GadBall Blog

Before you get hired for a new job, you have to get found by a hiring manager.

That’s obvious.

But how do you get found? How can you get on the radar of top employers and make them call you for an interview?

That’s not so obvious.

You could troll the Web and apply for posted jobs, but those are just the tip of the iceberg. For every advertised opening there may be five or more “hidden” ones.

To solve this problem, here are three simple ways to get noticed — and get hired — by your next boss.

1) Temp is Not a Four-Letter Word
If you’ve never considered taking a temporary or contract position, you should rethink that attitude, according to Jackie Engmark, Executive Director of the Minnesota Recruiting & Staffing Association (www.mnrsa.org).

The 75 firms in the MNRSA fill positions ranging from entry-level to executive, with up to 70-75% of those jobs being temp-to-hire positions, according to Engmark.

“Businesses look to staffing firms as a good source for permanent employees. Regardless of whether they need the talent on a temporary, contract, or permanent basis, businesses tap staffing companies for that talent,” says Engmark.

Approximately 35% of people who take a temp job end up getting hired full-time, according to Engmark. That’s a .350 batting average — not bad.

And smart employers will create a full-time job for the right temp worker. “With the current talent shortage, if a company brings in someone who catches on fast and has the right attitude, more often than not they will find a place for you,” says Engmark.

She says the secret lies in having the right attitude and work ethic — two traits that can’t be taught. “Employers can invest in training you other skills. If you are outgoing, friendly and work hard, jobs will find you.”

To find staffing and recruiting firms near you, Google the following phrase: “YOUR STATE staffing firms.”

2) Get Connected
You may use LinkedIn.com, Facebook.com and MySpace.com. But are you getting all that you can out of these social networking sites?

One way to get found faster by employers is to enhance your profile. For a dramatic before-and-after example, take a look at the Extreme Makeover that marketing guru Guy Kawasaki got for his LinkedIn.com profile - blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/01/linkedin_profil.html

Tip: The more high-quality connections you make on sites like LinkedIn.com, the more likely you are to get found by employers. On his blog, Kawasaki writes: “People with more than 20 connections are 34 times more likely to be approached with a job opportunity than people with less than five.”

3) Keep Your Dirt to Yourself
According to NBC news, 77% of employers will search the Internet to check your background, and 35% of employers have eliminated a candidate for consideration after finding “digital dirt” about them online.

That means you have to be extra careful about what you post in your profile on LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook and other sites.

“My advice is to post only information online that you would feel comfortable sharing with your grandmother. If you wouldn’t want her to see your photos or learn about your drunken behavior, don’t post it anywhere online,” advises Steven Rothberg, President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com.

One hiring professional, posting on a CollegeRecruiter blog, wrote: “My team and I use sources such as facebook.com and myspace.com on a regular basis to screen candidates. We have on many occasions stopped the interview process with candidates based on their online profiles. Think twice before you post anything out there for us to see.”

So, to find your next job, you might want to take another look at temping, get connected online, and get smart.

Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes and the creator of GetHiredNow.TV. Since 1996, he has provided job search assistance to nearly 10,000 people. Author of “51 Ways to Find a Job Fast — Guaranteed,” Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Radio and others. His latest product, The Instant Job Search System, is available at http://www.collegerecruiter.com/guaranteed-resumes.php copyright (c) 2007 by Kevin Donlin

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.

The GadBall team is happy to announce the first release of Career Link, a unique Facebook application that helps you cultivate your Facebook network and build it into a professional community.

You’ve invested a significant amount of time building your network of friends on Facebook. Introduce your friends to your professional experience and goals. When your friends know what you do for work they can help you by introducing you to their friends; your friends may know people who can help you do your job better.

A Career Link professional profile gives you the opportunity to describe your job and employer. You can make your Career Link profile visible to your friends, and their friends - someone you know may be searching for a job similar to what you do, or you may know of a relevant opening at your company for a friend who is looking for a new job.

Career experts estimate that the vast majority of job openings are never advertised or publicly announced, but filled through networking. Career minded people devote time to cultivating relationships, and CareerLink helps you transform your Facebook friends into professional contacts.

Not familier with Facebook? - it’s a social networking website that connects people with friends and others. Career Link adds another layer of connections to Facebook by introducing an option to connect for career networking.

To add Career Link to your Facebook account or to create your Facebook account, simply follow this link or search for Career Link in the Facebook application directory.

