How Can Job Descriptions Be Improved

How Can Job Descriptions Be Improved In order to get the right candidate for the job, it would probably be a good idea to describe the role as accurately as possible on job boards and career websites. It might not be the easiest thing to do, especially if the role being offered is quite complex. But here are our 10 candidate experience panelists who share their tips on how can make job descriptions better. Katrina Kibben In a lot of ways but Id say step 1 is to simply stop copying and pasting 7 year old job descriptions and calling it good. A lot has changed in the world, especially how much we read online. Job descriptions cant just be templates any more. We have to write something that makes someone not only want to apply but want to work for our companies. The second piece is that we need a lot more emphasis on SEO. The internet is a deep and broad place if you cant be found, you cant hire the best people. Katrina Kibben is the CEO and Principal Consultant at Three Ears Media. Kevin Grossman One word: video. Plus, being clearer about who the ideal candidate is and what growth opportunities there are. . . Kevin Grossman is President of Global Programs at The Talent Board. Lori Sylvia Leading with your Why, in other words, the first paragraph should tell candidates why they should come to work for you, before you ever get into the specific job details. Job descriptions are increasingly the first page that a candidate will land on when they search (thanks to Google for Jobs), so they won’t have visited your careers homepage. You’ve got seconds to get them interested, and the first thing they want to know about is your company, what you offer and how you’re unique from every other employer with an engineering job. Lori Sylvia is the  Founder and CEO of Rally Recruitment Marketing. Manuel Heichlinger Writing a good job description is like walking a fine tightrope it needs to provide in-depth, clear information about the role, and what day to day responsibilities will entail. But often these thorough descriptions can be, frankly, a little dull. It is important to bring a job description to life: describe the challenges of the role, the importance of the job to the company and what sort of person it makes career sense for. In the future, I’d love to see the use of video play a larger role in job descriptions bring the role to life. For example, posting a short video of the hiring manager or recruiter talking about the challenges of the role and what the perfect candidate would look like. This, in my opinion, is the future for job descriptions. Manuel Heichlinger is  LinkedIn’s Senior Manager for Talent Acquisition. Jeanette Maister Simplicity. Candidates don’t want to sift through pages of information just to find out they’re not eligible for the position. Be upfront and concise about what skills they need and what they’ll be doing in their role. This will make it easier for them to ask the questions that matter and get the answers they need to move forward in the application process. Technology is quickly coming into place, even at the enterprise level, to make it easier for candidates to be redirected to more appropriate jobs if they select incorrectly. Jeanette Maister, is Head of Americas at  Oleeo  (formerly WCN). Josh Tolan Job descriptions focus too much on what the company wants from its candidates and not enough on what its in it for the candidate. Change your mindset from writing a job description and think about writing a job advertisement. A description just outlines what you want; an advertisement converts page viewers into engaged applicants. Josh Tolan is the CEO of Sparkhire. Aida Fazylova Job descriptions can be improved by using the keywords bots use for this tasks, you can craft a job description to attract the right candidates. Artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, specifically HR chatbots (bots), can help companies do just that. HR bots can determine, through a series of questions, an applicant’s suitability for an available position. They look for keywords, based off of preset criteria, and match them with candidate responses. AI allows recruiters to leave the heavy lifting associated with an initial recruitment launch on the list of things bots can take care of. Aida Fazylova, CEO and Founder, of  XOR.ai. Benjamin Gledhill Job Descriptions need to start truly selling the role from not just a skills/experience purpose but from an emotional perspective with a real focus on the purpose and the why for the candidate. People want to know how they will Make a difference. . . Benjamin Gledhill is the Head of Resourcing at Yodel. Jill Shabelman Make them simpler! A job description should be a tool to get someone interested in a position not a laundry list of every task that person may do over the next three years, or an unrealistic view of who the ideal candidate may be. Even better are job descriptions that embed or link to content that gives more insight into the work and the team specific to that particular role. Jill Shabelman is the  Employer Brand Marketing Manager at Deloitte Services LP. Chris Murdock This conversation has become incredibly valuable in the sourcing universe as we welcome technologies like AI. Technology can only help us as much as we help it. When we’re relying on AI to pull certain candidate types, we have to match our job descriptions to the keywords we enter into our algorithms or we’re going to have a huge gap in our talent pool. We need to fill job descriptions with specific titles and key terms that are most likely to be searched by our candidates. SEO tools like SEMRush can help us determine popular search terms to bulk up job descriptions as they fit the responsibility of each role Chris Murdock is Senior Partner and Co-Founder at IQTalent Partners.

