Thank you for making 2008 a fantastic year for GoliathJobs. We look forward to a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! We wish the same to you and your families.
Stay tuned for GoliathJobs V2 launching next week. This version includes a sleeker look, more powerful features and the addition of JobsOver50, a dedicated employment portal for Baby Boomers & Retirees!
By Jennifer Porter
I recently joined a discussion forum regarding the value of blogging. The principle of this discussion was to drive home the importance of using virtual tools (such as a blog) to generate buzz for an organization. In this case it was for recruiters. I thought my response was well-written and decided to post it on our blog:
The answer is “buzz.” For many years, “buzz” ( the abbreviation for “buzz marketing“) was something that took place in a tangible sense. For example, one person telling another about a great restaurant. Or the Wall Street Journal mentioning a great product or service. Blogging has brought the concept of buzz to a virtual level.
If our team posts a blog about the importance of internships, and takes the time to discuss the benefits for employers and students, that blog posting will come up in many search results that include keywords like “internships,” “employer,” “experience,” etc. The more blog postings, the more we appear in search results. This ultimately leads to more clicks which pushes the aforementioned results higher. Again, creating buzz for your service and ultimately driving more people to your organization.
We recently received a large volume of inquiries and new clients because of a blog posting. One of our team members had posted a blog in a legal forum in a specific geographic area. Within 24-48 hours we had “buzz” among law firms and legal recruiters. This happened for 2 reasons: 1) Our blog (and company) came up in search results that extrapolated keywords from this posting. 2) Organizations that found us and registered on GoliathJobs were satisfied with our service and posted comments somewhere else (i.e. their blog). As you can see this further supports the virtual buzz concept.
Warning! Bad buzz (or in this case, “negative blog postings”) can hurt an organization as well. To avoid bad buzz provide the services you promise and the best customer service. This is no different than a food critic reviewing a restaurant.
Good Luck!
Happy Holidays,
Jennifer
GoliathJobs.com - The #1 Job Site on the Web!
About GoliathJobs & JobsOver50:
GoliathJobs is a free web-based employment service. We connect job seekers to employers via schools & alma maters. GoliathJobs creates partnerships with schools throughout North America which serve as liaisons. This model delivers a powerful career service edge to schools at no charge, a competitive edge to job seekers and high-quality results to employers.
JobsOver50.com is a dedicated employment portal for baby boomers & retirees built on the same platform.
by Michele O’Connor
There has been frequent discussions on the topic of “budgets & strategies” among the HR media. This is in relation to the recent economic downturn. Various writers, authors & newsgroups have approached GoliathJobs as a means of gauging how the economy has affected hiring, especially in the job board sector.
I thought I would post some information on this topic.
As the #1 job site that supports students & alumni, we are seeing a variety of scenarios due to the current economic climate. In some cases employers are hiring more interns and less staff. This is a cost-effective way to get motivated employees that could potentially join your team full-time post graduation. They are also hiring more recent grads as entry-level candidates and training from within versus hiring experienced candidates that require a higher pay scale. Obviously the career service centers favor these scenarios.
In other cases employers are freezing hiring initiatives & budgets completely. They prefer to delegate more responsibility to existing staff and curtail the expenses associated with workforce development. They assert that this will change once the uncertainty subsides or their bottom line improves if they are affected that way.
Due to our growth at GoliathJobs we are still hiring. We need to have more HR staff on-campus and present at career fairs in order to source the best talent from the sea of job seekers. As a result, we have had to beef up our college recruiting budgets & strategies substantially. We are using this time to hire interns (students), entry-level (recent grads) and management (alumni).
In general, our HR team feels that this is a good time to source candidates that would not normally be looking for a job. One of our execs made an interesting comment at a company meeting last month. He said “passive candidates have better hearing right now.” Great metaphor.
GoliathJobs.com - The #1 Job Site on the Web!
About GoliathJobs & JobsOver50:
GoliathJobs is a free web-based employment service for students & alumni. We connect job seekers to employers via schools & alma maters. GoliathJobs creates partnerships with schools throughout North America which serve as liaisons. This model delivers a powerful career service edge to schools at no charge, a competitive edge to job seekers and high-quality results to employers.
JobsOver50.com, launching soon, is a dedicated employment portal for baby boomers & retirees built on the same platform.
