Articles - The Voice of Job Seekers

What Does It Mean When More Recruiters Are Now Job Seekers With Keirsten Greggs

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

What Does It Mean When More Recruiters Are Now Job Seekers? by Mark Anthony Dyson

I welcome back Keirsten Greggs, the Trap Recruiter and Talent Acquisition Leader. We discuss her experiences as a job seeker who lost their recruiting job.

Highlights:

Through her layoff experiences, she became more empathetic toward job seekers.
We discuss “macroagressions” and how they affect job seekers.
Finding roles you fit with rich experiences in a tight market is challenging.
What lessons resonate when helping others as you’ve gotten back on your feet?
Job search is a daunting and humbling experience.
Taking jobs not in the field but expanding your skillset.

Here are three ways you can:

– Call and leave a voicemail at 708-365-9822, or text your comments to the same number

– Go to TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com, press the “Send Voicemail” button on the right side of your screen, and leave a message

– Send email feedback to mark@thevoiceofjobseekers.com

by Mark Anthony Dyson

5 Ways to Use Your Smartphone to Land a Job

5 Ways to Use Your Smartphone to Land a Job by Mark Anthony Dysonptop, it might be too late.

Speed matters when you’re applying for jobs. If you’re always waiting to get to a laptop, it might be too late.

That’s one reason for you to get comfortable with using your phone for more than Facebook videos and Instagram posts. Your phone is the most important communication tool you own. It’s time to unleash its potential in your job search.

Ready to use your smartphone to land a job? Try these tactics:

1. Report Live From Professional Events

Are you at a professional event? Why not give a short synopsis of it on Facebook or LinkedIn? Some of your connections can’t make it to the event, but streaming it live is a way to include them nonetheless.

Perhaps you can interview the speaker(s) at the event. Not only will this yield valuable information for you, but someone will share your video with their connections, heightening your professional profile.

2. Record the Volunteer Training Session You’re Facilitating

Volunteering is an excellent way to fill employment gaps and is also useful for your online profiles.

By recording training sessions you lead, you not only help other volunteers, but you also demonstrate your competency to a wider audience. Employers and recruiters get an opportunity to see you in action. Published online, the video can offer hiring authorities a face, a voice, and proof of your potential.

3. Take Assessments

More and more companies are using pre-employment assessments as part of the hiring process. If you can take these assessments on the go, you’ll save time and prove your aptitude faster.

4. Engage With Companies on Social Media

via GIPHY

Many companies are actively engaging job seekers on social media, but they aren’t posting 24/7. Timeliness is everything, especially when you see companies post about job openings or receive a direct message about your resume. Recruiters and employers frequently promote job openings on social media. Your response time is critical if you want to land an interview.

5. Help Others

Mobile allows you to be useful in a timely way when it comes to opportunities with small windows. Forward job openings to your friends and colleagues as soon as you see them!

I see it time after time: People who actively help others experience reciprocation. This use for your smartphone is the most powerful of all. The more value you provide for others, the more efficient your job search will become. You’ll get noticed. You won’t have to convince anyone you’re a team-player when your timeline proves you are.

–

If you’re trying to differentiate yourself from the pack, you must consider your phone’s capabilities. Employers are expanding their talent searches to mobile, and they are engaging with potential job candidates via this channel. No one enjoys the laborious, confusing, and tedious online job search process. Your cell phone is your opportunity to stand out from the hundreds of candidates competing for your dream job.

This article was originally published on Recruiter.com.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Job Interview Just As Ella Fitzgerald Improvised

Job Interview Just As Ella Fitzgerald Improvise by Mark Anthony Dyson

We, the performer, speaker, actor, or emcee inhibits our performances by our errors. Job seekers can learn from this because many are afraid of making an error. We want a do over. We can correct resume mistakes, and change our answers to job interview questions if it inadequately serves us. If you have ever performed on stage, you are told while learning this craft that if you make a mistake, keep going. Your audience is often unsuspecting and likely forgiving of any mistake.

Allow me to digress a moment.

In the last few years, I’ve listened to a lot of Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Traffic, Blind Faith, Cream, Cannonball Adderley, and Miles Davis lately. I don’t know what it is about these artists (not to mention James Brown) but I tell you, all of these artists are resilient in their own right. We can learn from all of them about getting up from failure or even yet, turn “…plow shares into a swords.” All of them were heavy improvisors.

