Favourite Interview Questions

According to a recent Accountemps survey, CFOs favourite interview questions focus on the applicant’s work style and personal attributes, job- and company-specific questions, and candidates qualifications. Some “oldies but goodies” included “where do you see yourself in five years?” and “tell me about yourself.” To learn more about the person “behind the resume” CFOs liked questions such as “If you were not going after this job, what would you be doing?” and “what are your hobbies?” And lastly, the curveball questions included “If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be and why?” Learn more at http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2011/19/c4524.html

JobHuntChat on Twitter - Try it Out

(From a Press Release)
Monday, February 21st, JobHuntChat celebrates its first birthday. What started as an experiment to help seekers to find jobs on Twitter has turned into a phenomenon. With over 250,000 chats later, it has become a well known chat that occurs every Monday night at 10PM.

Over the course of one hour, Jessica Miller Merrell and her co-host Rich DeMatteotweet 6 questions submitted by job seekers and call on the Twitter community to help answer their questions. With 1500 or more tweets in the course of an hour, JobHuntChat is a popular asset to the job seekers on twitter...

With Job Hunt Chat, known under the hash tag as #jobhuntchat job seekers can meet other job seekers, potential employers, and human resource recruiters to help them network and answer pertinent questions they may have with regards to their job search. Job Hunt Chat is a remarkable tool that facilitates that connection of hundreds of individuals who otherwise would not have connected with one another.

As Jessica Miller-Merrell, the founder of Job Hunt Chat states, “What started as an experiment to help job seekers on Twitter has become a phenomenon”. . . Twitter attendees gain key knowledge and insights from human resource recruiters, potential employees and other job seekers with several years of collective experience and results in their industry. . . Savvy job hunt seekers and human resource professionals will be sure to attend the Job Hunt Chat on Monday, February 21, 2011, to hear their exciting news using hashtag #jobhuntchat

For business tips and advice, go to the Jessica Miller–Merrell website and claim a free report http://blogging4jobs.com/.

Human Resource recruiters can purchase “Tweet This: Twitter for Business!” at http://tweetingmybusiness.com/.

For the Media: Jessica Miller-Merrell is available for expert quotes, speaking and consulting. Contact Jessica via email at jessica(at)xceptionalhr(dot)com or by phone at 405.912.4885. . . Complete bio can be downloaded on Blogging4jobs.com

DISAPPEARING ACT - OfficeTeam Survey: Four in 10 Managers Believe Online Profiles Will Replace Resumes

TORONTO, Feb. 17 /CNW/ - Is the traditional resume going the way of the dinosaur? Some human resources (HR) managers interviewed recently by OfficeTeam think so. More than four in 10 respondents (43 per cent) said it's at least somewhat likely resumes will eventually be replaced by profiles on social and business networking sites.

The survey was developed by OfficeTeam, a leading staffing service specializing in the placement of highly skilled administrative professionals. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on telephone interviews with 150 HR managers at companies with 20 or more employees.

HR managers were asked, "In your opinion, how likely is it that profiles on networking sites, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, will replace traditional resumes in the future?" Their responses:
Very likely........................... 11%
Somewhat likely....................... 32%
Not very likely....................... 34%
Not at all likely..................... 21%
Don't know/no answer.................. 3%
------
101%(*)

(*)Responses do not total 100 per cent due to rounding.

"The resume continues to be an important job-hunting tool, but it's also useful for professionals to create online profiles that highlight their expertise and qualifications," said OfficeTeam executive director Robert Hosking. "As hiring managers turn increasingly to the Internet for information about prospective hires, job seekers should keep their online profiles current and behave professionally in the digital space."

OfficeTeam offers five tips for creating an impressive online profile:

1. Get the picture. Make sure photos that are visible in your profiles and on social media sites are professional. Untag yourself or adjust your privacy settings to limit who can see certain images.
2. Show your star qualities. Provide employers with a clear sense of your capabilities by posting information about your work history and highlighting key accomplishments on sites like LinkedIn. Sharing your personal interests and hobbies on Facebook also can help people
relate to you more easily.
3. Talk the talk. Incorporate key industry terms to describe your skills, specialties and positions of interest so hiring managers can more easily find you online.
4. Make the right connections. Be selective about who you allow into your social networks because potential employers may contact these individuals for insights on you. Your contacts also could alert you to job openings.
5. Keep it fresh. Regularly update your profile and be active professionally. Post useful advice or comment on articles on LinkedIn and industry forums.

Additional tips for presenting yourself professionally using digital tools can be found in Business Etiquette: The New Rules in a Digital Age (www.roberthalf.us/BusinessEtiquette), a new guide from OfficeTeam's parent company, Robert Half.

About OfficeTeam
OfficeTeam is a leading staffing service specializing in the temporary placement of highly skilled office and administrative support professionals. The company has more than 320 locations worldwide and offers online job search services at www.officeteam.com.

For further information: OFFICETEAM, 181 Bay St., Suite 820, Toronto, ON, M5J 2T3, Contact: Nadia Santoli, (416) 350-2330, nadia.santoli@rhi.com

Recommended Career Books

We want to use this blog to share timely information, relevant for students and alumni of our e-learning programs. Here's a list that came from some research recently done by Dr. Dave Redekopp of the Life-Role Development Group in Alberta:

Career Resource Recommendations

Selected career development experts were asked the following question:

What is the best print resource you've seen for helping the average literate adult, whether employed or unemployed, take charge of, plan for, and get strategic about their career development?

Their responses are provided below. Numbers in parentheses represent how many times the publication was cited. No number indicates that is was cited once. Other than the books mentioned more than once, all other are listed in the order in which respondents named them. Some respondents named more than one resource, and some either did not single out a resource or referred to only non-print resources (not included below).

Radical Change in the World of Work: The Workbook, Alberta Employment & Immigration (5)
What Color is Your Parachute?, Richard Bolles (2)
Guiding Circles, Amundson & Poehnell
The Job of Your Life, Karen Schaffer
What Next?, Barbara Moses
Take Your Soul to Work, Tanis Helliwell
Work This Way, Bruce Tulgen
Not Everyone Gets A Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y, Bruce Tulgen
The Pathfinder: How to Choose or Change Your Career for a Lifetime of Satisfaction and Success, Nicholas Lore
I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was : How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It, Barbara Sher
The Artist's Way (and The Artist's Way Workbook), Julia Cameron
Career Pathways, Amundson & Poehnell
Career Strategies for a Lifetime of Success, Roberta Neault
Nova Scotia Careeroptions Handbook
Sixth Messenger, Ben Wicks
Let Your Life Speak, Peter Palmer

Respondents:

Note that this is a biased sample – many of the following are philosophically aligned with the work of LRDG:

Barrie Day, Clarence deSchiffart, Odette Dupuy, Laurie Edwards, Wendy Fox, Rob Frost, Gordon Heidel, Helen Handcock, Phil Jarvis, Kelly Lee-Pelletier, Roberta Neault, Dave Redekopp, Colleen Reichrath-Smith

The three bolded selections are available through the Life Strategies online store