After adding the application to your Facebook account, you’ll be redirected to your Career Link home page. The home page shows you relevant information regarding your account:

• Invite your friends to view your Career Link profile and see who viewed it.
• Up-to-date statistics on who viewed your profile
• If your friends shared their profile with you, you’ll be notified about it here (and on your Facebook home page) and you’ll be able to view it.

It is easy to create and update your Career Link profile . You can upload a resume (or cut and paste a resume), or extract your data from your Facebook profile, and our technology will migrate your data to your Career Link profile. Or, you can manually input your data.

You can make your profile private and not searchable, which means that no one else will know that you have an active Career Link profile, or you can set your profile as “searchable” - meaning others outside of your current network can network with you.

Easily update your profile via the profile edit page. Click on the edit button next to each section you’d like to update.

Easily share your profile with your friends or with other job boards. With one click you can specify which friends are allowed to see your profile and what job boards will receive it. If you’d like your profile removed from a job board, or not allow your friends to access it anymore, simply click the remove button. It’s that easy.

Share, connect, network, and find other professionals on Career Link

Among New Year’s resolutions, finding a new job is right up there in popularity with losing weight, reducing debt, and spending more time with loved ones.

If you’ve resolved to find a new and better job, you can do it faster by using your time more effectively. Here are three suggestions …

#1: Find Extra Time
If you’re not working now, treat your search as a full-time job, requiring at least 40 hours a week. If you are working, devote at least 20 hours a week to your search — the equivalent of a part-time job.

Here’s how to find some of those extra hours you’ll need:

1) Get up one hour earlier each morning (that gives you 5 extra hours per week).

2) Give up all TV, including news, reality shows, etc. If you can’t quit the boob tube completely, limit yourself to one hour per day (10-15 extra hours per week).

3) Take 30 minutes of lunch hour to eat and spend the rest of the time on your search (2-3 extra hours per week).

4) Work on your search for one hour after dinner (5 extra hours per week).

Total per week, not counting weekends: 24-28 extra hours. And if you put in 4-8 hours on Saturday, you can boost that total to 28-36, to get even more done in your job search.

Now, before you start griping about your life getting out of whack with all this extra time devoted to your job search, remember two things:

1) This regimen is TEMPORARY, until you find a new job

2) The faster you find a job, the faster you can go back to watching TV every night and pigging out during lunch hour (although you may not want to!)

#2: Take Time to Reflect
The new year is a great time to look back on what you’ve done and plan to achieve more in the days ahead.

When you analyze your job-search efforts, from networking with old friends and polishing up your resume, to answering Internet job postings and everything in between, ask yourself three questions:

1) What’s producing results?
What have you done that has led directly to job leads, interviews or callbacks from employers? Resolve to do more of that.

2) What’s not producing results?
What has failed to produce job leads? Example: If you’ve emailed 101 copies of your resume to postings from MegaJobSite.com and no employers have called, that tactic is not working. Resolve to change — revamp your resume or apply for different jobs, for example — or stop doing it — like visiting other Web sites.

3) What’s next?
After you decide what to do and what not to do, take 10 minutes to plan today, tomorrow and the rest of this week. You’ll save at least 2-3 hours of wasted time this way. Then, at the end of the week, ask yourself these same three questions again. Keep correcting course and soon you’ll zero in on the job of your dreams.

#3: Take Time to Improve Your Resume
Your resume is often the first impression you make on potential employers. And the better your resume is, the shorter your job search will be.

So it pays to make sure your resume is as powerful and as targeted as possible.

While there isn’t space here to cover the essentials of resume writing (Google “kevin donlin resumes” to find my past articles), you can improve your resume in just a few days by asking your friends for help.

Specifically, try emailing your resume to at least five friends whose judgment you trust. Ask for their input. What do they like? Dislike? Is anything missing or unclear in your resume? Revise and improve your resume accordingly, based on what they tell you.

Bonus: You are networking with and flattering potential references at the same time as you’re getting free editorial help from them. Pretty nifty, huh?

Just be darn sure you return the favor and take the five friends on your “editorial board” out for a celebratory dinner after you get hired.

Here’s hoping these tips will help you use your time wisely and find a new job in the new year!

Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes and the creator of GetHiredNow.TV. Since 1996, he has provided job search assistance to nearly 10,000 people. Author of “51 Ways to Find a Job Fast — Guaranteed,” Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, CBS Radio and others. His latest product, The Instant Job Search System, is available at http://www.collegerecruiter.com/guaranteed-resumes.php
copyright (c) 2007 by Kevin Donlin

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.