By David Mezzapelle
According to Ellen Gamerman of the Wall Street Journal, “Many seniors in the Class of ‘09 — that’s more than 3.3 million students — are now applying to college. For many, it’s a time fraught with paperwork, essays, interviews and road trips. And after all that work it comes down to a letter or an email: In or out?
Admissions are expected to be as competitive as ever, and many schools say even the economic downturn has not slowed the onslaught of early applications. At Cornell University, early applications are up 9% from what they were this time last year; at Amherst College, they are up 5%; and at Barnard College, the rise is 8%. The acceptance odds are still long; many highly selective schools accept fewer than 20% of applicants.”
The differentiating factors vary.
GoliathJobs strongly encourages high school upper classman to consider internships. We call them “AP Internships.” Basically, an AP Internship is a part-time job (or full-time summer job) in a corporation or industry that somehow matches the concentration they plan to apply for in college, i.e. accounting, engineering, etc. The experience will be a differentiating factor for the admissions team at the school(s) they apply to. It also gives the candidate a real-life view of the industry/career they are contemplating along with exposure to others. This helps with their short & long-term focus.
Here are some more factors to consider from the Wall Street Journal:
Dare to Dream
Advice: Have a backup plan, but don’t get scared off by long odds.
Keep It Neat
Advice: Check every section of an application immediately after finishing it, as well as before sending it. Many college counselors recommend printing out an online application and proofreading the hard copy.
Practice Makes Perfect
Advice: The more applications you fill out, the better they get. Do not rush an application for the sake of applying early. College counselors recommend avoiding clichéd essay topics, such as community service, unless they’re essential to a student’s identity. Students can also consult how-to books to view sample essays
Cast a Wide Net
Advice: Students shouldn’t just apply to dream schools and safeties, but schools in between as well. The pressure of college is nothing compared to the stress of getting in.
Just Do It
Advice: Many school counselors urge students to apply to at least 10 colleges, and some say seniors should apply to extra schools this year to give themselves some lower-priced options.
Know Thyself
Advice: Set limits on campus visits. Too many visits may result in confusion. And to get up to speed on financial-aid options, students can use calculators found on the prospective schools’ Web sites. The National Association of Independent Colleges & Universities also has financial-aid resources at information on its site at www.ucan-network.org.
Feel free to read the entire Wall Street Journal article by clicking here.
GoliathJobs.com - The #1 Job Site on the Web!
About GoliathJobs & JobsOver50:
GoliathJobs is a free web-based employment service. We connect job seekers to employers via schools & alma maters. GoliathJobs creates partnerships with schools throughout North America which serve as liaisons. This model delivers a powerful career service edge to schools at no charge, a competitive edge to job seekers and high-quality results to employers.
JobsOver50.com is a dedicated employment portal for baby boomers & retirees built on the same platform.
By Jennifer Porter
Jason Blais on ERE contributed the following to a recent job board discussion:
“Between 2002 and 2008 the number of job boards in the US jumped from around 3,000 to over 40,000. Companies didn’t know which way to go, so were throwing their money all over in a ‘try everything’ approach. Employers were pulling their dollars from the increasing rates and decreasing returns of print advertising and moving toward job boards-good for job boarders.
Now for the first time since ‘online job boards’ have existed the labor market is in decline. It will be very interesting to monitor the support, value and success of the 40,000 job boards. Will there be 50,000 next year? Or will there be 20,000? The question facing job boarders now is how to stand out in this environment, capture market share and stay viable as the economy constricts. Are you prepared to win in a losing economy?”
At GoliathJobs, the answer is YES.
“Survival of the Fittest” will always prevail in a market saturated with competition. Quality, support, price & differentiation is the key. If a company loses any of these, the market has plenty of others to choose from. This is clear at GoliathJobs where we have become the #1 job site on the web. We are the “fittest” and we will continue to grow while never losing sight of our model. We deliver results, quality, low price and more all within a spam-free environment.
GoliathJobs.com - The #1 Job Site on the Web!
About GoliathJobs & JobsOver50:
GoliathJobs is a free web-based employment service for students & alumni. We connect job seekers to employers via schools & alma maters. GoliathJobs creates partnerships with schools throughout North America which serve as liaisons. This model delivers a powerful career service edge to schools at no charge, a competitive edge to job seekers and high-quality results to employers.
JobsOver50.com, launching soon, is a dedicated employment portal for baby boomers & retirees built on the same platform.
by David Eisner
I read a great article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “M.B.A.s Veer Off Path to Big Finance Jobs” written by Dana Mattioli. This is certainly a great topic and one we are seeing on our site daily.
