Do you remember your 1st day at office !!!!

You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression; well this is so true in the case of a new joinee who has joined your organization. Every one of us at some point of time has been a new joinee, and do remember the 1st day at office. (New Office). Most of us do remember our 1st day at office.. Right…. Must be good, not so good and so on.. You might still remember the Buzz around you, all new faces, never ending sessions of introductions, lots of form filling activity and not to forget the most important part… “Induction”

No doubt that every company has their own way of welcoming a new joinee, and also might have a standard process to ensure that the joining of the candidate goes smoothly. But in all this at times we forget that this is a lasting impression that the new joinee might have…. 1st day at office.

Here are some basic tips for bringing new hires on board:

- Ensure that you give full attention to the new joinee. ie avoid keeping the candidate waiting in the lobby / reception, as this is the most common mistake we all end up making

- I know this point might not be always possible on the 1st day, but do try to set up the workstation of the candidate as soon as possible.

- It is always good to inform the joinee about the dress code of office well in advance, so that the candidate does not end up wearing a business suit on the day when you have casuals as dress code on that day;)

- Do ensure that the introduction mailer sent to the employees about the new joinee is checked and re-checked.  This is the area where one has to be very careful, as any wrong information published might not be taken well by the new joinee.

- Don’t just end up giving all the forms to the candidate at one go. Keep a balanced approach; this will also give some breathing space to the new joinee ;)

- Ensure that you introduce the new joinee to the other employees. May be taking him for a small tour on the floor might be handy.

We always try to look at the bigger picture, but often we miss on the smaller details that end up affecting the smooth process of the new joinee. I am sure you too might want to share your comments and views about this topic. So, How was your first day at your office!!!!!!

Regards

Rambling Recruiter

Is your LinkedIn Profile Picture Professional !!!

 You might wonder, instead of talking about Recruitment and sourcing techniques, why am I talking about Profile Pictures….. Well, the other day when I was having a casual discussion with one of my friends (Recruiter)  he came up with this topic. I was amazed to see how this casual discussion turned into a serious discussion of how a Profile Picture can actually influence your LinkedIn profile. We are all aware of the fact that LinkedIn is a professional Networking site, hence all possible interaction on this site is of professional nature. But what about having a Professional Profile Picture !!!!

Before getting into this analysis let me confess, I did change my profile picture sometime back from a casual one to one in a Business Suite  OK, so now let’s get back to the topic . Some of you might ask “Why should I change my picture? ” OR What difference does it make?”  OR Do I even need to have a profile picture in the 1st place….. and so on.

Well just trying to answer some of these doubts ……. (You might also like to add in your views about the same)

- A photo builds a personal connection, you might call it a social appeal. It also allows people to make an association between an individuals name and face.

- ” A picture is worth a thousand words”

- A photo can also help market your personal brand and your expression can convey some of your key attributes.

- Having a family picture or a picture with the kids, Distorted Image, Far awar/Close up pics, I have even seen people uploading pics of Cartoon characters or there is no profile pic at all..all this does not look professional at all (On LinkedIn) – in short  “Very impersonal”. By hiding oneself how can you expect a good business for yourself ? End of the day it’s all about trust!

So let me take this opportunity to ask you, Do you have a Profile Picture? If yes , then is it a Professional Picture ?!!  There might be a few who might not be comfortable to have a Profile Picture. It’s a personal choice at the end of the day, but as far my understanding goes there is no harm in having a Profile Picture on your LinkedIn Profile. Hope by this time, you might have got your cameras out and might be ready to smile and click your latest Profile Picture. Looking forward to know what you think about this topic.

Regards

Rambling Recruiter

 

Have you cleared your “Social Media Background Check” !!

Sounds Scary….. Sounds Funny….. Sounds Strange…… Well, this might just happen soon.  (Some companies have already started it )

Lets get down to business As you are aware companies do a Background Check for the candidates (Offered / Yet to Offer). Some companies do it before joining and some afterwards. Following are some of the Background Checks that companies do:

- Education Background Check

- Previous / Currently Employer Check

- Criminal Background Check and so on.

