This is an interesting excerpt from CBS News:
7 Traits Managers Find Irresistible
- You do what it takes to get the job done. This is, or should be, number one on every manager’s list of things they value most in employees. This was one of the first lessons I learned early on and it made a huge difference in my career.
- You meet your commitments. When you say you’re going to do something by a certain date, you’ll find a way. When you say it’ll cost $x, your boss can take that to the bank. You hold yourself accountable so your boss doesn’t have to. Just knowing you’re there reduces your boss’s stress.
- You’re brave. You realize that business is a full-contact sport and you’re going to take some body blows. You can take some punishment. Competition doesn’t freak you out. Confrontation doesn’t scare you. You don’t shy away from visibility. Rather, you get a charge out of it.
- You challenge the status quo. You’re genuine, direct, confident, and comfortable in your own skin. You tell it like it is and say what’s on your mind. You don’t drink the Kool-Aid or sugarcoat the truth. You don’t BS; when you don’t know, you say so. Authority doesn’t scare you so you don’t treat your boss or the CEO like some demon from the underworld.
- You’re an innovative problem solver. You look at things from different angles and turn problems on their side to come up with unique solutions. The harder the problem, the greater the challenge, the more you dig in to find the answer. You live to solve problems.
- Your razor-like focus. You don’t lose it at the first sign of trouble or complexity. Instead, you’re calm and steady. You stay focused when everyone else is running around like chickens with their heads cut off. You’re an island of order in an ocean of chaos.
- You’re low maintenance. You don’t whine and complain. You don’t need to have your hand held for every little thing. You don’t take things personally. You’ve got reasonably thick skin. Folks don’t have to walk on eggshells around you and worry about offending you.
via 7 Traits Managers Find Irresistible – CBS News.
According Entrepreneur.com LinkedIn has always seemed like more of a place to hunt for a new gig than anything else. And since I haven’t been in the job market for a while, I’ve paid it little mind.
Plus, I’ve always thought LinkedIn was kind of … well, boring. If Facebook is a rave at a hip downtown hot spot, LinkedIn is a stuffy reception with piped-in music at one of those soulless function facilities conveniently located at the end of an exit ramp.
Does that sound harsh? For sure. But now I’ve realized that I couldn’t have been more wrong.
via A Guide to Generating Leads on LinkedIn | Entrepreneur.com.
Starting salaries for professionals in the U.S. and Canada will be going up next year as the hiring climate for experienced workers becomes more competitive and the time it takes to fill jobs lengthens.
Staffing firm Robert Half International said the average starting salary for white collar professional and support jobs in the U.S. will rise on average 3.4 percent in 2012. Tech positions will see the biggest increase with an average of 4.5 percent. Lawyers and legal support staff will see the smallest increase of the five areas studied. Starting salaries in the legal field will rise on average 1.9 percent.
For 60 years Robert Half has produced salary guides based on information it gathers from its clients, its placements, and surveys of business executives. The five detailed reports produced this year cover finance and accounting, technology, creative and marketing, which includes Internet-related positions, administrative and office support, and legal.
via Starting Salaries to Rise in 2012 as Hiring Gets Tougher – ERE.net.
Some digital companies are hiring–and in fact are in hot competition for certain types of employees. But you don’t have to be Google to attract top-tier talent.
Why doesn’t digital talent want to work at your company? It’s not because you’re a consumer packaged goods company, rather than Google. It’s not because you’re in Ohio instead of Silicon Valley. It’s not because your salaries are too low, or because you don’t offer free food and laundry services.
via Why Digital Talent Doesn’t Want To Work At Your Company | Fast Company.
Social media monitoring service Reppler recently surveyed more than 300 hiring professionals to determine when and how job recruiters are screening job candidates on different social networks.
The study found that more than 90% of recruiters and hiring managers have visited a potential candidate’s profile on a social network as part of the screening process. And a whopping 69% of recruiters have rejected a candidate based on content found on his or her social networking profiles — an almost equal proportion of recruiters (68%), though, have hired a candidate based on his or her presence on those networks.
via How Recruiters Use Social Networks to Screen Candidates.
Most successful candidates for jobs at Google will be interviewed at least four times, recruiters at the world’s largest search engine have revealed.
Google recruiters described their “consensus-based hiring” approach in which potential peers participate in hiring committees of as many as “six or seven people”. “Everyone gets involved,” said one of the recruiters. To ensure that line managers and peers can participate effectively in recruiting, “interview training is one of the first training classes people take at Google”
via Google goes for consensus in hiring | News | Recruiter.
As LinkedIn’s annual user conference gets underway in Las Vegas today, it’s taking on a issue that goes well beyond the agenda. This is its first conference since becoming a public company and the first since its dominance as the Internet’s leading business network was challenged — directly or otherwise — by such powerful brands as Google, Facebook, and Monster.
The sessions the company has planned for the three-day event are heavy on the training with a strong mix of sessions devoted to recruiting strategies and social media.
The speaker lineup is first rate and the agenda promises enough variety and practicums that it should be easy enough to answer the boss’s “What did you learn?” questions :-}
http://talentconnect.linkedin.com/overview/
Some interesting stats from http://www.emarketer.com/:
MARKETING TACTICS USED BY SMB DECISION MAKERS
- Company Website: 54%
- Email / Newsletter: 51%
- Social Media: 44%
- Direct Mail: 40%
- Online Ads: 17%
- Daily Deal Websites: 14%
- Outdoor including Billboards: 14%
- TV / Radio: 9%
Social media, however, is gaining in momentum: 44% of US SMB decision-makers have used or are using social media this year, up 10% October 2010 findings, illustrating that for many SMBs, social media is quickly becoming a surefire way to connect with customers and prospects in a cost-efficient manner.
SOCIAL NETWORKS SMBs USE FOR MARKETING
- Facebook: 86%
- LinkedIn: 41%
- Twitter: 33%
- Google+: 17%
- YouTube: 14%
- Company Blog: 13%
- Yelp: 7%
- Foursquare: 4%
—————- Source: eMarketer ——————————–
According to a survey of 1,897 senior executives conducted by Weber Shandwick in partnership with Forbes Insights, 84% of the execs believe their brand’s sociability is not up to world-class standards.
What does it take to get there? In the infographic below, Weber Shandwick offers nine tips, including creating your own content for social media and planning social media activity across all channels. Brands would be wise to take that counsel. As they all agree, sociability is now a key component in driving brand reputation.
This is an interesting excerpt from CBS News:
