New vs. Old: Methods for Building Networks

I’ve been working hard to build my network using new methods as well as old methods. I’ve committed to the Social Media craze by frequenting Twitter, LinkedIn and various blogs talking about Human Resources and other business topics. But I have also continued to attend networking events that actually put you in front of individuals who are looking to network the way people used to. Which one works better? I think Social Media works faster but in-person interactions are more meaningful.

Have you ever had a question that no one in your organization has the answer to? You could easily post the question on Twitter or LinkedIn (which I’ve done and have received great responses, don’t get me wrong). But wouldn’t you rather have a discussion about it instead of a 180-character response? Like I said, I’ve gotten great responses to questions I’ve posed to Twitter or LinkedIn connections but there’s been more than one occasion that I wished I had a better relationship with the responders where I could call and discuss their feedback more in depth.

The relationships that I’ve made as a result of old-fashion networking events have proved to be very fruitful. I’ve gotten clients, potential employees, friends, referrals and business contacts out of the relationships built at meet-ups or formal events. I’ve been able to access these individuals for questions and feel that the discussions we’ve had have helped me more than research, tweets, or wordy emails.

What I’m trying to say is, don’t forget about the value of creating a relationship face-to-face. It’s easy and very beneficial to meet people via Social Media, but take that one step further and ask them to coffee. If they’re in a different state, country or continent, at least ask them to schedule a telephone conversation or a Skype “date.” Putting a face with a name creates for a more meaningful relationship (and Twitter or LinkedIn pictures don’t count.)

Should I be including links to my social media pages on my resume?

There is no denying that social media has arrived. The question now is, how do we use it to our advantage. Recently, I met with some students looking to enter the workforce and we were having a discussion about how to properly market your knowledge, experience, education, etc. One of the students asked me if I thought it was appropriate for them to include their social media pages or links on the resumes. This question caught me a little off guard and started a long and drawn-out thought process.

First, I thought about accessing a social media link from a staffing industry perspective. As a staffing professional, I cannot say that I would use social media to screen an employee. Since we generally recruit for qualified candidates but don’t have a specific job description we are targeting, checking social media pages probably wouldn’t be effective. Would I learn things about that person that may not come out in a job interview – yes. Would it help me when trying to place that individual in the right environment – probably. Would it deter me from hiring someone if they had good experience and good skills – probably not.

Second, I put myself in the shoes of a corporate recruiter who had a distinctive job description for which they were hiring. If you know what you’re looking for or what you’re hoping to avoid, it’s easier to use those social media sites to your advantage. When you’re recruiting not only for a specific position or an environment, it may help to enter those sites to be sure the person would be a good fit.

Third, I looked at the question from a candidate’s perspective. Personally, I don’t have anything on my Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn Profile that I would be worried about a potential employer seeing. In fact, my LinkedIn Profile is almost exactly the same as my resume. What these pages show that my resume does not, is my involvement in the world of technology. I think it would be great for an employer to see that I’m tweeting with HR professionals, asking questions and getting helpful answers. I also post pertinent information from webinars that I’ve attended to those pages for others to see. If employers took a look at what I’m doing as an HR professional, I don’t think they’d be disappointed.

I don’t think the question is, “should I put the social media links on my resume.” I think the right question should be, “do I want potential employers to see what I do when I’m out in that world.” If the answer is yes – go ahead and put it on your resume. I don’t think social media should be like opening the door to a whole new person that they wouldn’t have met in the interview or on paper. Your social media sites should compliment what you’ve done or what you’re looking to do.

Social Networking: How do I make a name for myself?

HELP!!!

Introducing myself through social media has been something I’ve been thinking about for a while now. I’ve started to take the time to expand my network via avenues such as LinkedIn and Twitter. As an entry level candidate hoping to develop into an HR professional, I’ve been told that the most important place for me to market myself is on the social networking sites mentioned earlier. However, how am I supposed to market myself if the HR professionals I’m hoping discover me don’t take the time to look at my profile? The reason for this blog post is to reach out to professionals so they can tell me what I’m doing wrong so as to help those entry level candidates like myself to avoid making those mistakes too.

