve asked every one of them, “How do you hire?” Their answers are always insightful because after years of interviewing countless job candidates, they’ve learned the best approaches to help them get right to t…

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9 Tips to Prevent Ageism in Hiring (Even if You Didn’t Realize it Was There)

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9 Tips to Prevent Ageism in Hiring (Even if You Didn’t Realize it Was There)

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Take a look around your office for a moment and think back to all the new employees you can remember joining the company since you started. You might've already become attuned to how many women or people of color are being hired (or perhaps, not being hired).

But what about these newbies' ages? Is almost every single one of them a recent college graduate? Are even the more senior and management roles being filled by shooting stars in their 20s, 30s, and mayyyybe 40s? Would you literally have to go two floors up to find someone over 50 and exit the building to find someone over 60?

"By avoiding older workers, employers are missing out on workers with the most experience, who are likely to stay with companies longer than their younger counterparts, who usually understand the ethic of work and the cultures of workplaces, and who are likely to reward your faith with strong motivation to excel," says Ruth Finkelstein, Executive Director of the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging and a professor of urban public health at Hunter College. With age as with other characteristics, she adds, "the research is clear: diverse work teams are more successful as they incorporate multiple perspectives."

While federal and state laws prohibit age discrimination in hiring and other aspects of employment, ageism is incredibly common. A 2018 AARP survey of 3,900 workers ages 45 and above found that 45% of older workers cite age discrimination as a major reason they believe they wouldn't be able to find another job quickly (and an additional 31% said it was a minor reason), and 16% reported that they'd personally been passed up for a new job they applied for because of their age. And several studies (like this one and this one) have proven, empirically, that age discrimination is a problem in hiring.

But "formal complaints are rarely filed, and even more rarely proven," Finkelstein explains. And a 2015 survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that only 8% of organizations addressed or planned to address age as a dimension of diversity and inclusion in their talent strategies.

"Everyone knows it happens every day but hardly anyone does anything about it," says Cathy Ventrell-Monsees, senior advisor to the chair of the EEOC and co-author of Age Discrimination Litigation. "Our society is pretty ageist," she explains. "People have to recognize that and work to break down the assumptions they may have and may not know they have."

If you're involved in hiring-whether you're a recruiter who spends all your days focused on finding new talent, a manager searching for a fantastic new addition to your team, or a co-worker taking part in the interview process-and want to make an effort not only to avoid illegal age discrimination, but also to push for and benefit from age diversity, here are several ways you can go about it.

1. Make Sure Any Plan for Diverse Hiring Includes Age

As the PwC study found, very few companies include age as a component of their talent diversity and inclusion strategies. But "if you don't have age on your radar screen, how do you address the issues?" says Patricia Barnes, an expert on employment discrimination and author of Overcoming Age Discrimination in Employment: An Essential Guide for Workers, Advocates, and Employers. "Maybe the first thing a company should do is do an evaluation. What are we doing with respect to older workers?" she says. "If we're doing nothing we're making the problem worse."

So if you have a formal or informal plan around diversity in hiring, make sure age is part of it. Because it'll do good not only for older workers who will have more opportunities, but also for the companies and colleagues they join. In a 2018 report released on the 50th anniversary of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, for example, the EEOC pointed to research that's shown that age diversity leads to better organizational performance, higher productivity for everyone involved, and lower turnover.

Older workers bring industry and business knowledge and a wealth of experience that helps them strategize and solve problems, Barnes says. And they "can mentor younger workers, if not technically, then in valuable interpersonal skills and teamwork," she adds. "Someone once said those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Older workers bring the equivalent of wisdom capital to a job."

2. Pay Attention to Your Job Descriptions

You may already know that certain language used in job descriptions can deter women from applying- research points to words like "competitive," "dominant," and even "outspoken," and we've also heard too much about "ninjas" and "rock stars."

You'll also want to think about whether the words you're using will deter older workers. If you're advertising for "digital natives," that's language that explicitly leaves people out just because they happened to be born at a certain time. If what you're after is proficiency in certain digital skills or a proven track record adopting and mastering new tools, talk about that instead.

But that's not the only kind of language that might turn off potential older applicants, according to Finkelstein. "When it's all full of 'energetic, fresh ideas, bold, etc.,' it's not that experienced workers aren't those things, it's that older workers read an ad like that and say, 'Oh they want to hire kids,'" she explains. When, on the other hand, an ad "emphasizes mentoring, training, leading, and autonomy, then older workers read that and think their applications might be considered."

Another easy fix: Avoid setting a cap when you lay out how much experience you expect candidates to have. Sure, you can indicate a minimum, if you believe someone needs at least that much time in a similar role to excel in the position. But an upper limit does more to turn away older applicants than filter for those who could do the job well.

If you're trying to use that number as a roundabout way to set salary expectations, consider your other options. Laurie McCann, a senior attorney with the AARP Foundation, suggests being direct and simply posting the salary instead. "Then the individual worker decides before applying whether or not that salary is acceptable to them." If that's not an option at your company, then make sure you "clearly describe the skills required and the level of responsibility the position wields-in other words describe the position as clearly and accurately as possible so that there is no miscommunication about the type of job you are hiring for."

As Barnes notes, "if an industry is shrinking or the economy is down, the hiring pool will likely include some highly qualified people. Workers have many reasons for accepting lower salaries (i.e., to keep working in the profession they love or because they want to work in a particular locale or whatever). That's the reality today."

3. Don't Ask for Birth Dates or Graduation Years (and Don't Limit Your Search to Recent Grads)

Here's another easy one: Don't ask applicants for their dates of birth or college graduation years (which is just another indicator of age). "It's amazing how frequently we see that," says Ventrell-Monsees of the EEOC.

Often those fields don't just appear on the online application, they're also required, which means that if you don't complete them, you can't hit submit. Sometimes, Ventrell-Monsees says, the college graduation question is even accompanied by a dropdown menu that doesn't list options before a certain year, as though it would be inconceivable for an applicant to be older than that. And if it's a required field, a candidate's only option is to select an incorrect year or walk away entirely.

Similarly, avoid limiting your pool of qualified applicants by marking certain jobs for recent grads or, as a recruiter, filtering potential candidates by graduation year in your LinkedIn search. It's the same idea as putting an arbitrary cap on years of experience-and by proxy, age-rather than focusing on skills a candidate would actually need to succeed in the role.

4. Target Your Outreach to Workers of All Ages

College and graduate school career fairs may seem like some of the most obvious ways to recruit new employees, but make sure those aren't the only places you're looking. These events may be convenient suppliers of high volumes of candidates, but for obvious reasons, most of them will fall into a pretty narrow age group.

Similarly, if your company is buying job ads on platforms like Facebook and Google, is it limiting who sees those ads to particular age groups? An investigation by ProPublica found several instances of large companies placing recruitment ads that would be shown only to particular age groups.

Finkelstein also urges employers who are serious about age diversity to specifically seek out older candidates. "You can think about proactive recruitment things as well as things that prevent discrimination," she says.

"When I'm posting for a position and I explicitly am looking for a deep wide range of expertise, I go to the HR people and say, 'Someone in their 60s, someone in their 70s, would be good in this job,'" Finkelstein says, almost as permission as well as a reminder and encouragement to consider candidates who are older.

She also recommends turning to alumni networks and, especially at larger companies, to retiree networks. "Your retirees are an excellent source of recruits," she says. "They know other people in their peer group or one just below them who are looking for work," she adds, and because they're familiar with the company, "they're good judges of who would be a good fit."

5. Show Job Searchers Workers of Various Ages in Marketing Materials and Hiring Committees

One day when Ventrell-Monsees was watching sports on television, she noticed an ad about job recruiting featuring a man with gray in his beard, and then a woman in her 50s. "Damn, they never show women in their 50s!" she thought.

If companies are looking for workers of all ages, she says, they should include workers of all ages on their websites, in their recruitment materials, and in any other marketing efforts. "It doesn't have to be pictures of actual folks in [the] company; if that's what you're striving for then include those pictures," she urges. Because when job seekers see people like them represented in those materials, it can send a signal that the company truly wants them to apply.

The same goes for the hiring committee. "Research shows that hiring decision makers tend to hire people like themselves," Ventrell-Monsees says. So "an age diverse hiring panel can make a huge difference."

Finkelstein echoes her point. "If you are serious about being willing to hire an older worker, and they never see an older face in the whole process they go through, you're not delivering that message very effectively," she says. "I'm 64 so I have lots of friends who are in the exact position you're thinking about. They talk about when they go on a job interview and they know they'll never hear from these people again, and one of the things they talk about is the kids who interview them."

6. Focus on Core Skills and Qualifications, Not Superficial Ones

At every step of the process, making sure you're focusing on the skills and qualifications required for the role will help prevent ageism (even if you didn't realize it was there). That means when you're writing the job description, when you're doing the initial screening of applications, when you're interviewing, and when you ultimately offer someone the job.

"If a person meets those, they should be a viable candidate," says McCann. Period. And having a clear list of skills and qualifications that everyone involved in hiring can come back to will help prevent bias of any kind from influencing the decisions.

At the same time, Finkelstein warns against getting too hung up on familiarity with particular tools or platforms: "I think sometimes that set of questions is used as a weapon."

In other words, "if you say, 'What do you know about XYZ latest software?' you're sort of demanding that somebody know the specific exact thing that you're using instead of believing that if they have a range of knowledge about that kind of system they can probably master yours too," she explains. "If this guy can build relationships, take a list of contacts, turn them into leads, sell to them, increase their order over time and the company's market share, then that's probably a skill set that means this person is a good salesperson even if they haven't done it on your platform."

Make an effort to focus on the fundamental skills rather than the superficial ones. And, Finkelstein adds, skip the remarks about how much things have changed. Just because a candidate used a rolodex and paper files when they started out, doesn't mean they won't be equally as successful using software today.

7. Be Careful Not to Use "Culture Fit" as an Excuse

At The Muse, the idea of fit is central. But fit is about finding matches between employees and companies based on attributes like communication and decision-making styles as well as details such as the size of a company and its mission. It's categorically not about creating environments where everyone is the same (in terms of gender, race, age, experience, ideas, etc.)