How about they conducting your Social Media Background Check ??? Are you ready for it?

 

How about your prospective employer checking your Facebook Status? What if they are following your tweets on Twitter?  What if they look at your personal Blog?

 

As of now such checks are not that common, but soon their might be a scenario where in companies will request for such checks. So now you might ask, is this thing Ethical? Do companies have the right to check Your Facebook / Twitter Updates. Can they reject your resume based on the Blogs your maintain? Well, its kind of tricky. There is no right or wrong answer to it. I personally think that Companies should be more careful when they decide to enter this area. At times they might make an error and a false Judgement.

 

Also on the other hand, candidates too must be careful while managing their Facebook / Twitter and other Social Media Channels. I am sure that you might say, I dont care, its my Personal Account, I can post anything I want. Fair enough but as an employee, you don’t want potential employers knowing certain things about you that might make you a less attractive candidate due to their personal biases. As an employer, even if none of those things matter, just accidentally finding them out can be a problem.

 

So would do you think about this ? Looking forward to your views. You might agree or might disagree. So bring it on………

Regards

Rambling Recruiter

Should Recruiters Create Their Own LinkedIn Groups !!

Interesting question… right.. Well its a question that also has an interesting answer. The following post is an attempt to also share my personal experience with creating LinkedIn Groups. Well its as easy as creating a Page / Group on Facebook Well lets not divert our attention to Facebook.

OK, so lets get back. The question that i am asking is that “Should Recruiters Create Their Own LinkedIn Groups” Would you as a recruiter create a group or rather you would prefer to join a group. As mentioned, let me take this opportunity to share my experience about creating groups on LinkedIn.

I am currently managing 3 groups on LinkedIn – Global Mainframe Group (1004 members) / Blogs ! Blogs ! Blogs ! (116 members) and VisionPlus Jobs  (49 members). OK, enough of self promotion, lets get to the point. I would like to present some of the points that might help you to answer this question.

- Creating LinkedIn Group helps you to create your own Brand. This is a best way to show the target community about your professional interest and your knowledge about the related group.

- You can send a message to everyone in your group, even if they are not your direct connections.

- You can also create Discussions in your group that will help your target audience to share their views and also ask questions related to the Group subject.

 

 

 

For example, professionals share about the latest events , Webinar and News related to Mainframe Technology ( Global Mainframe Group )

- Also as a group manager you can also create  “Featured Discussions” . Your discussion will be visible on the top of all the discussions. This is as good as a private spot for any information that you want to share.

So let me ask you a question again, would you like to create your own LinkedIn Group !!

PS: Before you log into your LinkedIn account and start creating a group for yourself, let me also highlight some points that you need to be very careful once you decide to have your own group.

- Ensure that you are clear about what kind of target audience you want

- Do keep the group active with relevant topics / discussions related to your group subject.

- Also do moderate the member list / jobs / discussions posted by the members

So, are you ready to create your own group on LinkedIn? Looking forward to your views on this post also about your experience while creating a group. Its always good to learn from our fellow community members and professionals out there. Following is a link that might also give you a fair idea of the kinds of groups that are present on LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/directory/groups/

Happy Recruiting

Regards

Rambling Recruiter

A day (week) in a Recruiters Life – Weekend Drive aka “Number Game”

The other day i was having a conversation with one of my friends regarding Weekend Drives. And soon we ended up talking about those countless drives, NUMBER GAME, Targets, Saturday /Sunday and Releasing offers on Monday and so on. PS: My dear friend is no more part of this exiting recruiting world, and has recently moved  to the world of HR.  No doubt that most of the recruiters must have done Weekend drives in their career and also must have had a similar experience like me… may be more cherishing than what i had.