So far, I have all of my experience outlined on LinkedIn and I have reached out to a lot of the HR professionals in my area that may be able to assist me with my job search. Most of those HR professionals have not responded back to me after accepting my connection request. Do I reach out to them again even though I asked for them to respond to my request or how can I get them to respond while accepting my request? I have also joined a lot of the HR groups that are on LinkedIn to get connected with more professionals. I have attended a number of events and have followed up to all of the individuals met at those events by reaching out on LinkedIn as well as sending an email. Additionally, I am able to see some of the individuals who view my profile on a daily basis and none of them seem to be HR professionals. Is it because I don’t have the experience they are looking for? Is it because of my location? Or is it because I’m not highlighting the correct experience to get others excited about talking to me?

Please, professionals, tell us what we are doing wrong. How can we get people to look at our LinkedIn profile? How can we find that right position through social media? How can we be discovered by the companies we want to get in to via those networking tools?

Since social networking is still new and continues to be developed, I’m sure these questions cannot be answered directly. However, there is a lot of published insight and I would be happy for any additional feedback as well.

Don’t let the people you work with affect the way you do your job

I think the toughest lesson I’ve learned since I’ve started in my position in Staffing is not to take the things prospective employees say to heart. Between the life stories, the blame games and the life coaching sessions, I’ve heard just about everything. I’ve been blamed for loss of apartments, no presents for children for Christmas, and/or cupboards like Mother Hubbard’s. I don’t mean to make a mockery of the hardships that people are facing as a result of this economy, but it is far from fair to blame the people who are trying to help you.

If I could, I’d create enough jobs to get every single person in our pool out to work. But the reality of the situation is that if companies aren’t hiring, we have no where to send you and nothing to talk to you about. National statistics show that this time of the year is usually slow for staffing. Unfortunately, patience is low this time of year as well. I understand that if I was in that same boat, I’d be just as anxious and excited to get back in the workforce to use and expand upon my skills. What I don’t understand is the tone of voice or hurtful words prospective employees use toward people who could potentially have their next “in” to the workforce.

The trick for people looking for work is to remain professional at all times. I interviewed an individual a couple weeks back who had been laid off from their administrative position due to a company-wide merge but elected to stay on another 30 days as a temporary employee to ensure that the merge went as smoothly as possible. Upon contacting her references from her past employer, we found that they had the utmost respect for her and how she carried herself professionally. Leaving past positions on a good note can make all the difference to a prospective employer.

It is hard to come to work every day with a smile on my face while still acknowledging that I cannot help everyone. I would if I could, trust me. My advice to all job seekers and those who are hiring for open positions – stay professional, keep your head up, and don’t get discouraged. Everyone is doing the best they can.

Catch 22

Of all the students and graduates I’ve talked to looking for work, most are struggling with the Catch 22 of needing the experience to break into the HR industry and not being given the chance to get the experience needed.

I remember when I was looking for jobs, I would read the job description and get excited about the position and what I would be able to do and learn. And then the very last line in the description is “3-5 years of experience required.” I couldn’t even guess how many times that burst my bubble. Now, I still applied to those positions because I didn’t think it would hurt getting my name out there and my resume in front of important eyes. It paid off and I certainly built my network, but the fact that I only had 1 year of experience was still barring me from the HR Generalist and Specialist positions.

I graduated in May 2010 so I started looking for work as early as December 2009. I knew that companies would be looking to hire immediately, but what if they were really impressed with me? Maybe they would wait? Wishful thinking. The thing is that companies don’t have to wait these days. For any one position they have open, everyone and their brother is applying. They have people with no experience in the field, people looking for a career change, people who have been laid off, people who left for reasons such as new management, people with 15 years of experience, and people who have the 3-5 years they are looking for. Why are they going to pick the person with no experience if they can pay the person with 15 years experience the same amount of money to do the same job with less training (which is an expensive investment)? Well, the person with 15 years of experience will most likely leave if they’re ever offered a higher level HR job because it will pay more and they are qualified. But that isn’t really the point. The point is that the person with no experience is going to be overlooked.