So while questions of culture fit may be valid, make sure you're not assuming older candidates wouldn't fit in. When you say, "it's hip, it's a tech environment, it's a fast-paced type environment, do you think you could keep up?" Ventrell-Monsees explains, "that might be a perfectly legitimate question to ask all candidates, but if you only ask older candidates, there's a built-in assumption that they're slower. Typically [you] have no basis for making that assumption."

Besides, if you think the culture at your company would make an older worker uncomfortable, it doesn't mean you shouldn't hire them, but rather that you should take steps to make the environment more inclusive.

8. Don't Make Assumptions About Someone Who's "Overqualified" or "Likely to Retire Soon"

A good rule of thumb in general is to avoid making assumptions. That's true when you're a manager who shouldn't assume a woman wouldn't want a promotion because she has young children at home, and it's true when you're a hiring manager who shouldn't assume someone who has more than the minimum amount of experience isn't genuinely interested in the job.

"There are all sorts of reasons that someone with more experience than necessary might be looking to step down from management," McCann says. They might "miss the substantive work they were trained to do." For example, if they were trained as an engineer or designer and want to go back to doing those things rather than overseeing teams of people doing those things.

There are plenty of legitimate ways to get at an candidate's reasons and motivations, rather than dismissing their applications out of hand. Tell them what the position entails. Ask them why they're excited, and how they would stay interested and engaged.

"If you get a feeling from that person's answer that this isn't exactly their dream job and they're not excited about it," McCann says, "that's a plausible reason" not to move them forward in the process. But don't assume that because someone is more than qualified, they'll get bored or be taking this role with plans to jump ship as soon as something better comes along.

"Too often it's the stereotype that the person whose qualifications exceed the minimum is always going to leave and yet we don't seem to think the same of less-qualified individuals who are constantly on the lookout for the next and better position," McCann says.

In fact, Ventrell-Monsees points out, " research actually shows that the younger workers job hop much more rapidly and frequently than an older worker will." So if one of your primary concerns is to find someone who will stay in the role or at the company for a certain amount of time, make sure you're asking younger candidates the same questions as older ones.

As for assuming that an older candidate is surely just about to retire and therefore not worth investing in as a new hire, Ventrell-Monsees, "unless they've hit the lottery, that's probably not going to happen." Besides, "if you're going to live until they're 80 or 90, there's a lot of work in there!"

9. Don't Be So Confused About Why They're Looking for a New Job

Not only should you avoid guessing how close an applicant is to retirement, but you should also try to shake any confusion you have about their desire to change jobs.

"Don't assume because someone has been in one job for whatever, 20 years, that they wouldn't be willing and able to adapt to my company," Ventrell-Monsees says. "There's sort of an outdated assumption that people get stuck and want to stay stuck," she adds. But "people come in and out of work and jobs and careers and interests at all different stages in their lives," and "with job hopping becoming the norm, even older workers in their 40s and 50s are interested in different opportunities."

In fact, Finkelstein points out, it should make plenty of sense. "People change jobs in their 60s, and they do that to have sort of a capstone experience where they bring everything they've learned to bear in a position and give it their everything," she says. "I can't really understand why organizations don't want those people."

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How to Prevent Age Bias When You're Hiring

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Take a look around your office for a moment and think back to all the new employees you can remember joining the company since you started. You might've already become attuned to how many women or people of color are being hired (or perhaps, not being hired). But what about these newbies' ages?

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How to Job Hunt in a New City Before You Live There

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How to Job Hunt in a New City Before You Live There

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Are you interested in working in a new city, but wondering how to get some proverbial irons in the fire before moving there? There is plenty you can do to set yourself up for career success in the city (or state or country) of your dreams.

Here are a few tips to get started:

1. Include the move on your resume

Make a note of your upcoming move on your resume by adding, "Relocating to [CITY] in [MONTH, YEAR]" in parentheses below your current address.

2. Start networking yesterday

It's never too early to start networking! Take time to search Idealist.org for upcoming Idealist Day events, LinkedIn for local connections, and local professional associations for networking and social events. While you may not be ready to attend an in-person event, chances are, you'll stumble across at least a few digital events (think webinars, Hangouts, remote volunteer opportunities, etc.) that could open the door to a connection in your new city.

3. Craft your elevator pitch (or in this case, your moving truck pitch)

If you have job searched before, you'll know that every interaction can open a door to an opportunity (whether it was intentional or not). To make sure that you're always ready to make your case as a soon-to-relocate superstar, you'll want to have a quick and professional response ready for whenever anyone asks, "So, why are you moving?" Rather than telling everyone and their mother all the dirty details of exactly how you decided it was time to move, try something like this:

" I have always wanted to live in a coastal city because of my interest in environmental issues, especially those that relate to water and climate. I decided on [CITY] after researching the types of organizations that call [CITY] their home and finding that quite a few of them really spoke to me and my interest in [ISSUE AREA]."

4. Consider taking your current job along for the ride

It has been a while since we originally published some advice on this very topic, and since then, times have changed! While five or 10 years ago, it may have been out of the question to do your work remotely, more and more organizations and adopting flexible work policies. If you love what you do (but don't love your neighbors, your rent, the occasional polar vortex, etc.) consider talking to your employer about whether they would be open to a remote-work arrangement. You never know until you try!

Pro Tip: Before starting this conversation, you'll really want to take the temperature of your organization. If, for any reason, this is a request that may be met with an unpleasant ultimatum, be sure that you're ready to face those consequences.

5. Show your new connections that the distance ain't no thing

So, you are making long-distance connections like crazy, offered the specifics of your move on your resume, and even landed a few first-round interviews. Now it's time to prove that you are so on top of this long-distance process (as well as your upcoming move).

Show your network and potential employers that even from far away, you can be super responsive to their needs by responding to emails post-haste and always answering your phone (within reason). You can even anticipate any pain points that a future employer may consider by suggesting solutions before they come up. Here's what I mean:

Pain point: You and your future city of residence aren't in the same time zone. What to tell a potential employer: "Just an FYI, I'll always adjust my schedule to accommodate our time zone differences and your schedule. It's important to me that our exchanges are convenient for you."

Pain point: A potential employer may not be tech-savvy and perhaps will prefer to communicate via phone as opposed to Skype or Google Hangout. What to tell a potential employer: "I am available to connect via Skype, Google Hangout, phone, or email. Whatever medium is most comfortable for you works for me. I'd also love to meet in person whenever it's convenient for you and am happy to make the trip."

Paint point: If you're looking for employment in a new country, a potential employer may not know the specific legalities associated with bringing you onto the team. What to tell a potential employer: "According to [MY RESEARCH/THE EMBASSY/MY CAREER COACH], it looks like I'll need to get an employment visa to work in [COUNTRY NAME]. I'd be happy to share some of the resources I came across that could guide you through the process if you were to bring me on as an employee."

***

Landed a job before you had a local address? Share your success story with the Idealist Careers community.

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How to Job Hunt in a New City Before You Live There - Idealist Careers

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Are you interested in working in a new city, but wondering how to get some proverbial irons in the fire before moving there?

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Networking Not Working | What Am I Doing Wrong?

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Networking Not Working | What Am I Doing Wrong?

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My wife has been launching a great career, which unfortunately means a lot of moving. My career has been ... err... not so hot. Five years ago, we moved to Sacramento. I have two degrees, and a few years experience in my field. I applied for over 70 jobs and got nothing. I went searching for answers, and all the advice online says "network, network, network." So I sent emails, made calls, went out to coffees ... and nothing happened. It took me 15 months to get a part-time contractor job. Two years ago, we moved (again) to Madison. Now with fresh time in my field, it should be a snap to get a similar job, right? 14 months of emails, calls, networking events, more coffees than I can count. Eventually got a very part-time job in a field tangential to my focus. What am I doing wrong? Tailored cover letter and resume? Check. Reaching out to people asking for information (and making it clear I'm not begging for a job), picking brains, asking for recommendations... Everyone says things like "Sounds like you are doing the right thing", yet it's getting me nowhere. We shall be moving (hopefully for the last time), to Seattle in a few months. I've already started reaching out to people. The vast majority of my emails have gone ignored. The few replies I get are less then helpful. I'm not looking forward to another year-plus of not eating. Any ideas?
Network or Bust

***

Dear Network or Bust,

First, as much as I hate to do it (because it's probably just not all that helpful), I need to join the chorus of voices who are already telling you, "Sounds like you're doing everything right."

Truly, I'm impressed. Most career experts and advisors (myself included) would be hard-pressed to pick anything out of your strategy and label it as "not quite hitting the mark." But I'm sorry to hear that it has yet to prove a magical formula, and I can definitely share some additional suggestions.

But as you consider what I have to offer, I'd also strongly encourage you to just keep on keeping on and doing what you've been doing!

Freshen up your resume with pro-bono and personal projects

While I don't know the specifics of your search or your professional experience, it sounds like perhaps the part-time work you were able to find wasn't necessarily your dream job, nor was it a completely natural fit on your larger career path. It's great that you were able to add some newer experience to your resume, but maybe what's missing is newer experience that speaks to you and your specific interests and experience-work that you could really sink your teeth into and feel connected with and excited by.

Since you haven't been able to find this type of work in the traditional job market, it may be time to look elsewhere. Consider casting a wider net by exploring the possibility of either pro-bono or personal projects. Rather than committing all of your free time to customizing resumes and attending networking events, dedicate a few hours each week to projects that perfectly highlight your skills and expertise.

For pro bono projects

Check out Taproot Foundation, Catchafire, or Idealist.org to be connected with organizations in need of pro-bono professionals.

The beauty of pro-bono work is that you will have plenty of available (and needed) projects to choose from that run the gamut across issue areas and fields. While most organizations in need of pro-bono support will still interview candidates and do their due diligence to ensure that they're finding the best match for the work, chances are, you won't experience the same radio silence that you have been dealing with once you have expressed interest in an opportunity.

Pro tip: Before committing to move forward with any pro-bono work, be sure to verify with the organization for whom you're working that you can share you work (and your results) on your resume, digital portfolio, etc.