Ten Tips For Healthy Hair

Ten Tips For Healthy Hair Everybody wants smooth, sleek tresses but not everyone knows how to perfect their hair.   Even if you want to do a simple bun, the right tools and techniques are a must.  Its not just about the look, either.  Its about protecting your hair from unwanted damage.  One of my favorite brushes is the  Tangle Teezer, and theyve   shared their ten top hair care tips for smoothing your style: Don’t blow dry hair when it’s dripping wet You’ll usually only blow dry your hair when it’s dripping wet if you’re in a hurry. However, while you think you may be saving time, dripping wet hair takes longer to dry than hair that has been towel-dried. Before you reach for the hair dryer, gently pat your hair with a towel to remove excess moisture. This will considerably reduce your blow dry time. Don’t rub your hair Towel drying your hair is simple, right? You just grab a towel and rub your hair â€" wrong. Rubbing your hair can cause frizz and damage to your hair. Instead, remove moisture by gently patting your hair. Don’t over-color your hair Many women dye their hair, but it can do a lot of damage. Try to limit how often you dye your hair â€" if you just need to recolor your roots, look for specific root touch-up kits that only need to be applied to the problem area, minimizing damage to the rest of your hair. No-ammonia hair dyes are a great choice too, as they are gentler than some other colorants. Don’t wash your hair too often How often do you wash your hair? Many women only need to shampoo their hair around three times a week. If you’re washing your hair every day, you could be removing too much oil from your scalp, leaving your hair feeling dry and more prone to breaking. Washing too often will also expose your hair to the blow dryer more frequently, which could cause even more damage. Try to space out your washes through the week. If your hair does start to feel and look greasy, use a dry shampoo to refresh it in between washes. Eat a balanced diet Tempted by that greasy burger? Think of your hair! Many people don’t realize that what they eat can impact the strength and overall appearance of their hair. By eating a diet of the 13 essential vitamins, including Vitamin A and E, you can keep your hair strong, shiny and healthy.   Supplements can also help with hair and nail growth. Be careful with wet hair Wet hair is more fragile than dry hair, so brushing it straight after washing is a big no-no. Before you brush, allow your hair to dry first. Even if it’s not completely dry, a slight delay between washing and brushing will give the bonds of your hair time to strengthen, minimizing damage. Keep heat to a minimum As you’ve probably heard, heat styling can cause major damage to your hair. Whether you’re using tongs or straighteners, the intense heat can leave your hair feeling dry. Try to minimize the use of heat on your hair to improve its condition. You may need to try alternate styles to do so. Braid before bed As you stretch out in bed, your hair can become tangled and tatty. Before you hit the hay, put your hair in a loose plait. The structure of the plait will keep your hair tangle-free, and you’ll wake up with soft waves too â€" bonus. Wash in room temperature water Regularly hop into boiling hot showers and baths? Just like straightening and heat styling, hot water can damage your hair. It may not sound too appealing but washing your hair in room temperature water is better for it. Keep products to a minimum You may be tempted to layer up the haircare products on the assumption that it will make your hair appear sleeker and shinier. However, too many haircare products can weigh down your hair and sometimes make it appear greasy. As a general rule of thumb, you should use four products on your hair: shampoo, conditioner, protector and styling product.