OK, let me come to the point…. The idea behind writing about this very sensitive topic of Number Game.. oopss Weekend Drive is to just share some tips and tricks that I have learnt in my career as a recruiter so far & still continue to do so!  You must be wondering why am i calling it a Number Game..Right?  Even i am still trying to find and answer for that. Do let me know if you know that answer. OK, let me explain it in one sentence “We need 100 Mainframe Professionals this week at Pune and Mumbai”

And here we go……….  Warning : Do try this at your Office what i am about to share with you  (The moment i hear this i end up doing the following things)

- Once the Skills / Location / Years of Experience is Clear, Do draft a mail for the Employee Referrals.  PS: Employee Referrals is a very important source of getting resumes (Confirmed)

- Check your Database and simultaneously send a mass mailer to the candidates based on the skills, years of experience and location. (I know some of my friends in the sourcing world have their reservations about mass mails, but weekend drives cant be done without it)

- Then Oh ya.. missed on it… Job Posting….. I prefer Mentioning it in the Subject line “Weekend Drive for Mainframe Professionals” (ensure that you mention the right date, Venue and the Contact Person in the Mailer and Job Posting)

- This hardly take a few hours of your time, i know during this entire process you might end up attending lots of calls from  Candidates, offered candidates, Manager or your Team Lead or subordinates and if you are unlucky a candidate might just call up and say that he / she is not joining. So there is lots of balancing act that a recruiter might have to do. (Just a regular day at office)

- Then the Best Part (My Favorite) CALLING CALLING AND CALLING. I guess most of the recruiters might not prefer this mode, well we all have our different ways of working for a Weekend Drive, and i truly respect their style of working. Its just that i wanted to share this as it had been really helpful for me. This surely gave me comfort level in understanding the number of candidates who are interested and who would be coming. (Again its not 100% that they will come, but i like to take my chances)

- The other good thing about calling the candidates is that at times you also get to know that your competitors too are having a similar drive on this weekend and guess what… The very same Geographic Location. Wow… isn’t it exiting… Well it is actually exiting, as it surely motivates to ensure that our drive is successful.

- OK, so now that we have got a decent number of candidates we can…. hang on… there is a change in the requirement… Don’t worry its not the skills but they need more 50 candidates.. so now its 150. I know most of us will try and explain the Delivery / Recruitment Manager, but just in case they badly need resources; then what should we do?? Do try this (it has worked for me at-least) Do send a mass mail about Walk-In drive (ensure that you mention the mandatory skills and experience level)  This will surely work and will make up for the extra 50 candidates you need. 

-If possible also drop an SMS to the scheduled candadites a day pior to the Weekend Drive. This does work wonders. Do try it.

- Hmmmm OK.. so what next….. Oh ya don’t forget that you might also end up working on some other critical requirements and you might have you devote your time to those as well. (Yet another day at office). This is the best part, it really tests the ability of a recruiter to multitask. Oh ya… this is a must have skill for any Recruiter.

- Well now that we have managed to crack this drive (Hope fully most of the candidates have turned up for the drive and hopefully we have got the required selects) we can now focus on the Offers.. (That is also a different challenge, we can surely talk about it at a later stage.. what say !!!!)

As i am writing down this post i can very well recollect / relate to the numerous drives that we had done in my previous organization. It was truly an amazing experience. In my opinion every recruiter must at-least once get into the amazing world of Weekend Drives. I know i know… most of you might have done it day in and day out and also might have sacrificed their weekends for the same.  But at the end of the week when they get the desired results, there is a scene of satisfaction and the team that has worked hard for it , is on top of the world I am not claiming that my style of working is perfect, even i was part of some drives where the required number of candidates had not turned up, but that should not hamper your work. “With every unsuccessful drive, we end up learning new things and that will help us to make the next drive successful”.  On this positive note would like to also know about your experience and it would be great if you can share your style of working. I would love to learn those different styles, that will help me to improve my Recruiting Skills.

Regards

Rambling Recruiter

Discover world-class professionals and related skills on LinkedIn !!