For personal projects

In another series of posts here on Idealist Careers, I offer our readers the following advice: if you don't have the experience you need to land the job, create your own opportunity. Dive into a passion project with the same enthusiasm you would commit to your dream job.

Do you want to be an event planner? Throw a small special event, plan it top to bottom, and create a report that clearly illustrates your results for a potential employer. Interested in copywriting and communications? Create a digital portfolio that allows you ample room to show off your copywriting chops. Want to develop your data analysis muscle? Once you've created that digital portfolio, set up Google Analytics and create reports along with analysis summaries and share those on your site as examples of your work. You get the idea.

In addition to all of the amazing work you're doing researching your new city, connecting, and networking (because spoiler alert: you need to keep doing it!), I'd find some creative ways to add some interesting experience to your resume. Hopefully, this will feel-and appear to potential employers-like a better fit than some of the part-time temporary work you've been able to land as of late.

***

Send your questions and comments to me at AskAlexis@idealist.org, and if we plan to publish your question, I'll be sure to give you a heads up (and I'll also be sure to keep your info anonymous, of course).

Looking forward to reading your stories and answering your questions!

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Ask Alexis | Networking Not Working | What Am I Doing Wrong? - Idealist Careers

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My wife has been launching a great career, which unfortunately means a lot of moving. My career has been ... err... not so hot. Five years ago, we moved to Sacramento. I have two degrees, and a few years experience in my field. I applied for over 70 jobs and got nothing.

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Structure Your Interview Process to Maximize the Chances You'll Make the Right Hire

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Structure Your Interview Process to Maximize the Chances You'll Make the Right Hire

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Making a new hire requires a lot of time and effort-which is no big secret if you're a recruiter! But it's not just recruiters dedicating their resources to hiring: Everyone from hiring managers and potential team members to senior leaders and receptionists can be called in to participate in some aspect of the interview process. Yet for an activity that touches so many people, interviewing is not always given the respect it deserves.

Some interviewers treat the entire process with disdain, as a waste of time that could be better spent doing almost anything else. Others might not be so openly against interviewing, but they treat their time with candidates as simply a chance to chat and casually discuss work history or common acquaintances. And yet others walk into the interview room with no game plan whatsoever, figuring that they'll just wing it or let the candidate guide the conversation.

These approaches to interviewing aren't just ineffective-they also lead to negative candidate experience, tarnish your employer brand, and decrease your offer acceptance rate.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

The key to maximizing your hiring success is to implement a structured interview process. This involves outlining exactly what you're looking for before you even write the job req and creating a framework for each step of the process so that every person who's involved knows exactly what the purpose of the session is and which criteria they should be evaluating a candidate against.

Want to learn the basics of setting up a structured interview process? Read on for a simple three-step framework to help you get started.

Step 1: Define Who You're Trying to Hire

The first step of setting up a structured interview process is really understanding and defining the role. Going through this process helps ensure that recruiters and hiring managers are aligned, which reduces chances of confusion and miscommunication further on in the process.

Start with the basics: the role name, the department, and who the person will report to. Then be sure to consider the business objectives of making this hire. How will this person contribute to your company's bottom line? Finally, consider what you expect the person to accomplish in their first year in the role.

Step 2: Decide How You'll Evaluate Candidates

Once you've defined what the role looks like within your company, you can decide how you'll evaluate the candidate. It might help to begin with a few general categories like basic requirements (e.g., visa status, location), necessary hard and soft skills (project management, proficiency in a particular software), and hiring manager preferences (autonomy, communication style).

Next, you'll want to define the hiring criteria for this particular role. In other words, what are the required skills, personality traits, and qualifications someone would need in order to accomplish all the things you set out in step 1? Some companies, like Oscar Health, really dive in here to define the "success drivers" for a particular role, looking at the key characteristics that indicate a candidate has a high probability of success. (Read more about Oscar's approach here.)

Step 3: Outline the Interview Process

In this final step, you'll design the actual interview plan. This is where you'll match each stage of the interview to a particular set of criteria. The number and types of interviews you conduct will vary depending on your organization and the specific role, but here's a general framework you can work from:

Stage 1: Recruiter Screen

This step involves having the recruiter review applications and screen out candidates who are obviously not a fit-for example, those who don't fit your basic education or location requirements or have the right type of experience.

Stage 2: Hiring Manager Screen

This step involves conducting a phone screen. It allows the interviewer, generally the hiring manager, to get an initial sense of each candidate and review their work experience at a high level to understand whether it aligns with the role.

Stage 3: Skills Testing

This step involves asking the candidate to perform a take-home test. The idea here is to give them a task that's reflective of what they'll have to do on the job and give their hiring manager or teammates a chance to see how they approach their work.

Stage 4: In-person Interview

In-person Interview #1-Culture Fit

This step involves assessing candidates for culture fit at your company and can be conducted by an employee from any department-not only the candidate's potential teammates. Interviewers can determine if the candidate's personal values mesh with your company values and find out what motivates them at work.
In-person Interview #2-Team Panel
This step involves having a few members of the team interview the candidate so they can get a sense of what it'd be like to work with this person. How would they fit in with existing team members? Would their experience and knowledge complement the rest of the team?
In-person Interview #3-Hiring Manager One-on-One
This step involves having the candidate meet with the hiring manager. In the earlier hiring manager screen stage, the hiring manager will have assessed the candidate's general qualifications and aptitude for the role, but this stage gives the hiring manager the chance to explore the candidate's traits and working style to really get a sense for what their working relationship would look like. Keep in mind that this is an opportunity for both hiring manager and candidate to evaluate each other, so the hiring manager should be open about their management style and expectations.

It may seem like putting all this thought in before an interview takes place is creating a lot of extra work, but in fact it's just the opposite! When you begin the hiring process in a thoughtful and intentional way, everyone who's involved feels more confident since they understand exactly what their role is and how they should be evaluating the candidate. Plus, candidates walk away with a much better sense of the role and working environment. So, the "extra" time and effort actually leads to less work-and greater success-down the line.

Excited to try this out in your organization? Download "Designing a Structured Interview Workbook," an interactive resource that guides you through each step of the structured interview design process and makes it simple to put into practice.

For more awesome (and useful!) advice on hiring, check out our employer resources hub.

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Here's How to Structure Your Interview Process to Maximize the Chances You'll Make the Right Hire

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Making a new hire requires a lot of time and effort-which is no big secret if you're a recruiter! But it's not just recruiters dedicating their resources to hiring: Everyone from hiring managers and potential team members to senior leaders and receptionists can be called in to participate in some aspect of the interview process.

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Our Guide to the No-Stress Interview Outfit

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Our Guide to the No-Stress Interview Outfit

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Most of us know the basics of dressing for an interview. But we might still wonder: are we too fancy? Not fancy enough? Does our outfit make the right impression? Interviews are nerve-wracking enough without also having to worry about physical presentation.

Fortunately, the right interview outfit can increase your confidence-and your potential employer will see something special. Here's what to look for when you survey your closet.

How formal should you be?

Yes, you should dress up-even if the people at the organization wear jeans and T-shirts, and even if your interview is an informal one-on-one at a coffee shop. Formal clothing shows respect, poise, and professionalism.

A few rules to go by:

Err on the side of being too formal. You're unlikely to make the wrong impression by being overdressed; remember, this isn't the outfit you're going to wear every day if you get the job.

The "interview suit" is a good wardrobe staple. You don't have to spend a ton of money, but a well-fitting suit in a neutral color like black, gray, or tan can serve you well through multiple interviews and limit wardrobe choice anxiety. Add a collared, button-down shirt in a matching shade (you can't go wrong with a white shirt). Depending on the climate where you live, you might want some swappable jacket and blazer options for colder or warmer months. If casual attire is the norm, you may be able to get away with a clean, pressed, business casual look (a camisole, nice t shirt, or sweater) minus the suit jacket. But the suit is still a safe bet.

Keep it simple. Customize a suit with a tie, scarf, or other accessories; a tasteful pop of color, if that's your style, can help you feel more like you. But your outfit should be the background of your interview, not the focus.

Clean dress shoes in a neutral shade are another good staple. Make sure they fit comfortably and that you can walk in them. If you're not comfortable wearing heels, pick a pair of classy flats instead. Stick with closed toes, though, even in the summer.

What if the interview process involves an on-site visit or other activities where formal attire won't be practical? In that case, ask your organizational contact what wardrobe they recommend.

What your outfit says about you

The ideal interview outfit can complement the prep work you've already done. A good ensemble signals:

You're confident. If you don't like dressing up in your daily life, formal interview attire may feel artificial. Hedge your bets by minimizing discomfort. Pick clothes that are right for your body, and try the outfit on a day or two in advance to get used to it. Feel free to give yourself a mirror pep talk before you head out the door. You look good! We promise.

You're alert and refreshed. Good posture takes any outfit to the next level. If you're a sloucher by nature, practice sitting and standing up straight. And makeup, if you choose to wear it, can enhance an enthusiastic and "awake" look.

You pay attention to detail. Leave enough time before the interview to fix any stains, wrinkles, rips, or tears. If you're nervous about a last-minute coffee spill, carry stain remover with you.

You come prepared. If you put effort and thought into your wardrobe, the interviewer will see you plan to put the same effort into work for the organization. Speaking of prep, a matching bag can be the perfect touch if you need to bring along hard copies of your resume or other materials. For an interview, we'd suggest avoiding your weekend tote bag.

You're someone to respect. Wardrobe is one area where "fake it 'til you make it" can work to your advantage, especially if you don't feel confident. Dress like you know your worth. If you're at the interview stage, the organization thinks your skills are pretty valuable, so present yourself like the professional you are.

You take the opportunity seriously. Again, even if casual dress is the office norm, a polished interview outfit shows how much you respect the work they do.

Jeans, flip-flops, anything too revealing: you know the basics. But there are some less obvious missteps to avoid:

Anything uncomfortably ill-fitting. Shoes that pinch your feet or slacks a few sizes too big or small may distract you and keep you from doing your best.

Too much perfume or cologne. Strong scents may be distracting, or even set off someone's allergies or sensitivities.