Where do you get in the Flow - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Where do you get in the Flow - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Where do you get your best ideas? How do you find the time to work on them? Is there a place you go to find your Flow? Flow is Happiness Getting in the flow is a good thing and something everyone should strive for as often as possible. Life will always intervene. However, it is important to find that time where you can tap your brain and maximize your creativity. Flow is defined as the most productive and creative state of mind in which to work. Psychologist  Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D. claims that  achieving the flow state on a regular basis is a key component of happiness. Maximizing your Creative Brain Time There is no set place or time for all the creativity in the world to settle down. And this is a good thing. Everyone is a little different in the way they get their best and most creative work done. For some people it’s early in the morning when it’s still dark out and the birds are just beginning to chirp. For others it is  only after that first all important cup of coffee or other preferred beverage of choice. And, of course, there are night owls who can crank out ideas until the wee hours. If you are like most people its probably not when youre in a crowded room. However, in my case, I do come up with ideas while Im in a crowded room but I dont always have time to act on them. Which brings us to the question: Where do you get in the Flow? For me I find a few places where I can get into the flow. Some may seem a little odd, but they work for me. When I’m out on my mtn bike and cruising along I get some of my best thinking done. The same is true when I’m on my Stand Up Paddle (SUP) board. Where the rhythm of paddling and the calmness of the water can put  me in the Flow Zone very quickly. In fact, when I need to think I’ll often make the time to get on my bike or SUP. I always come back refreshed and with a new perspective. There are also what I call The Last Three Bastions. To me these are the last three places where creative and free thinking can take place. I’d like to get your thoughts on these in the comments. Do these work for you? If not these three, then what? The Last Three Bastions of Creative Thinking It’s not so much the location as it is the distractions … or lack thereof. Shower Bathroom Airplane Seat To me these are the last three bastions of creative thinking. There is no one to bother you … at least for the time you are there. Sure, there are interruptions at times in all three. However, these three still my holdouts for the last three bastions. Have you ever stayed in the shower just a little while longer so you could finish your thought? Do you look forward to that time when you are … well, indisposed … because you know you’ll have a moment to yourself? Can you tune everything out so that you can tune-in while you are in an airplane seat? For me the answer is yes. For a few people I spoke to before writing this the answer was also a firm yes. Several people I spoke to said that exercise is there way to get into their flow. Whether it’s running outdoors or on  a treadmill they found their flow in the efforts of exercise. Where do you get in the Flow? I think we all want and seek ways to get in the flow as often as possible. I’ve mentioned a few examples here both from my own efforts and from people I spoke to about the idea of flow. There is no wrong way to get into Your Flow. It’s yours after all. My Tools, Techniques and Timing Your mileage may vary. And, in fact, your mileage  WILL vary. For me I use a few tools to help me when I can get in the flow. One is just the simple act of “writing” it down. In my case I write it down in Microsoft OneNote. This is true whether I’m on my phone, tablet or PC. It works across all devices and is indexed for future use. I use tags to help me quickly find something.  Sure, the whole notebook is indexed, but I might write or capture a lot of content on a topic. For example, for the posts I write for this publication … the Personal Branding Blog, all of my notes start with PBBlog. I have a section in my OneNote notebooks for PPBlog posts  â€" where they are generally just ideas and research about a topic. I use OneNote to capture my ideas or at least the gist of them and a lot of times it’s just the location and perhaps a picture. These are my trigger words  and images. When I have time to seek my Flow Zone I can sit down with my tablet, my phone or my laptop and search by PBBlog. Then I can focus and try to get in my Flow Zone and really think about, write and ruminate on the ideas. Sure, this is a simple tip and trick, but it helps me from being distracted by all the other things in my OneNote system. Whatever Works For You For many their best thoughts come right after they wake up. A simple and effective tool is to keep a pen and paper next to your bed. A smart phone works too, but it can sometimes be too distracting or too tempting to look at social feeds or email before you have time to capture your thoughts. Where do you get in the Flow? Wherever your spot is make sure you can reproduce it as often as possible and go there whenever you can. Whether it’s physically there or mentally there … find your spot to get in Your Flow … and Go There.