Once upon a time…. Well this is not exactly a story, but a true experience that i wanted to share. This is regarding the MI (Market Intelligence) that we (Recruiters) have to do day in and day out. It did strike me that there was a time when we used to do the MI via the Job Portals, oh ya Naukri.com / Monster.com / Dice.com were at the forefront. Me sure many of you might have also used http://whatis.techtarget.com/ but it dose not end up highlighting the emerging skills and professionals with those skills. Recently LinkedIn has come up with the Beta version of Skills and Expertise page. This is a small attempt to showcase the power of this page.

All you need to do is just click on the “More” button next to the search window and click on Skills section. This will take you to Skills and Expertise page.

 And then all you need to do is enter the desired skills that you are looking for.For example, currently i am looking for iPhone Developers. So just tried this option and following is the detailed information for iPhone Developers. Or you can just click on this link – http://www.linkedin.com/skills/ :) This might be easy

The moment you put the desired skill following are the boxes that will help you for the MI:

- The top section will display the Details of the Skills via Wikipedia

- On the right side it will show the Related Companies with those Skills

- On the left side you can view the keywords related to the primary skill

- And the most important part in the center you will also be able to view the Professionals on LinkedIn with those skills mentioned in their profile.

- Also you will find the related groups on the Primary skills that was entered

- And finally you can also find the jobs posted related to the skill.

With the help of this you can end up having lots of information about the skills and also the kind of market that is present for these kind of skills. This might also end up helping the Recruitment team to look for the Target companies listed under the mentioned skills. It will also provide you the insights about the kind of latest skills that are emerging and in my opinion this is a very powerful tool that will help the recruiters and will also provide them some additional  ammunition to support their data in terms of the latest technologies available in the market. This is a one stop shop for the recruiters to do some R&D about the skills that they want to search, and this will surely give them the foundation to hunt for the relevant resumes in the market.

So what are you waiting for, go on… enter the desired skill and get as much information as possible. Me sure that this kind of detailed analysis about the skills will definitely impress the staffing manager too

Regards

Rambling Recruiter

Should Recruiters use Twitter…….. !!!

While i was cracking my brains to find an apt title for this post, i too thought that the Title is a bit strange… “Should Recruiters use Twitter”. Well some might say that its like saying “Should Recruiters use LinkedIn“…… Hmmmmm… Well i beg to differ as its not the same as using LinkedIn.

The reason why i thought to pen down about this topic was, the other day there was a discussion over a cup of coffee with some of my friends (Recruiters) about hiring and trying to find out ways to attract more talent (resumes). And the question was raised, Do you guys use Twitter? Well, for some it was not a surprising question to answer, and for some it was… hmmmm Well you can guess the answer   The immediate reply was, do we get resumes on Twitter…. I know i know, Its a strange reply.. RIGHT? (Strange because, its a typical habit of recruiters to ask this, because day in and day out they have to get into sites and dig in resumes) so now it might not seem a strange reply.

Well the Discussion started with “Do you guys use Twitter” period.. nothing else…. But this question took a whole new dimension. It got directly linked to getting resumes. The point that i am trying to make is, not necessary you will get resumes (As quick as possible) and not necessary you have to use it to get resumes only. You as a recruiter can use it to do the following things: (There is a whole lot to do on Twitter than to just look for resumes – This note is only for Recruiters)

- Build your Brand (Individual / Company)

- Get into discussions related to your field.

- Follow HR Leaders, Fellow Recruiters, CEO’s, Company’s Twitter Account

- Ask questions related to any technology, hiring process, new methods of hiring / you can also answers questions based on your experience.

- Dont just keep on posting jobs on Twitter, keep it going but at times its just too much.

These are just few of the things that you can do on Twitter (as a recruiter). I know some of you might not like to use your personal account for recruitment purpose. Its your choice. Also not necessary you have to post jobs on Twitter all the time. The guru mantra is “Just be Yourself” Oh ya, i almost forgot about one more important  point, Some recruiters might not like to use Twitter at all, that’s totally fine. But just one food for thought “Some years back we used to hire via publishing paper ads, then came portals, then social networking sites like LinkedIn and more sites to follow”

The choice is yours, to move on or to stick on to the traditional methods. Warning : I am not saying that you have to be on Twitter and look for resumes, all i am saying is that you can be on twitter and just follow the guru’s in your recruitment industry or follow the latest tools in your industry. Do try it. And for those who are already using it, looking forward to follow you guys and learn from you all.