Any eye-catching statement pieces. Personal-style additions (earrings, bracelets, cufflinks, hair accessories, etc.) can be great confidence boosters, but keep them as simple as you can.

A good rule of thumb: if you think the interviewer might remember a clothing piece or accessory long after you walk out of the room, leave it at home. You want to keep attention on your qualifications, not your outfit. While a good interview ensemble will help you out, the clothing is the backdrop-you're the star.

***

Do you have a go-to interview outfit? Share your "dress for success" tips in the comments below.

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Our Guide to the No-Stress Interview Outfit - Idealist Careers

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Most of us know the basics of dressing for an interview. But we might still wonder: are we too fancy? Not fancy enough? Does our outfit make the right impression? Interviews are nerve-wracking enough without also having to worry about physical presentation. Fortunately, the right interview outfit can increase your confidence-and your potential employer will see something special.

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12 Key Application Ingredients That Make Employers Want To Interview You

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12 Key Application Ingredients That Make Employers Want To Interview You

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When it comes to job applications, it can be pretty daunting to decide exactly what information to include. Candidate applications contain all sorts of information, from education history to career objectives to most recent responsibilities. As the rise of AI recruitment measures and even more extensive pre-hiring processes drives the job search to even more exhaustive lengths, job seekers need to know what to do in order to retain visibility among the waves of other applicants.

So, does some information help candidates better stand out among the crowd? To lend their insight, we asked 12 members of Forbes Human Resources Council to discuss the single piece of information on an application that tells an employer if they want to interview an applicant or not, and why that component is so important. Here's what they had to say:
1. Stable Work History
When reviewing a resume, it is important to review the past work history and how long the candidate has stayed with a company. Candidates who do not have a stable work history and switch jobs every other year, may not stand out to the hiring manager who is reviewing the resumes. Typically, candidates with a stable work history demonstrate commitment and the ability to grow in their position. - Debi Bliazis, Champions School of Real Estate
2. Career Progression
A person's career progression tells such an interesting story of where they have been, what they learned and what has shaped who they are today. It's not just about promotion, but rather understanding how the culmination of their experiences - knowledge of industries, skills, leadership, exposure to different cultures and business models - uniquely prepares a person for their next opportunity. - Alina Shaffer, LivingHR, Inc.
3. Actual Results
I look for real results on a person's resume or profile. There is a big difference between being "responsible" for something and actually delivering results. "Responsible for increasing revenue" is fine. But "Drove the sales organization to achieve a 25% increase in top line revenue resulting in a 15% bottom line increase" is a real result. I'll take that over responsibilities any day. - Stephen Lowisz, Qualigence International
4. Hobbies And Charitable Work
Personal interests, such as hobbies and charitable work, give me the best insights as to who the person is, not just what they've done. It's the quickest way to sense culture fit and put a candidate at ease as they are talking about their passion. - Kristin Williams, Ultra Mobile
5. Connections In Common
I'm looking for connections we have in common - people we both know, professional organizations we participate in and evidence of the person taking the initiative to join and lead relevant projects outside of his or her workplace. No matter what the resume says, getting insights from a mutual acquaintance carries significant weight in helping me make a hiring decision. - Joyce Maroney, Kronos Incorporated
6. Recent Relevant Experience
Since we're narrowing it down to one thing, I'm looking at most recent work history, say over the past five years. It needs to be relevant to the job they're applying for. Education (which shouldn't be a requirement anyway, but that's a topic for another day), career objective, etc. make no difference to getting an interview in general and are mostly just talking points to possibly break the ice. - Evan Lassiter, Contino
7. Why They Want The Job
The answer to that question tells me everything. How enthusiastic are you about my company and this job? It tells me if this job is an aspirational move or a role you have succeeded in before. Sometimes people making sideways moves make great hires, but if they don't explain why they want the role then they will get overlooked. Where possible, make sure you put this in all your applications. - Karla Reffold, BeecherMadden
8. Problem-Solving Skills
Personal achievements are key. Every application will spell out what a candidate did in a prior role. But what did he or she accomplish there? How did the candidate make a difference? Achievements can pertain to problem-solving, opportunistic growth, implementing a game-changing process, etc. When a candidate includes evidence of the positive results of his or her work, it jumps off the page. - Genine Wilson, Kelly Services
9. The Desire To Learn
A candidate's education, training and work history are important, but these won't determine his or her success in future roles. The common denominator all successful employees share is the desire to learn new skills, acquire knowledge and take on challenges. A candidate with a demonstrated history of progressive learning throughout his or her career will likely outperform others once hired. - John Feldmann, Insperity
10. Increased Levels Of Responsibilities
While tenure is something I look for, I want to see candidates who increase their scope and level of responsibilities. This applies to both high performing individual practitioners as well as those who follow a management track. It shows me they take their career path seriously and, if hired, will be an actively engaged member of the team. - Cat Graham, Cheer Partners
11. Consistency
Consistency is key to many different parts of a resume. It is important to look for both good and bad consistencies. Are they consistently in the same type of position? Or are they consistently changing career paths? This will tell a lot about how dedicated and focused an individual is on their professional growth. Consistency is also important in the layout of the resume. - Tiffany Jensen, Pure Grips
12. Passion
An application should tell a career story. If I had to determine an interview based on one piece of information, it would be the ability to identify a candidate's passion through experiences. If you can recognize passion from a piece of paper, you can paint a picture for a candidate in a role and ultimately your company. - Chatelle Lynch, McAfee

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12 Key Application Ingredients That Make Employers Want To Interview You

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With the amount of potential information job seekers could include in their applications, what's the most important thing that will help them stand out? The professionals of Forbes Human Resources Council share the top ingredients they look for that convince them to schedule an interview.

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Finding subtle bias in job ads

Without realising it, we all use language that is subtly 'gender-coded'. Society has certain expectations of what men and women are like, and how they differ, and this seeps into the language we use. Think about "bossy" and "feisty": we almost never use these words to describe men.

This linguistic gender-coding shows up in job adverts as well, and research has shown that it puts women off applying for jobs that are advertised with masculine-coded language.*

This site is a quick way to check whether a job advert has the kind of subtle linguistic gender-coding that has this discouraging effect. Find out more about how this works.

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Without realising it, we all use language that is subtly 'gender-coded'. Society has certain expectations of what men and women are like, and how they differ, and this seeps into the language we use. Think about "bossy" and "feisty": we almost never use these words to describe men.

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One day while interning at a counseling center, my supervisor handed me a stack of resumes. "Here, we need to hire a new counselor," she said. "Pick a few candidates I can interview." And off she went. Just like that, I became the de facto applicant screener. Since I was an English major, I probably picked the resumes with the fewest spelling errors.

I mention this, because sometimes a hiring process is a formal process involving recruitment systems and resume scanners, and other times it's a nervous intern in ill-fitting Dockers. As applicants, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes of a company, so we must take every aspect of the job search seriously. That means learning how to create a great resume, a tailored cover letter, and a standout LinkedIn profile, as well as preparing for the interview process.

The interview can be a mysterious swamp beast. Churchill once said (not of job interviewing), "It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key." To make the process uniform and fair, larger companies often provide interviewers with an outline or a worksheet full of response factors on which candidates are to be rated. Then there are usually follow-up discussions, in which the hiring committee reviews the pros and cons of each candidate. Which factors influence them the most? What are they really looking for? Perhaps there is a key.

We can Google "How to answer tough interview questions" and practice our responses until we know them by heart, but here are some other important influences at play.
Job Interview Success Factors
1. Show up in professional/business attire, even if it's casual Friday, unless HR tells you otherwise.

If you're not good at piecing together an outfit, ask for help from a salesperson at a department store. If you need professional attire, but find it difficult to afford, reach out to an organization like Dress for Success. When you wear an outfit that's tailored to fit and makes you feel good, you're more likely to present yourself with confidence.
2. ... but the best Paul Smith isn't enough to land you the job.
You still have to be friendly, smile, greet everyone you meet with a handshake and eye contact, and most importantly, maintain self-awareness. Most of the items below address the latter.
3. Make sure you're speaking clearly without mumbling or using too many filler words like "cool," "amazing," "awesome," "like," and "umm."
And don't use "whatever" or "I don't care." Clear communication is given high value across all industries. On the other hand, Churchill sure did mumble.
4. Make sure you're not slouching in your seat (even if they are), checking your phone (even if they are), or failing to turn off your phone (vibrations are essentially ringtones).
Keep your hands above the table, not twirling a pen or picking at things.
5. Make sure you're engaging everyone in the room.
If it's a panel interview, with three, four, or more people interviewing you, make a point of speaking to all of them, rather than favoring the primary facilitator. Make eye contact with each one and pull them all into the conversation with smart questions.
6. Monitor the length, pace, and tone of your responses.
Telling a couple of stories can be highly effective at exhibiting your skills and accomplishments, but don't become "the storytelling guy" who used a long story to answer every question. Vary the length of your responses from clear and concise to descriptive and engaging. A bit of natural humor can be great, but notice I said a bit and natural. Don't rehearse one-liners and wait for guffaws. Awkward!
7. Does your voice get loud and rapid when you're excited, or quiet when you're nervous?
As you prepare, make a point of being conscious of your pacing and tone. Practice with an interview buddy or career coach. Allow your natural enthusiasm and personality to shine, but let's not frighten people. The interviewer(s) should be left with the sense that you really get the company, and you're excited to work there, but you're also composed.
8. Composure is especially tested when they ask, "Describe one of your weaknesses," or "Tell us about a time when you failed at something."
Avoid the old switcheroo response that at first sounds like a weakness or a failure that you then cleverly twist into a positive. The only person who thinks that's clever is you. Be honest. Tell them about a weakness - how you've become aware of it, and what you've been doing to improve. Tell them about a failure and what you learned from it. The intent of their question is not to embarrass you. It's to: a) see how you handle difficult questions in the moment; b) observe your self-awareness; and c) assess how you learn from mistakes and grow as a person when presented with the insight to do so.
9. Which brings us to authenticity.
We all put on a good face in these situations, but that doesn't mean we have to scrub away that which makes us interesting and unique. You want the interviewer(s) to remember you. Perhaps you are intelligent but humble, fascinating yet concise, highly accomplished yet personable. Whatever your unique combination of traits, that's you. Be that. Go ahead and share an interesting ice-breaking tidbit about yourself. If they don't respond to your authentic self, then you probably wouldn't fit into the organization anyway and would end up miserable.
10. Ask good questions, and try to avoid asking questions just for the sake of asking questions.
Think of some insightful questions beforehand and bring them to the interview in a folder that also contains copies of your resume for every person on the hiring committee. If you don't know who will be present at the interview, ask HR or your recruiter beforehand for their names. Then research their company bios and LinkedIn profiles. Research. Research. Research. You should learn the past, present, and future of the company to the extent that it's publicly available. Your research will pay off in your ability to ask smart questions and illustrate your fit within the company's mission and culture.