Our support staff, which we have increased by 30% just to support the volume of job seekers looking for assistance, is helping people transition from jobs in finance to jobs in other industries. There are opportunities that require similar experience & education in the healthcare, engineering and technology industries. People just need to make that leap if they want to continue earning a salary.
Students need to keep this in mind as well and should consider internships in these industries. With the large volume of job seekers out there, the candidates with internship experience will most likely be chosen for the full-time positions. Food for thought!
GoliathJobs.com - The #1 Job Site on the Web!
About GoliathJobs & JobsOver50:
GoliathJobs is a free web-based employment service for students & alumni. We connect job seekers to employers via schools & alma maters. GoliathJobs creates partnerships with schools throughout North America which serve as liaisons. This model delivers a powerful career service edge to schools at no charge, a competitive edge to job seekers and high-quality results to employers.
JobsOver50.com, launching soon, is a dedicated employment portal for baby boomers & retirees built on the same platform.
by Michele O’Connor
When Times are good, recruiters spend time & money assisting employers even though job seekers can be nonexistent. The assumption is that you will offer the best service and find the right job seekers for the open positions. When unemployment is low this is tough to do. However, you keep spending marketing dollars with the hope that successful recruiting exceeds lost deals. Wouldn’t the same mentality apply today during tough times and periods of high unemployment?
For example, GoliathJobs.com - our popular job board, has increased it’s support staff by 30% including graveyard shifts just to support the volume of job seekers looking for help. “The stories are endless and the despair takes its toll on the people providing assistance. We are doing everything we can to assist them as well as search for jobs that even remotely match their qualifications,” says Jennifer Porter, GoliathJobs Support Team Leader.
Many recruiting offices & job boards are seeing their lists of open positions and clients shrinking. Many have closed their doors. This eerily parallels the empty real estate offices in the recent housing bust. However, their are handfuls of employment personnel that have taken this time to add an element of altruism to their business model. Some may feel that this does nothing to contribute to the bottom line but history has proven that short-term goodwill leads to long-term revenue.
“We feel it is important to support job seekers, regardless of cost, when times are tough. Ethically we need to do it especially if our bottom line can sustain it. This parallels the assistance we provide to employers when times are good and job seekers are nonexistent,” says David Mezzapelle, Founder & Director of Marketing at GoliathJobs.
GoliathJobs.com - The #1 Job Site on the Web!
About GoliathJobs & JobsOver50:
GoliathJobs is a free web-based employment service for students & alumni. We connect job seekers to employers via schools & alma maters. GoliathJobs creates partnerships with schools throughout North America which serve as liaisons. This model delivers a powerful career service edge to schools at no charge, a competitive edge to job seekers and high-quality results to employers.
JobsOver50.com, launching soon, is a dedicated employment portal for baby boomers & retirees built on the same platform.
By Jennifer Porter
Every day you read about more & more layoffs. As people become increasingly desperate to land a job they are taking certain liberties on their resume that they may not have taken before. The result - Hiring managers need to be on guard for resume embellishment and even fraud.
Fortunately GoliathJobs provides an invaluable service to employers & recruiters by offering the only job seeker verification system of any job board. As you may know, job seekers are verified by their school or alma mater. This gives job seekers an edge and employers peace of mind.
There is a great article on this in the Wall Street Journal. Here is a link to the online version:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122671047127630135.html
According to Cari Tuna and Keith Winstein at the Journal, various corporate investigators offer tips for spotting fudged resumes. Here are some of the most popular:
Review resumes with a skeptical eye.
Verify credentials with prior employers and academic institutions.
Ask candidates specific, detailed questions about claims.
Seek additional references.
Standardize the vetting process.
Set expectations upfront when using an executive search firm.
Run a Web search, but allow candidates to refute or explain findings.
And of course consider using sites like GoliathJobs.com and JobsOver50.com!
Thank you for reading and Happy Holidays!
GoliathJobs.com - The #1 Job Site on the Web!
About GoliathJobs & JobsOver50:
GoliathJobs is a free web-based employment service for students & alumni. We connect job seekers to employers via schools & alma maters. GoliathJobs creates partnerships with schools throughout North America which serve as liaisons. This model delivers a powerful career service edge to schools at no charge, a competitive edge to job seekers and high-quality results to employers.
JobsOver50.com, launching soon, is a dedicated employment portal for baby boomers & retirees built on the same platform.