Life Admin

Life Admin concentrated woman at tabletop with laptop taking part in webinar in office In a previous post, I write about the insidious creep of administrative work it takes to run a modern household. From scheduling appointments to paying bills, calling about repairs, and following up with kids’ activities, the never-ending to-do list that is life admin takes up enormous amounts of time, resources, and brainpower. Elizabeth Emens is the author of Life Admin: How I Learned to Do Less, Do Better, and Live More. She’s written a book on the hidden labor that takes up so much of our non-work lives and has the power to create tension, resentment, and real harm when not done well or ignored. She writes, “Admin is the office work of life. It is the organizing and coordinating and managing and faxing and emailing and calling and texting of our information and our lives . This is the kind of work that you can spend a whole day doing and then wonder, Where did my day go?” Life admin also has financial consequences. Emens cites one study that estimates that approximately 20 percent of US households that could benefit from home mortgage refinancing fail to do so , resulting in a forgone savings of $5.4 billion â€" just because we never got around to it. We also pay more than we should for cable, insurance, and other services because we simply don’t have the time to do the research or sit on the phone and wait for customer service. If you have a partner in your household, chances are you’ve fought about admin. Depending on your personal admin styles, one of you probably does more of the work â€" and more of the fretting. One source of contention in a household I know well (I’m writing for a friend) is a contrast in get-it-done styles. Emens calls it the “Prompt versus Thorough” style. Do you want to tackle something immediately or wait until you can do a thorough job of it? I find that undone admin wears me down like visual clutter; it drives me crazy until I can check it off my to-do list. This means I often take on my own tasks and others’, since I’m the one who a.) hates to procrastinate and b.) now, conveniently, has free time to do things, since my list is complete. Emens says that even cooperation can feel unpleasant. “Watch out for “Just tell me what you want me to do. ” This sentence can be said in two ways. In one, the eager gopher , in his first day on the job , says to his new boss: “Just tell me what you want me to do! ” You know he’ll do it immediately and enthusiastically. In the other version, an irritated person who doesn’t want to help rolls his eyes and says, “Just tell me what you want me to do.” If he does it, he’ll do it halfheartedly â€" and he may make you feel bad for asking. The second version is the one to watch out for. In fact, there are some men (sorry guys, it’s mostly men) who practice “strategic incompetence,” being so bad at a task that no one asks him to do it again. It works at the office and at home.   The person simply pleads ignorance, or asks so many questions it’s just easier for you to do it yourself. Some people actually take on the task, doing such a bad job they’re never asked to do it again. One military man told me how he handled being asked, as a junior team member, to make coffee for the senior team. “I made coffee that was so bad,” he says with a grin, “it was epic. After they were done choking and gagging, they removed me from coffee duty for the rest of my tour â€" for the safety of the troops.” Jared Sandberg, writing for the Wall Street Journal, says, “Strategic incompetence isnt about having a strategy that fails, but a failure that succeeds. It almost always works to deflect work one doesnt want to do without ever having to admit it. For junior staffers, its a way of attaining power through powerlessness. For managers, it can juice their status by pretending to be incapable of lowly tasks.”