An interview is so much more than coming up with the right answers to tough questions. The interviewer is consciously and subconsciously assessing how you will fit into the organization. Were you agile and able to go off-script to handle curveballs? Would your presence and poise represent the company well in future interactions with customers and stakeholders? Did you represent yourself as a dynamic team player who is willing to grow and change as the company does? Skills and experience are important, but likability and that certain something can give you the edge.
Job Interview Response Factors
Ready for more insider tips? Here are some "check boxes" that interviewers look for in your responses.
Pre- and Post-Interview Tips

Before the interview, rather than cramming last-minute responses, use the time to relieve your anxiety by doing some deep breathing and mindfulness exercises (and maybe throw in a confidence-boosting affirmation or two).

After the interview, try to go somewhere where you can decompress and spend some time conducting a "process recording." A process recording is a wonderful tool for honing your interview prowess. Take notes on everything you can remember about the interview. What were the interviewers' names, and where did they sit at the table? What questions did they ask? How did you respond? Which responses went over well? Where did you stumble? What did you forget to say? This document can be immensely helpful next time you interview.

The next day, send each member of the hiring committee a thank-you note.

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One day while interning at a counseling center, my supervisor handed me a stack of resumes. "Here, we need to hire a new counselor," she said. "Pick a few candidates I can interview." And off she went. Just like that, I became the de facto applicant screener.

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How (not) to Lose an Employee in 10 Days

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How (not) to Lose an Employee in 10 Days

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Apr. 25, 2018
Sarah Raful Whinston
I recently placed an Executive Director in a fantastic organization. As her first day came closer I remembered my time as a Director of Talent Development, where onboarding and welcoming were my greatest priorities.

Hiring is just the first step. According to a study from the Society for Human Resource Management[1] (SHRM) "one-third of approximately 1,000 respondents to a February 2014 survey by BambooHR said they had quit a job within six months of starting it." These stats underline why each organization must find a way to purposefully retain their new talent.

Based on my experience as a leader and as a recruitment professional, here are 8 easy ways to start your new employee off right:

Prepare them Call the new employee before the first day to answer any questions they have about where to go, what time to show up and what to wear.On the logistics side, set up meetings for them in the first week: meetings with individuals, with teams, and a goals-oriented meeting with their supervisor, etc.

1. Make it like Home Make sure your new employee feels as comfortable and welcomed as possible in their new personal space at work. Decorate their office or cubicle, put up signs, and leave organization swag on the desk.

2. Share IT Handbooks and Office Maps Don't let your new employee get lost! Create a packet of all the websites, logins, and passwords your new employees will need to get up and running. Don't forget an office map to show where everyone sits.

3. Welcome Them On the first day, after your new employee settles, walk with them around the office, show them where to get coffee and where to put lunch and introduce them to other employees. What if every person in the office wore a nametag for that first day? This way, your new employee will be able to put a name with a face and feel at home faster.

4. Set up Lunches Do you remember high school, when you wondered who you were going to sit with at lunch? It feels the same way on the first day of work, maybe even the first week. Pick five people, one per day for the first week, to take the new employee out to lunch. Maybe one day it could be a colleague not on their team that they will work closely with, next it could be a long-timer on their team. Think about the kind of information that could be passed while sharing that quality time and how this will resonate with the new hire.

5. Reintroduce them to HR In the first day or two, the new employee should meet with the HR Generalist to go over official forms It gives them a chance to ask any questions they have in a safe, private place.

6. Establish Check-ins For the first two weeks, the supervisor should check in daily with their new employee and go over simple questions. "How are you feeling? What information did you learn today that was most interesting? What are you excited about? What are your concerns?" This will help the new hire feel encouraged and engaged.

7. Immerse them into the Culture In the first week, bring a diverse group of staff together: junior and senior staff, long timers and new comers; and let them tell the new employee about the unwritten rules of working at your organization, everything from casual Fridays to where people eat lunch in the office.

Make a good first impression! The Aberdeen Group reported that 66 percent of companies with onboarding programs claimed a higher rate of successful assimilation of new hires into company culture, 62 percent had higher time-to-productivity ratios, and 54 percent reported higher employee engagement ( SHRM).

Make sure to pick one (or several) of the items on this list, start small, but know this will make a long- lasting impact on your employee and your organization.

[1] [Maurer, Roy. (April 16, 2015). Onboarding Key to Retaining, Engaging Talent. Society for Human Resource Management. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org],

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How (not) to Lose an Employee in 10 Days - DRG Search

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I recently placed an Executive Director in a fantastic organization. As her first day came closer I remembered my time as a Director of Talent Development, where onboarding and welcoming were my greatest priorities. Hiring is just the first step. According to a study from the Society for Human Resource Management[1] (SHRM) "one-third of approximately ...

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9 Ways to Welcome a New Employee to Your Team (Before They Even Start!)

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9 Ways to Welcome a New Employee to Your Team (Before They Even Start!)

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Congratulations! You've gotten through the hard part: hiring a new direct report to join your ranks. Hopefully they'll be starting soon and you can get going on all the exciting goals you've set for them in their new role.

But before their first day arrives, there are a few things you as a manager should do to prepare to welcome a new employee with open arms. Some are more logistical-like figuring out where they'll be sitting and what they'll be working on in their first week-while others are about ensuring that the person feels appreciated, included, and comfortable coming into a new work environment. In fact, many of these tips are drawn from things we do here at The Muse when new hires join our team.

Here's what you need to do in the week before they arrive.

1. Connect With Them on LinkedIn

You're about to work together closely, so why not let them into your professional network? You certainly don't want to have to awkwardly request them after months spent sitting next to them every day.

Additionally, this is a great opportunity to welcome them before they've even entered the office. When you request to connect, include a nice note along the lines of:
Hey [Name], just wanted to say I'm so excited to work with you and can't wait to reconnect in person!
Or
Welcome to the [Company] team! We're all thrilled to have you join us.
2. Create an Onboarding Document

This is probably the most important step to take whenever you hire someone new. This document will be the person's life raft as they get situated in their role. It should include:

Your goals for the person's first 30, 60, and 90 days

An outline of the tasks you expect them to own or take over

Any relevant documents, links, calendars, or logins they'll need

Any meetings they're expected to attend in their first few weeks or regularly

Names, contact information, and background of team members and colleagues they'll be working with

Ultimately, the more you document the better-that way you proactively answer any questions they may have.

In many cases, it might even make sense to have the person's direct teammates contribute information about projects they'll be working on together or should know about. This gives your new hire the lowdown, while also allowing your other direct reports to feel more involved in training their new teammate.

Lucky for you, we have the perfect onboarding template for you to work off of. Created by our founder and president Alex Cavoulacos, this is the template we often use to help our newest team members get situated.

3. Jot Down Your Initial Questions

Your head is probably swimming with ideas, questions, and opportunities for this new employee.

Rather than let those thoughts get away, start a document to jot down anything that comes to mind. You may find you won't need or want to address them when the person actually starts, but having them written down will make you feel confident you've covered everything.

4. Shoot Them an Email

The best bosses do this! Why? Well, as Muse writer and editor Stav Ziv points out, your new employee probably just went through an exhausting stretch of giving notice and transitioning out of their last role. And, "as a manager who wants this person to hit the ground running, you'd obviously hate for your shiny new employee to start off on a stressful note."

Sending an email before they start to convey how happy you are that they're joining the team will make them that much more excited for their next adventure. It can cover some important stuff, too. Obviously you want to welcome them to the team, but you can also use that note-if HR hasn't already-to address their official arrival date and time, discuss company dress code or culture, request any relevant documents like their passport or ID, or even provide an outline of their first-day schedule.

Of course, you should always end by letting them know that you're happy to answer any questions they have before they start. As someone who has been on the other side, I'm sure you know how intimidating it can be to start a new job with zero context. So make it really easy for them to feel comfortable walking in the door that first day.

Read more about what that welcome email should look like (and use the handy template!).

5. Get Their Desk Space in Order

This may require some IT help, but make sure everything technical is squared away. Getting this done now saves you from spending three hours on day one figuring out how to turn their laptop on.

Do they have a computer ready for them, and is it charged and updated? Do they have an email account set up? How about setting up your internal chat system or other important programs they'll need access to?

Is their desk space clean and empty? Are you sure you've moved out everything belonging to the last person who sat there? Is there any other equipment-a keyboard, mouse, USB, extra monitor, extension cord, or filing cabinet-they may need that you can provide?

This is most likely your new employee's first stop when they arrive, so make it a welcoming space. Throwing in some company swag, their favorite snack, or even a card signed by the team never hurts, either!

6. Send Over Any Relevant Docs

These may be included in your email to the new hire, but it also may make sense to share any documents you want them to review beforehand in a separate email. This could be your company's employee handbook and benefits packages or your team's onboarding document.

Regardless, give the person context so they know why you're sharing these documents, what they mean for their role, when you expect them to look them over, and if they need to prepare anything.

(Oh, and of course, make sure all these resources are up-to-date and accurate before your new hire digs into them.)

7. Find an Office "Mentor"

Maybe your company has a buddy program. At The Muse, every new hire is given a "Muse Buddy" from another team that they grab coffee with their first week to talk about our company culture and mingle outside the office.

If there's no formal system in place, consider pairing your upcoming new hire with a "mentor" outside your team-it could be someone they may not work with directly or someone in a completely different department.