You can (If you want to) follow me on Twitter : https://twitter.com/kunjal23

Regards

Rambling Recruiter

Can we use Facebook connections for professional networking !!

Can we use Facebook connections for professional networking !!

Is this Possible? Can it be done?

You might be asking this question and would be eager to know if this is actually possible. Well, Facebook is normally used for connecting with friends and you would not want to mix it with Professionals. I too agree with you, but there is one Application on Facebook, that will allow you to do both, without your personal information going out.

What is that Application called……!!! Hang on Hang on, i am coming to that part as well. It’s called “BranchOut”. Yes BranchOut is the largest professional networking service on Facebook. You can browse over 3 million job Listings and over 20 million inside connections.  The best part about this app is than you can view your connections (Professional) and can also view your friend’s connections as well. This means that you can view their employment history, and also all those connections with that company name.

Following are some of the features that have been adopted from LinkedIn:

- Career Network Stats (It will show your 1st Degree, 2nd Degree connections and also the companies that you are connected to, via your connections)
For example, I have just 78 Friends on BranchOut, but have 32,341 2nd Degree Connections and connected to 19,658 Companies” WOW… Amazing stuff … Right!!!

- Endorse Your Friends (you can receive and request endorsements from the connections)

- You can Post jobs (Free Free Free)

- You can get Professional Network Updates (What your friends and colleagues are doing on BranchOut)

And now the most amazing part of BranchOut (My Favourite), there is a section where in you can enter a company’s name and search all the connections associated with that companies.

For example, i searched IBM and i got 8223 results. Cool rite…. and the most important aspect of this search is that you can connect with all these connections.

Don’t worry; you will not connect them as a friend, but as a professional connection, as you will get to see their Professional Profile. You can also search for resumes which are not in your connections, and then can add them based on the skills you are looking for.

For example, as you can see, i have typed IBM AND SAP in the search section (people) and the search results shows that there are 37 people with those skills, and guess what, they are not even connected to me.

So what are you waiting for, go on spread your networking branches on BranchOut and connect with professionals. BranchOut helps you to Build a powerful network of professional connections. All you need to do is search for a company and you’ll see all of your friends and friends-of-friends who work there. This will help you to find people working in different companies, and also you can view their professional profile. Also you can view Job Listing, based on the search engine provided by BranchOut. So have you BranchedOut yet !!!

Looking forward to know about your views and comments on the same. Also if you have any interesting way in which you managed to use BranchOut for connecting with Professionals out there.

Regards

Rambling Recruiter

Are you looking for resumes on Google+ ?? Can we ??

Now that Google + has been part of our lives, the question that every Recruiter might want to ask is -

-How can we get an invite (Sometime back this was the question that was all over)

Just Kidding… But the real question that they were asking was: (including myself)

 

- “Can we find resumes on Google +”

- If yes, how can we do that ?

 

I know its just been a while that Google + has been introduced to this world, and it will take good amount of time before people use it frequently.

Although it might not be even close to what people are doing on Facebook, thanks to the various recruitment apps available on Facebook. You can check my article on Sourcecon “Facebook Fan Pages for Sourcing and Recruiting ” No Doubt that Facebook has been the lone Social Networking site to have taken a giant leap in terms of encouraging Recruitment related activities, but Google + too might soon be an good option for the recruiters to explore resumes on the site.

 

A few days back i came across a site, thanks to my mentor in my previous organization (@sarangbrahme), the site is http://www.findpeopleonplus.com/ . I was really amazed to see the kind of data that the site had to provide. It had the Google + users data across the globe. Following are just a few details that you might be interested in :

 

- On the left side there is a long list of catagories like:

 

*People Looking for Networking
*Occupation

*Location of the user

*Following / Followers

*On Facebook / Twitter

*Country / State 

 

 

Check out the statistics:

 http://www.findpeopleonplus.com/statistics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are also other sections, but our major focus would be the 3 categories mentioned above. Just tried a few searches on this site, for example Java AND Developer. The results show around 430 people, then based on your location preference, you can filter the users location, and also the occupation of that particular user.