Steps to Writing the Perfect Resume

Steps to Writing the Perfect ResumeIt is a fact that almost all companies and individuals look for resumes nowadays, so it is necessary for them to know the right steps to write the perfect resume. As a matter of fact, when you are able to offer a professional resume, you will surely get a better job. Although there are many sources of information in the Internet, it is still up to you to choose one that will be suitable for your career.There are two steps that you should remember when you want to make such resume. The first is the introductory paragraph, and the second is the resume text. It is a fact that both of these steps are vital parts of every resume, which is why it is important to choose the proper wording and make it as appealing as possible.The right introductory paragraph should help the reader to understand what is the main topic of the resume. If you want to present yourself as someone who has valuable experience, then you need to include the main benefit of your work in the introductory paragraph. It is a fact that such paragraph can be very difficult to write, but it will surely become easier once you know the right words to use.You can ask your prospective employer what the right words to use are, but the next step to writing the perfect resume is to make sure that you have created the right one. You do not want to make an ineffective resume, because you would be sending it to dozens of people that are looking for your skills. So make sure that you use the right words.When you are able to create the right text of the resume, the next step is to follow the rules of grammar and punctuation. Remember that every resume that will be sent is not as good as others, because there are some who are far more skilled in English than others. Because of this, a resume is only as good as the person who wrote it. So make sure that you create the right text.Aside from the importance of grammar and punctuation, a resume should be brief. Once you get accepted by the company, the job will not take long, so make sure that you write down only the important points of your job. If you forget anything, then make sure that you write it down.It is also necessary for you to learn how to format your resume. It is not difficult to become an expert on the proper formatting, as you can simply take a look at other people's resumes and see the proper way to format the resume. Once you understand how to properly format a resume, you will be able to get a great result.The last step to writing the perfect resume is to be prepared when you get an invitation to attend a job interview. You should remember that there will be many people in the same position as you. Therefore, you need to make sure that you are well prepared, so that you will be able to come up with a professional and interesting resume that will be able to convince the hiring manager that you will be an asset for their company.

What Can Education Do For Your Career - CareerAlley

What Can Education Do For Your Career - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. We tend to associate education with youth, as something that we have to do when were young a kind of right of passage. But education can offer you so much more than you would first think. Although it is a kind of prerequisite for many different career choices, it can also aim to boost your prospects too. Whether youre just starting out with your career decisions, and youre not sure what you want to do, or youre looking at ways to further your current career, or even if youre hoping to make a career change sometime soon, you may want to look into what education can do for you. Whether its a kind of formal education that youre interested in or something more industry based, you may be surprised that you can boost your current prospects by focusing on education. Tweet This Whether its a kind of formal education that youre interested in or something more industry based, you may be surprised that you can boost your current prospects by focusing on education. If youre looking for a salary increase, a change of direction, or even to boost your qualifications, looking into enhancing your current educational levels can help you here. So if you want to ensure that you can get along in your career, heres what further education can do for you. Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash Prepare You For Work One of the first real benefits that you will find from education, and this definitely refers to the bachelors level as well as any postgraduate qualifications, is that it will prepare you for the working world. Getting out there and surviving in a job can be hard work. But, with a college degree at any level, you will build up the skills required to hold down a job, regardless of what industry you go into, your studies will prepare you for it. Prepare You For A Certain Career Path But at the same time, its important to recognize what a specialist degree can do for your career. There are lots of jobs that require a degree a degree, like nursing or engineering, and some of these arent possible to get if you are not educated to a certain level. So education is mandatory if youre hoping to embark on that particular career path. If you want to be a teacher or a doctor, youre going to want to get to grips with your education first. Boost Your Salary You may also find that focusing on your education and furthering your qualifications to the highest level can help your earning potential. You only have to look at the highest paying careers with a masters degree to see why. Whether you want to be a social worker or physical therapist, or even something more specialist, you will find that education can boost your salary. link to Pic Allow You To Skip Entry Level When you want to go out into the working world straight from high school, you often have to go into an entry-level position and start your career from the bottom. This is sometimes even the case when you have a bachelors degree. But, if you are able to gain further education, at the masters or even doctoral level, you should find that youre able to enter into your chosen career path at a higher level. Social media is fast becoming a popular tool for many employers to use in their recruitment efforts. According to CareerBuilder, 60 percent of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates, up significantly from 52 percent last year, 22 percent in 2008 and 11 percent in 2006. CareerBuilder also indicated that 59 percent of hiring managers use search engines to research candidates. If youre not taking full advantage of your social media sites in your job search 5 Tips for Using Social Media for Your Job Search Allow You To Make Connections But education can often do more for your career than just give you the information and skills you need to get a certain job done. When youre in college, regardless of the level you study at, you will find that you can network. Different alumni networks or societies can often open up different career option and opportunities that you would never have had if you didnt attend college. You may even start or enhance your career because of the connections you make. Make You Eligible For Promotion However keen you are to progress in your career, you can often find that you just arent able to progress past a certain level because youre not skilled or experienced enough. But education can push you past that. If you have to be masters or doctorate level education in order to succeed in your career, youre going to want to go back to school, or stay on to study further, so that youre able to reach your potential and bag that promotion. Give You Security Everyone wants job security. But its not always that easy to find. However, when youre highly educated, youre often more secure within your position. If job cuts are needed, the less qualified people are often the first to go. So if youre educated at the postgraduate levels, you should find that you can enjoy higher levels of job security. Link to Pic Give You Better Benefits If career benefits matter to you, then education should become your best friend. Although there are still lots of different benefits of a college degree, some of the employment benefits you could get because youre educated to a certain level should impress you. You may be eligible for better levels of healthcare cover just as an example, which can often give you the motivation you need to pursue further education. Make You Better At Your Job Education can often make you better at your job. Alongside preparing you for the working world in the first place, when youre educated to a certain level, you may also benefit from learning valuable skills that will make you better at your job and push you further along the career path. With communication and analytical skills, writing abilities, research capabilities and even time management, high levels of education can often teach you well and ensure that youre well equipped to succeed. Prepare You To Go It Alone And finally, when youre interested in starting a business, you should find that education can prepare you for it as nothing else can. Whether youre looking at doing an MBA, studying a specialist subject or even getting your undergrad degree, you will be able to learn all about the business world, or your particular industry, and feel competent in running your business, even with little experience. But without education, you may not feel ready to go it alone. What's next? Ready to take action? Choose the right tools to help you build your career. Looking for related topics? Find out how to launch your career. Subscribe and make meaningful progress on your career. It’s about time you focused on your career. Get Educated Contact Us Advertise Copyright 2020 CareerAlley. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy + Disclosure home popular resources subscribe search