This helps the new hire immediately get to know others within the company, and it also gives them another outlet for asking questions they might be afraid to bring up with a manager they barely know. Having a third-party contact can ease some of their concerns and allow them to be more open and curious about your company's culture and workflow.

Just be sure whoever you choose is available and eager to be a mentor-nothing's worse than connecting your new hire to someone who immediately ghosts them.

8. Block Off Time on Your Own Calendar and Set Any Important Meetings

Just as you need to prepare your new hire for getting onboarded, you also need to prepare yourself for doing the onboarding.

Training a new employee takes time-time you usually spend on your day-to-day responsibilities. So it's smart to proactively set aside slots when you'll be working closely with this person so you can gauge how you'll get the rest of your work done.

Not only should you be scheduling at least one one-on-one meeting every day their first week to check in on their progress, but also making time for any training sessions they'll need to attend that you'll be joining.

Doing this gives you a chance to reserve any conference rooms or other resources you might need. If you're onboarding a remote employee, for example, you'll want to make sure your video chat works and you both have a space to talk privately. Or, if you need to loop in a third team member (or several), you should check and see if they're available to meet that day.

9. Schedule a Team Lunch/Coffee/Drinks

Hitting the ground running is a priority, but so is getting to know your employee as a person (with a life outside work!)-and letting the rest of your team get to know them, too.

Schedule an outing (or two) for your team to grab lunch, coffee, or drinks together so that it's on everyone's calendar ahead of time. You can keep it intimate with just your direct team, but if it's a smaller company you can consider inviting other departments you work with to join as well.

This isn't about showing off your newest talent, but rather providing your new employee with an opportunity to bond with their colleagues outside the office. And being the kind of boss who values camaraderie and fun as much as hard work. Keep the talk to non-work related topics (but keep it appropriate). If you need some conversation starters, check out these great get-to-know-you questions.

When I first started, the entire editorial team went out to a nice lunch, and we've done the same for other new team members since. Not only was it a treat to splurge on the company card, but it also immediately shattered any awkwardness we felt toward one another.

Check all these things off your list, and your new employee will start off on the best possible note-and so will you!

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9 Ways to Welcome a New Employee to Your Team

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Congratulations! You've gotten through the hard part: hiring a new direct report to join your ranks. Hopefully they'll be starting soon and you can get going on all the exciting goals you've set for them in their new role.

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Quiz | So, How Was the Meeting? (According to Oprah)

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Quiz | So, How Was the Meeting? (According to Oprah)

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For most of us, meetings are a normal-if not always a favorite-part of our day-to-day life at the office. Launching a project? Debriefing after an event? Getting to know your new team? Reflecting on last quarter? Sounds like it's time for a meeting!

While we've all sat through meetings that inspired us, as well as meetings that left us feeling, well, less-than-inspired, it's not always completely clear how to celebrate the win (or pick up the pieces) and move forward. So we thought, who better to help you process how that meeting really went than Oprah?

Let's go.

You and your team already had a standard in place for who will have the final say in terms of big decisions, action items, and next steps.

You didn't know there was going to be a meeting. The appointment appeared on your calendar about 15 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin.

You received a detailed agenda along with a brief description of the purpose of the meeting. While this information was useful, it seemed as though way too many different items were to be discussed.

You already had a follow-up meeting (and a follow-up to the follow-up) on the calendar.

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Take Our Quiz | So, How Was the Meeting? (According to Oprah) - Idealist Careers

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For most of us, meetings are a normal-if not always a favorite-part of our day-to-day life at the office. Launching a project? Debriefing after an event? Getting to know your new team? Reflecting on last quarter? Sounds like it's time for a meeting!

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These 3 Hiring Strategies Will Land You the Best People

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These 3 Hiring Strategies Will Land You the Best People

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Flying in the face of traditional brick-and-mortar companies that hold people hostage to their cubicles, Bill Gates handed down this bit of wisdom several years back:

The competition to hire the best will increase in the years ahead. Companies that give extra flexibility to their employees will have the edge in this area.

Prophetic? Perhaps, yet the majority of companies today are either unable or unwilling to adapt to the lifestyle demands of young workers. In turn, they're losing good talent to companies with remote work and work-from-home options.

In some cities, housing and rental prices are exorbitant and commuting is costly and time consuming. In a previous article I wrote, I discovered that the average person can save between $4,668 to $5,688 per year by working remotely, including $686 in gas saved per year and $767 saved in costly car maintenance.

FlexJobs, the premier job service for telecommuting and remote job listings, conducted the study to make the strong case that working remotely is the future of work. Their fourth annual Super Survey on Millennials found that:

84 percent want more work-life balance.

67 percent indicate family is the reason for their desire for flexible work.

60 percent want to save more time.

49 percent want to save money.

48 percent are looking to ditch commute stress.

85 percent want to telecommute 100 percent of the time.

54 percent want to work a flexible or alternative schedule.

Steve Jobs' tip on hiring (and keeping employees)

On a different but equally powerful hiring note, Steve Jobs understood his place in the information age when he famously quipped:

It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.

Jobs' best move was to intentionally hire bright people, get the heck out of their way, and give them room to build great things.

Jobs understood that as long as the smartest people enroll in a shared vision and are given the resources, autonomy, and flexibility to do the job, they are self-managing -- they don't need to be managed. Once they know what to do, they'll go figure out how to do it.

Warren Buffett's hiring tip points to character

Billionaire Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has lived by a set of awe-inspiring values and principles that has led to unbelievable success. Here's what he said about hiring the right people for your company:

Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don't have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it's true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.

First of all, yes, you absolutely need intelligence in knowledge workers. And energy is the fuel that propels passion and motivation.

But a lack of integrity? Like Buffett asserts, it's a clear non-negotiable. Integrity is what makes it hard to question a person's decisions.

In tight, collaborative spaces, colleagues of such hires will quickly see them as dependable and accountable for their actions, which is a laser path to developing team trust.

Finally, hiring people with integrity also addresses the leadership void. A person who walks-the-walk of integrity eventually becomes a role model who commands respect and exercises great influence. These are the type of leaders people desire and whom you want to promote to management roles.

Like this column? Sign up to subscribe to email alerts and you'll never miss a post.

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Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Warren Buffett All Agree: These 3 Hiring Strategies Will Land You the Best People

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Flying in the face of traditional brick-and-mortar companies that hold people hostage to their cubicles, Bill Gates handed down this bit of wisdom several years back: The competition to hire the best will increase in the years ahead. Companies that give extra flexibility to their employees will have the edge in this area.

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5 Tips to Improve Your Online Job Search

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5 Tips to Improve Your Online Job Search

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While some of us find out about our next job through connections, the reality for many job seekers is that most opportunities are found online.

But if you've kept a close eye on job opportunities in your field of interest, but haven't come across a real gem in a bit, here are a few strategies you can use to find more job opportunities both online and in person.

1. Search with new keywords

It can be easy to get in the habit of searching for the same roles again and again, especially if you're searching Idealist.org job listings on a regular basis. Sometimes, searching with new keywords can be enough to bubble up some fresh opportunities. For example, one organization's "program coordinator" might be called a "program manager" somewhere else. Here are other examples of job titles and what they may be called across the sector:

Program Coordinator

Senior Program Coordinator

Program Manager

Program Assistant

Program Specialist

Office Manager

Office Coordinator

Operations Manager

Administrative Assistant

HR Coordinator

Director of Development

Donor Relations Manager

Director of Fundraising

Associate Director of Development

Annual Giving Manager

Searching for more specific titles can also yield more results. Instead of searching for "analyst," try searching "budget analyst" or "environmental analyst" positions to find jobs more aligned with your background.

2. Expand your geographical boundaries

One way to increase your search results is to set your Idealist.org search radius higher. Although increasing your geographical reach increases commute time, it might be worth it for a better opportunity. Remember that you may be able to take advantage of public transportation, carpooling, or even remote work options, so don't rule out something that's a bit farther away without exploring the possibilities.

3. Discover more organizations in your field

Even if you have a few organizations in mind, it's always a good idea to seek out other places doing similar work in order to a get a more complete picture of the landscape.

To find new nonprofits, Idealist.org is a great asset. In addition to searching for jobs, internships, and volunteer opportunities, you can also search for organizations by using keywords and filtering for location. If the organization is not hiring at the moment, add them to your list and check regularly for future postings, and be sure to set up job alerts so you will receive an email whenever new positions go live.

4. Join a professional association

Joining a professional association in your field can help you learn new skills and make connections. In addition to keeping you in the know about workshops and events in your area, membership gives you contact and access to other members.

Associations will often facilitate virtual connections or run in-person networking events. Attending one or two happy hours won't land you a job, but it may help you make new contacts in your field who can bring you closer to your next career move.

5. Reframe what you can do with the available options

For some, commuting longer for work may not be feasible. In a rural area, for example, you may not have access to professional associations or be able to find new organizations. Even if you find yourself working within these constraints, you can always try to look at what's available with a new perspective.

If it seems like your work experience doesn't match the jobs around you, it might be time to take an inventory of your transferable skills. Even if you come across a posting for a position that isn't your dream job, it still may still be a great chance to learn new skills, meet new people, or gain knowledge in a new industry or sector. Sometimes a job serving as a stepping stone to your ideal career can be a great opportunity to learn and grow.

Did you enjoy this post? There's plenty more where this came from! Subscribe here for updates.
About the Author | Bri Riggio is an NCDA-certified career advisor whose goal is to help others find personal success and fulfillment through career exploration and coaching. She has specific knowledge of careers paths in international affairs, public policy, and education and is an avid writer, storyteller, and gamer.

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5 Tips to Improve Your Online Job Search

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While some of us find out about our next job through connections, the reality for many job seekers is that most opportunities are found online. But if you've kept a close eye on job opportunities in your field of interest, but haven't come across a real gem in a bit, here are a few strategies you can use to find more job opportunities both online and in person.