Students have to think outside the box to get some much needed experience. Accepting an internship is a great place to start. I understand that most students have loans and would need some sort of income, but they may have to think about an unpaid opportunity. It is not ideal, but it’s experience. Starting as an assistant in the HR department or neighboring departments is a great idea too. Sometimes, accepting a job as an administrative assistant in a smaller office will allow you to ask for projects or other things that pertain to HR. See if there is a need for new job descriptions for working employees. Ask if there is an open position they’d like you to help recruit for. Discuss any kind of projects with your supervisor that may have to do with HR because you can put that on your resume and it gives you a good discussion topic for interview questions.

When I graduated, I was under the impression I was going to start as an HR Generalist or Specialist immediately and that’s simply not the case. It’s good to be optimistic, but you have to stay realistic. I am lucky to be using my degree as a Staffing Consultant and I am very please with the amount of HR that I am practicing. Not every student is going to be as lucky as me, but realize that everyone has to start somewhere. I interviewed a 2006 graduate the other day who had been initially looking for HR but had given up because they weren’t able to find anything. DO NOT GIVE UP! If you’re passionate about it, then that’s where you should be. You may have to take another position that isn’t in HR to start, but use that to your advantage and ask for HR related projects.

6 months later...

A year ago, I can honestly say I had no idea where I would be today. I graduated from St. Norbert College in May 2010 and the months leading up to graduation were extremely stressful for me as I’m sure it is for every college student. I almost wish I would have gone on to graduate school. Not that that would have been the easy way out, but at least I could have had a little bit more time before I decided what I wanted to be when I grew up! Granted my student loans would have been even more harrowing than they are now, but at least I could have postponed my career decisions a little longer.

Getting into the HR field after college is next to impossible. I’m not knocking on HR professionals; I understand that you need to have the experience before you have your first meeting with a disgruntled employee. But how can a recent graduate get that experience if they’re not given the chance in the field? I had to start being creative and doing anything and everything I could to find the magical door into HR.

The only advice I can offer to a college student looking to enter the workforce is take whatever kind of experience is available to you, network until you’re blue in the face, and be as involved as you possibly can.

I was very fortunate to try my skills in a paid HR internship my senior year of college. I learned much more than I ever thought I would. I was on the Benefits Advisory Committee that discussed employee benefits. I was able to sit in on employee relations meetings. I had the chance to interview candidates for a number of job opportunities within the organization. I even had the ability to expand the department within the organization by creating innovative training opportunities for employees, new informative ways to educate employees on benefits, and rearrange employee information to ensure efficiency.

I was also heavily involved in our school’s HR group, SNC SHRM. I got involved in my second year at St. Norbert and ran for the position of President in my third year. I served in the President role my junior and senior year and cannot even begin to explain the knowledge I gained. I traveled all over the Midwest to conferences at the State, Local and National levels. I met many professionals who were more than happy to answer any questions I could think of or offer helpful tips. I only wish I would have been less shy and asked anything and everything that popped into my mind. (I feel a namedrop is necessary...so thanks akabruno/Stollak!!)

I am privileged to say that six months after graduating from St. Norbert, I am using my degree as a Staffing Consultant in the Appleton, WI area. I accepted the position I am currently serving in two weeks prior to my graduation ceremony. I don’t want to say that it was luck, but that’s definitely what it felt like and continues to feel like. I am interviewing candidates, talking with clients and customers, making hiring decisions, learning all about Unemployment and labor laws, trying to spring the company into the social media sector, and learning the importance of proper recruiting.

Will all college graduates be as fortunate as me to be working six months out of school? Absolutely not. I have friends who graduated from St. Norbert the same time as me and are either still unemployed or are working but not using their degree. I guess what I’m trying to say with this long-winded blog post is, please keep your head up and don’t get discouraged. The right opportunity will come along. Continue to network and meet professionals who can help. It really will make all the difference.

Students on Interviews

I'm sure I'm not the only senior heading into a steady stream of interviews here in the next few weeks/months. Employers have been expressing that the recent college graduates are lacking the soft skills they need to succeed in the work place. A skill that a lot of college students lack is communication, both written and verbal. When in an interview, are communication skills apparent? If a student possesses communication skills, will they show through during the interview? How are we supposed to show that we have certain soft skills an interview that may only last a half hour? I'm looking for pointers from all of those professional HR people who have sat through an incredible amount of interviews. Please help us out. We really do want to succeed and would love to show you what we can do. Thanks!!