Is Your Career in Jeopardy If Youre Too Old - CareerAlley

Is Your Career in Jeopardy If You’re Too Old - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Age discrimination is illegal but that doesnt mean that people who are in their 40s and 50s have the same opportunities that younger workers enjoy. In todays economy where it is difficult for everyone to find a job, older people have even more challenges. However, the trend of an older workforce is growing with participation rates for those 55 and older at 40.2% in 2011. Here are some challenges todays older workforce faces in getting and keeping their jobs. Age Stereotypes Many employers have preconceived ideas about people based on their age. For instance, it is commonly thought that older people have a harder time learning new concepts and technologies. They may be seen as resistant to change or lack respect for their younger superiors. While these things may not be true, they are often the perception, which can limit the hiring prospects of older workers. The best way to handle this is to be the one to address the issue. Mention any new courses or classes that you have taken or the latest technology you are using. This shows the employer that you are willing to learn new skills and have the ability to adapt to change. Higher Pay Employers also recognize the cost of paying someone with experience over someone just starting out in the workforce. In order to save money, an employer might choose a young college graduate with no experience over someone who is already making twice the salary even if they are more qualified. Even if you are willing to take a pay cut, most businesses would be worried that youd still be looking for a job with better pay. You could mention some benefits that you feel the job offers besides salary that would reassure a potential employer. ==Additional Resources Qualify For a Salary Boost by Earning an Advanced Degree Language Barrier While many people speak English, they dont all speak the same kind of English. Phrases and communication styles of the younger crowd are foreign to those in their 40s and beyond. Often the older generations can come across as unsocial or unwilling to collaborate when they really dont understand what the younger generation is saying. To prevent this, older workers need to work on learning how to communicate with their younger counterparts and be willing to ask for clarification. Common Fears Both sides often worry that the other person doesnt understand them, respect them, or value their contribution. They may feel intimidated by the other persons knowledge. This is why it is essential that you communicate your concerns to the other person so that there are no misunderstandings. Young employees can assist older workers in learning new skills and understanding new technologies and methods. At the same time, older workers can share their experiences and capabilities with those younger than them. All age groups have something to teach everyone else; its important that they take the time to listen and dont let the challenges defeat them. About the Author: Joyce Morse is an author who writes on a variety of topics, including SEO and Reputation.com reviews. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Joey Trebif