 

 

You might ask, why am i using the term User? Well, the reason for this is that they are not necessarily candidates, unlike the resumes on Monster or Dice. They are users on Google +, hence one must be careful before we bombard them with job opportunities. One of the advantage is that you can click on the respective user, and can find his/ her links (Twitter / LinkedIn / Blogs etc) and then based on that you can connect and share your job requirement.

 

One more example : Just entered Testing and QTP, and found 3 resumes with those skills. (Again just to remind that the numbers might not be encouraging, but this is just a start and as the data increases, more and more resumes will be visible).

 

 

Once i got 3 users, i clicked on one of the resumes and then entered his Google+ profile (just below the photo of the user), and then managed to view “About” section, where you can get the complete details of the candidate.You can also check on the right side of the profile, various links that users enter. 

 

 

 

One more thing that i would like to add is that, google has a huge number of users that have some point of time created their profile on Google - https://profiles.google.com/ . This is just a small start, as time goes by, many more users will update their profiles and create their G+ accounts.

 

From the data available on this site, it is very evident that the major population of users is from US (150,523), followed by India (18021), hence i will not be surprised that the numbers will soon increase. This will surely bring in fresh users on G+ and there will be a lot more indexed users on this site. It might seem too early to bank upon this data for recruiters out there, but this might soon change and might be a decent gold mine for resumes.

 

Looking forward to hear from you about this post, and also if u have any other ideas, or views about this, you’re most welcome.

 

Regards

Rambling Recruiter 

Will you stick to Facebook or Move to Google +

Google + Facebook…..

 

And the war continues…. I know by now you might have come across thousands of views, reviews, blogs, videos about the pros and cons of both the services. Hence i wanted to just highlight some basic points that might make it a bit easy to understand. I will not be getting into the debate of will it help the advertisers, will it generate revenues… etc etc….

 

This post is from an angle of the users (Including me). I have been on Google + for almost a week. Fortunately got an invite, via Twitter. Had posted that i am looking for an invite, and very next minute, i got an invite (Thanks to @jonw860 ) OK, lets get down to the basics. The question that everyone is asking is ……..

 

 ”Will you leave Facebook and join Google+” ………

 

Hope these features and +tive / -tive points might help you to decide and answer the above question.

 

Google+

- Its New, Its still under testing phase. (But its still New)

 

- Its got Circles (Circles is nothing but – Users will be able to filter what content is shown to which group ) All you need is to drag and drop it in respective Circles. eg – Friends, Relatives, Family, Office , Bloggers Etc Etc…

 

- Hangout – This feature and Circles is something that makes Google + different from FB. Google’s new hangout product is all about group chat, Video Chat. Up to ten people can use it at once. I have spend some time on Hangout with my friends, and it works just fine. The killer feature is that you can have a Group Chat WOW… … (FB is yet to launch this) 
Did i mention that Group Chat and Video chat is FREE on Google Hangout????

 

- You will get Picasa, Youtube, Gmail, Buzz all on your google + page Interesting .. right !!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facebook

- Its Huge, you have many friends already on it.

 

- Its got no cricles, but has many groups, games, Farmvilla, thousands of Apps.

 

- It has recently added the Video Chat option, thanks to Skype. You can make a call right from the home page, or from your friends profile page. You can also record your message and that will be sent across to your firend. Its Awesome. No need to register for Skype, or download the Skype client. You can try it at https://www.facebook.com/videocalling

This too just works fine, although as of now you cant have a group video chat on it. (It might come soon)

 

I know you might be all set to take a shoot at Google plus….. Do try it, and let me know if you have any comments and views on the same. I would stick onto both the services for a while. Lets see what else will this so called healthy war lead to.

 

Following is my Google + Profile and Facebook Profile

 

Happy networking

 

Regards

Rambling Recruiter