Ella Fitzgerald did this once, and turned a mental gaffe into gold.

Ella Fitzgerald is called the “queen of jazz vocals.” In a recorded concert in 1960, she was to sing “Mack the Knife,” a pop and jazz standard that everyone in the audience knew. Listen carefully to the recording. You can hear her voice her doubts about knowing the complete song. A job interview is a performance, and the interview success is a result of a great performance. A savvy job candidate is well aware of this.

One job interview is as stressful as a concert performance.

Click To Tweet

No matter the diligence of preparation, there are moments that can result in making mistakes. Mistakes do not have to be costly. Any error can be corrected in a way that is unnoticeable. Ella’s performance clearly suggests the same effort will help you deliver expectations the audience desires.

Ella Fitzgerald is called the “queen of jazz vocals”. In a recorded concert in 1960, she was to sing “Mack the Knife,” a pop and jazz standard that everyone in the audience knew. Listen carefully to the recording. You can hear her voice her doubts about knowing the complete song. A job interview is a performance, and the interview success is a result of a great performance. A savvy job candidate is well aware of this.

One job interview is as stressful as a concert performance. No matter the diligence of preparation, there are moments that can result in making mistakes. Mistakes do not have to be costly. Any error can be corrected in a way that is unnoticeable. Ella’s performance clearly suggests the same effort will help you deliver expectations the audience desires.

Preparation, preparation, preparation

Ella attempted to learn the lyrics on the way to the concert on a flight from Stockholm to Berlin. There wasn’t time for a lot of preparation. As stated before, she voiced doubts that she was not confident about the lyrics. We know the downside of the lack of preparation for a job interview, but even the job candidate who is well prepared can forget details or be thrown off by an unexpected question or response. Keep in mind that most interviewers are looking for a misstep, and are looking for disqualifying behavior. It is better to prepare thoroughly than half-heartedly, which you can apply to your job search as a whole.

Practice, practice, practice

Ella did not practice “Mack the knife” much. Perhaps she was over confident in her natural abilities, although you would have thought that the song needed sufficient because:

1) Everyone in the audience knew every word of the song

2) It’s a lengthy song

Most people do not practice the question and answer portion of the job interview when that is the part needed the most. Even those employed should interview a couple of times a year to remain job search ready. What to ensure interview success? Be intentional about practice and receiving quality feedback.

Practicing will help you prepare for the unexpected question. This will challenge you to rely on the preparation efforts, and may exploit weaknesses, if any by not preparing enough.

Make a mistake? Keep going!

It was apparent by the sixth verse of “Mack the Knife” that Ella forgot the words. If you listen to the recording, she not only continues, but also she was just as enthusiastic in delivering the performance as ever. When you are at a job interview, and you make an error, it is not the end of the interview. In fact, you can circle around later and ask to clarify your answer by stating, “I would like to clarify an earlier answer to a question you asked earlier.”

Your talent matters, but performance matters more

By the middle of the song, it was clear Ella completely forgot the words, yet the performance was stellar. Practice has another positive element if done regularly. You learn different ways to express your best attributes and answers. Yes, interviewers care about the right answer, but await to hear a unique perspective. That is your voice, like Ella’s improvisation, never heard before as a memorable performance. Your voice is a powerful one when you ask for any opportunity. The quality is not based on how loud and clear, but how direct and clear. The job interview is the best place to showcase your

voice, the integral part of your brand.

Ella, Ella, Ella ended strong

Let’s say Ella felt humiliated by forgetting the words to the most popular song in the world at that time. People still cheered, the critics still raved, and Ella won a Grammy for best vocal performance. People will forget how you began when you finish confidently. Thank you notes for any meeting (hand-written and email) are strong finishers in any meeting bringing you closer to employment such as one-on-one

networking meetings with someone you met online, or someone who went out of his or her way to meet a need as a result of an event, or a panel of interviewers (or an HR person screening you).

Your job search must include a strong job interview strategy to ensure interview success. Practice will challenge you to research and develop a keen awareness of your strengths. Once you do that then interviewing will come naturally and frequently. It is difficult to prepare for that one unexpected question or line of questioning.

If you are unsure, then hope you can tap into your inner Ella, and improvise like she did.