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Equity, Diversity and Inclusion inRecruitment, Hiring and Retention

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Equity, Diversity and Inclusion inRecruitment, Hiring and Retention

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Social Media Hiring Q&A with Recruiting Expert Katrina Collier

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Social Media Hiring Q&A with Recruiting Expert Katrina Collier

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It's no secret that social media is a hiring leader's El Dorado, laying claim to millions of active and engaged potential candidates.

According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 84 percent of organizations already recruit via social media and 43 percent already use channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to vet potential candidates.

Not to mention, at a time when fewer and fewer qualified candidates are actively looking for a job via traditional channels, social media can trump job posting sites or resume databases as a top sourcing destination.

However, it's one thing to know that social media is a candidate goldmine and another to understand how to unearth the rare gems that you need to take your organization to the next level. That's why we picked the brain of social recruiting expert Katrina Collier and convinced her to answer 10 common questions about the art of using social media to hire top talent.

Social Media Hiring Q&A with Recruiting Expert Katrina Collier

If I've never used Facebook for recruiting and sourcing, what advice would you give to get started?

There are over 2 billion monthly Facebook users, and even if you are yet to start using it to source and recruit great talent, there's nothing to say that candidates and applicants aren't already looking at your profile.

Your profile and banner photos are always public, so ensure they're showing you in a good light. Then check what photos you're tagged in just in case they're saying things they shouldn't. Often I'm asked if a recruiter should have two profiles, but the answer is no. Besides breaching Facebook's terms, it's too much extra work.

You can recruit on Facebook without adding anyone as a friend, which is good because friend requests to strangers are creepy and unlikely to be accepted. But if you do message via the platform, it's more likely the recipient will thinks its spam if you do so from your work profile and you have no friends.

Is it okay to reach out to a candidate on Facebook - or is that unprofessional? Should I send them a 'Friend Request' even?

Finding other ways to contact a person is always preferable, but if you cannot find their email or phone number, then why not reach out on Facebook? I regularly recommend to my clients that they send a video message. The recipient receives a 'Facebook Message Request' and can watch the video without the sender knowing... and who can resist a play button?

Regarding friend requests: Would you accept a Facebook friend request from someone you don't know? So no, I don't think you should do this.

Should I use a potential candidate's social media profiles to evaluate their fit for a job

Social media gives you insights that can be used as conversation starters for outreach, which is essential for grabbing the attention of potential candidates in today's noisy world.

However, profiles on Facebook, Twitter, etc. don't paint the full picture. Think of the things you share yourself; you hold back, right? Social media is a show reel, so further investigation is always required. Of course, if you're after a software architect, and a possible candidate's social profiles have them listed as first line support at an IT desk, you can confidently to move on.

Is it better to put ad spend behind a job posting promoted on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter?

As I teach sourcing and free ways to use these sites, I asked Audra Knight, Recruitment Operations Manager at Tenable Network Security, for her thoughts.

"For recruitment advertising spend, the best bang for your buck is Facebook, over LinkedIn and Twitter. A very modest spend will get you a massive reach (and trackable applications if you have the right HR Tech) to a highly targeted audience that you choose. I have had success with LinkedIn ads as well, but the cost per click is much higher. That may change over time as more marketers start using Facebook for advertising."

Is there a way to recruit on LinkedIn for free?

Definitely, it's very easy to X-ray search for LinkedIn public profiles and find contact information. However, if you're having success using the site to hire, consider paying for a premium license because, even if you don't like the direction it's going, LinkedIn is paying to host the data you're accessing.

Does my company need a separate profile on social channels for our employer brand? Or can we just use our main company profile?

Personally, I prefer to see one corporate profile with updates aimed at both consumers and future employees because who is to say that a client couldn't become interested in becoming an employee. Often the marketing department doesn't agree with this point of view because they're concerned that the feed will just be full of jobs, and neither a company nor a career social media profile should ever be just full of jobs.

What can I do to my own social profile to make me and my company's open jobs more appealing to potential candidates I'm reaching out to you?

Remember that social media is a conversation platform and not a job board!

Entice people to roles through insight into the company by letting your employees have a voice-and avoid only sharing a list of boring job specs (read here for more ideas about employer brand content).

Try using a video interview with the hiring manager or a person in the same role that dives into what the job involves, what it's like to work at the company, and so on-and share those instead.

Are there any tools that can help me find candidate email addresses or phone numbers via their social profiles?

Countless and this is a huge part of the problem with candidate engagement as we end 2017!

If you don't use social media to find those aforementioned conversation starters and craft respectful and attention-grabbing messages and calls, all the contact detail-revealing tools under the sun won't help you. How many emails do you ignore? See what I mean?

Do you have any advice for getting better response rates to my LinkedIn InMails?

Don't use them! If recruiters couldn't run two keyword searches and mass message 100 irrelevant people in the hope that one person responds, we wouldn't have half the issues we do with InMails. People are fed up: just look at the comments on this one recent LinkedIn update, and you've seen similar updates I am sure.

Not to mention, many people turn off the email that follows an InMail, so don't assume that you're reaching their inbox. Success comes from being curious enough to ensure the relevancy of your job opportunity against the potential recruit and then choosing the communication method that is most likely to reach them: phone, email, text, Messenger, WhatsApp and so on.

How effective is Facebook's new job posting feature? Who would you most recommend it for?

We don't have it in Europe, but the feedback I've seen is that it's not all that as yet.

Facebook Page posts require promoting to gain visibility, and the targeting options are not as good as creating a promoted post directly in the advertising section. This is to protect from discrimination, and though I understand that, it's also frustrating if you're wanting to increase diversity by targeting male nurses or female engineers for example.

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Social Media Hiring Q&A with Recruiting Expert Katrina Collier | Mighty

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It's no secret that social media is a hiring leader's El Dorado, laying claim to millions of active and engaged potential candidates. According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 84 percent of organizations already recruit via social media and 43 percent already use channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to vet potential candidates.

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7 Time-saving Free Online Tools for HR Managers

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7 Time-saving Free Online Tools for HR Managers

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An HR manager has a lot on their plate, often balancing everything from recruiting and hiring to compliance and employee engagement. It's no easy feat, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that there simply isn't enough time in a day to make a dent in that to-do list.

Fortunately, there are tons of free online tools that can save you valuable time and energy, as well was help you become much more effective in everything from recruiting candidates to keeping full-time workers motivated.

This hiring software offers HR managers an end-to-end applicant tracking system (ATS) that's completely free of charge. MightyRecruiter makes it easy to post and distribute your job opening, manage your candidates, schedule interviews, and even create your own career site (no development required)-all from one place.

This is a Google Chrome extension and free online tool that's specifically developed for recruiters. It enables you to search for talent across multiple platforms, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Indeed, Twitter, Quora, and more.

In addition to Hiretual, you can explore other Chrome extensions that will make your life as an HR manager a lot easier.

HR managers have to be informed about all happenings in their industry. You have to know when big organizations are on the verge of layoffs so you can pick up quality candidates before they hit the market as well as what the competitive brands are doing so you can develop new projects and hire more talent to push your company on top. You have to search for influencers, so you'll attract them to work for your organization. Plus, you have to analyze all this content, so you'll work on the development of your employer brand.

Instead of wasting tons of time searching for relevant content on a daily basis, you can simply use Feedly. This free online tool is a news aggregator: You'll just pick your favorite categories, and Feedly will serve you a daily dose of valuable information.

You're tired of Excel charts, but you still need a similar system to log employee hours and organize priority projects? Try Smartsheet! It's a great platform for keeping a close eye on each project, rearranging priorities, and managing the volume of work you delegate to your employees. In addition to planning and tracking features, the tool gives you reporting options, too.

This is not an entirely free tool (the Team option costs $15 per month). However, there's a 30-day free trial version that you'll certainly benefit from.

If you're after a great free human resource management system, Sentrifugo is the free online tool for you. Its features include talent acquisition functions, detailed analytics, employee self-service, performance appraisal, service requests, background checks, interview scheduling, and much more. You get all this free of charge as it's an open source product.

When you bring new talent into the company, you have to evaluate their performance. Admit it: performance reviews are not your favorite thing to do. They have to be authoritative, just, insightful, and motivating at the same time.

Mark The Job is a free online tool that allows you to create great performance reviews. It gives you logical performance rating scales, which make the evaluation of workers easy. The tool is completely free.

This is scheduling/time-tracking software that makes teamwork as organized as it gets. It's free for up to 6 users. It allows you to organize a project through specific tasks and observe what each team member is doing at a certain time.

You'll get precise timesheets that measure performance, so it will be easier for you to evaluate employees if you rely on this tool.

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7 Time-saving Free Online Tools for HR Managers | MightyRecruiter

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An HR manager has a lot on their plate, often balancing everything from recruiting and hiring to compliance and employee engagement. It's no easy feat, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that there simply isn't enough time in a day to make a dent in that to-do list.

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5 Tips to Improve Your Online Job Search

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5 Tips to Improve Your Online Job Search

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While some of us find out about our next job through connections, the reality for many job seekers is that most opportunities are found online.

But if you've kept a close eye on job opportunities in your field of interest, but haven't come across a real gem in a bit, here are a few strategies you can use to find more job opportunities both online and in person.

1. Search with new keywords

It can be easy to get in the habit of searching for the same roles again and again, especially if you're searching Idealist.org job listings on a regular basis. Sometimes, searching with new keywords can be enough to bubble up some fresh opportunities. For example, one organization's "program coordinator" might be called a "program manager" somewhere else. Here are other examples of job titles and what they may be called across the sector:

Program Coordinator

Senior Program Coordinator

Program Manager

Program Assistant

Program Specialist

Office Manager

Office Coordinator

Operations Manager

Administrative Assistant

HR Coordinator

Director of Development

Donor Relations Manager

Director of Fundraising

Associate Director of Development

Annual Giving Manager

Searching for more specific titles can also yield more results. Instead of searching for "analyst," try searching "budget analyst" or "environmental analyst" positions to find jobs more aligned with your background.

2. Expand your geographical boundaries

One way to increase your search results is to set your Idealist.org search radius higher. Although increasing your geographical reach increases commute time, it might be worth it for a better opportunity. Remember that you may be able to take advantage of public transportation, carpooling, or even remote work options, so don't rule out something that's a bit farther away without exploring the possibilities.

3. Discover more organizations in your field

Even if you have a few organizations in mind, it's always a good idea to seek out other places doing similar work in order to a get a more complete picture of the landscape.

To find new nonprofits, Idealist.org is a great asset. In addition to searching for jobs, internships, and volunteer opportunities, you can also search for organizations by using keywords and filtering for location. If the organization is not hiring at the moment, add them to your list and check regularly for future postings, and be sure to set up job alerts so you will receive an email whenever new positions go live.

4. Join a professional association

Joining a professional association in your field can help you learn new skills and make connections. In addition to keeping you in the know about workshops and events in your area, membership gives you contact and access to other members.

Associations will often facilitate virtual connections or run in-person networking events. Attending one or two happy hours won't land you a job, but it may help you make new contacts in your field who can bring you closer to your next career move.

5. Reframe what you can do with the available options

For some, commuting longer for work may not be feasible. In a rural area, for example, you may not have access to professional associations or be able to find new organizations. Even if you find yourself working within these constraints, you can always try to look at what's available with a new perspective.

If it seems like your work experience doesn't match the jobs around you, it might be time to take an inventory of your transferable skills. Even if you come across a posting for a position that isn't your dream job, it still may still be a great chance to learn new skills, meet new people, or gain knowledge in a new industry or sector. Sometimes a job serving as a stepping stone to your ideal career can be a great opportunity to learn and grow.

Did you enjoy this post? There's plenty more where this came from! Subscribe here for updates.
About the Author | Bri Riggio is an NCDA-certified career advisor whose goal is to help others find personal success and fulfillment through career exploration and coaching. She has specific knowledge of careers paths in international affairs, public policy, and education and is an avid writer, storyteller, and gamer.

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5 Tips to Improve Your Online Job Search

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While some of us find out about our next job through connections, the reality for many job seekers is that most opportunities are found online. But if you've kept a close eye on job opportunities in your field of interest, but haven't come across a real gem in a bit, here are a few strategies you can use to find more job opportunities both online and in person.

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These 3 Hiring Strategies Will Land You the Best People

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These 3 Hiring Strategies Will Land You the Best People

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Flying in the face of traditional brick-and-mortar companies that hold people hostage to their cubicles, Bill Gates handed down this bit of wisdom several years back:

The competition to hire the best will increase in the years ahead. Companies that give extra flexibility to their employees will have the edge in this area.

Prophetic? Perhaps, yet the majority of companies today are either unable or unwilling to adapt to the lifestyle demands of young workers. In turn, they're losing good talent to companies with remote work and work-from-home options.

In some cities, housing and rental prices are exorbitant and commuting is costly and time consuming. In a previous article I wrote, I discovered that the average person can save between $4,668 to $5,688 per year by working remotely, including $686 in gas saved per year and $767 saved in costly car maintenance.

FlexJobs, the premier job service for telecommuting and remote job listings, conducted the study to make the strong case that working remotely is the future of work. Their fourth annual Super Survey on Millennials found that:

84 percent want more work-life balance.

67 percent indicate family is the reason for their desire for flexible work.

60 percent want to save more time.

49 percent want to save money.

48 percent are looking to ditch commute stress.

85 percent want to telecommute 100 percent of the time.

54 percent want to work a flexible or alternative schedule.

Steve Jobs' tip on hiring (and keeping employees)

On a different but equally powerful hiring note, Steve Jobs understood his place in the information age when he famously quipped:

It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.

Jobs' best move was to intentionally hire bright people, get the heck out of their way, and give them room to build great things.

Jobs understood that as long as the smartest people enroll in a shared vision and are given the resources, autonomy, and flexibility to do the job, they are self-managing -- they don't need to be managed. Once they know what to do, they'll go figure out how to do it.

Warren Buffett's hiring tip points to character

Billionaire Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has lived by a set of awe-inspiring values and principles that has led to unbelievable success. Here's what he said about hiring the right people for your company:

Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don't have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it's true. If you hire somebody without [integrity], you really want them to be dumb and lazy.

First of all, yes, you absolutely need intelligence in knowledge workers. And energy is the fuel that propels passion and motivation.

But a lack of integrity? Like Buffett asserts, it's a clear non-negotiable. Integrity is what makes it hard to question a person's decisions.

In tight, collaborative spaces, colleagues of such hires will quickly see them as dependable and accountable for their actions, which is a laser path to developing team trust.

Finally, hiring people with integrity also addresses the leadership void. A person who walks-the-walk of integrity eventually becomes a role model who commands respect and exercises great influence. These are the type of leaders people desire and whom you want to promote to management roles.

Like this column? Sign up to subscribe to email alerts and you'll never miss a post.

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Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Warren Buffett All Agree: These 3 Hiring Strategies Will Land You the Best People

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Flying in the face of traditional brick-and-mortar companies that hold people hostage to their cubicles, Bill Gates handed down this bit of wisdom several years back: The competition to hire the best will increase in the years ahead. Companies that give extra flexibility to their employees will have the edge in this area.

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Idealist Careers - Find, land, love, and grow in your social-impact career.

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Find, land, love, and grow in your social-impact career.

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Welcome to SHRM | The Voice of All Things Work

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For all things work, turn to SHRM, the world's largest HR association dedicated to creating better workplaces that work for all.

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Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better

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Your job description is your chance to connect with potential candidates. And first impressions matter. Effective job descriptions are engaging and inclusive, prompt the right people to apply and help you trim down your time-to-fill.

To write a good job description, keep these pointers in mind:

Use a clear job title

Non-traditional job titles (like "Rockstar Engineer" or "Unicorn Designer") are unrealistic and potentially discriminatory. Trade disingenuous job titles for clearer ones. If you want to hire a Call Center Agent and instead advertise for a "Sales & Marketing Specialist," you'll likely attract the wrong people and miss out on qualified candidates.

Speak directly to candidates

Effective job ads are professional and relatable. Candidates tend to skim job descriptions, so jargon and confusing phrases will turn them off. Before publishing, double-check your description to ensure clarity and accuracy.

Here's an example of a poorly-written job description:

Here's clearer, shorter and jargon-free version of the same job description:

Describe tasks

Help candidates visualize a typical day at work. Break responsibilities into short, clear job duties. For example, if you're advertising for a Digital Marketing Manager, instead of using a vague description (e.g. "You will be responsible for the Digital Marketing department"), describe specific responsibilities:

Manage all digital marketing channels (e.g. website, blogs, emails and social media) to ensure brand consistency

Measure ROI and KPIs

Monitor social media accounts

Make sure you and the hiring manager are on the same page about the position's requirements to avoid confusion with candidates later in the hiring process.
Related: How to write the best job description ever
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Sell your job

Candidates need compelling reasons to leave their current workplaces or choose your job over others. Describe benefits and perks that come with the job (e.g. high-end workstation, gadgets and/or free meals) and explain how this role contributes to the company's growth.

The fashion company Lyst showcases its employee development benefits in its job descriptions:

Sell your company

Your job ad is your chance to offer candidates a glimpse of your company culture. Consider including links to testimonials from your employees or photos of team activities.

BambooHR gives candidates a few reasons to consider joining their company:

What to avoid when writing job descriptions:

Discrimination

If you want to create a diverse workplace, an equal opportunity disclaimer is a good place to start, but even unconscious bias in your job description language will cost you candidates. Asking for a "Marketing Manager with 10 years of experience" eliminates younger, potentially talented people and saying that you're "looking for salesmen" implies a gender bias. Tools like Textio help you create gender-neutral job descriptions by identifying masculine (e.g. "ambitious" and "challenging") and feminine words (e.g. "collaborative" and "support.") This is especially relevant for tech recruiting.

Asking for too much

Unless you want to hire a former President, unrealistic requirements are off-putting and you may not need to include them. Identify what's required and what can be learned on the job and include only must-have skills in your ads. If you already have someone in mind who could be a good fit for your role, contact the person directly with a personalized email.

Negativity

List job requirements in a clear yet positive tone, even if you want to eliminate unqualified candidates. Leading with a statement like "candidates with fewer than 5 years of experience won't be taken into consideration" is an unfriendly way to introduce your job and impacts how all candidates will view your employer brand. Instead, be courteous and consider job description language like: "Please note that this a senior-level role, so proven experience in X field is important."

Forgetting about structure

A good job description is both clear and attractive. Job seekers might check for open roles on their phones, so make your ads easy to read. Bulleted lists are easier to read than narrative-style paragraphs. Also, well-structured sections help separate duties from requirements and must-have from nice-to-have skills.

Being mysterious

You want to intrigue potential candidates with your job ads, but avoid sounding mysterious. The job title and duties should make clear what you expect from your future hire. Be upfront about non-negotiable requirements, like necessary certifications, driving license and working hours. This way, you'll avoid potential deal-breakers later in your hiring process.

A well-crafted job description opens the door for a successful hiring process. Once you've piqued candidates' interest with your job ad, showcase your company culture with an attractive careers page and screen candidates with a quick and effective application form.

Frequently asked questions

What does a good job description look like?

A good job description provides a comprehensive summary of the responsibilities, activities, and qualifications required for a specific role. It should offer potential candidates a clear understanding of the job, including any benefits that the company provides.

How do I make my job description stand out?

To make your job description stand out, start by grabbing the reader's attention. Ensure that it includes all necessary information but isn't overly lengthy. The goal is to excite potential candidates about the role and your company.

What is the ideal length for a job description?

Job descriptions should be concise yet informative. Ideally, they should contain between 300-660 words. This length provides enough detail for candidates to understand the role without overwhelming them with information.

What should I avoid when writing a job description?

Avoid discriminatory language, unrealistic requirements, and negative tones. Also, ensure that the job title and duties are clear to avoid any confusion. Be upfront about non-negotiable requirements like necessary certifications and working hours.

How can I make my job description more engaging?

To make your job description more engaging, consider using bulleted lists for easy reading, especially as job seekers might check for roles on their phones. Well-structured sections can also help separate duties from requirements and must-have from nice-to-have skills.

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This tutorial explains how to write a good job description to attract qualified candidates, including basic rules and examples of effective job ads.

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