Linking it Up - August 20, 2009

1. Beginning your senior year with your career in mind from Heather Huhman and Entry Level Careers Examiner:

For those of you in your senior year of college, the “real world” is looming not too far ahead. Some of you might be thinking, “Thank goodness I have 10 months until graduation. Maybe the job market will bounce back by then.” Others might be focused entirely on class, not even thinking about what lies after graduation.

Your senior year is time to be on the offense instead of defense. There are many ways in which you can be proactive and still get your schoolwork done (and yes, attend those parties). In a recent interview with Susan DiTullio, manager of college recruiting at VistaPrint, she provided 10 tips to help prepare you for landing a perfect job and beginning the next exciting chapter of your life:
  • Plan ahead
  • Draw from past experiences
  • Career Services is your advocate
  • Keep your résumé current
  • Network, network, network
  • Attend career fairs
  • Do your research
  • Dress for success
  • Working inside the process
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help

2. Intelligence Means Squat: Study Shows One Trait Predicts Success BETTER from CAREEREALISM:

…When it comes to predicting who is going to succeed, you gotta ask yourself one question:

“Got GRIT?”

The study shows people who focus on a goal and stick with it long-term seem to achieve more professional success than those who jump around . Duckworth explains this in a recent Boston Globe article as follows:

“Grit is very much about the big picture,” …“It’s about picking a specific goal off in the distant future and not swerving from it.”

3. Three Tips For Writing Your Personal Bio from the Brand-Yourself.com folks:

  • Keep it short and sweet. Brevity is the soul of wit, as Shakespeare says, and the people reading your bio will be relieved if you stick to this idea. They are on your website to get a quick idea of you, not to read a novel.  Stick to the same rule-of-thumb as for your résumé: include all essential information, but keep it concise and to-the-point.
  • Call him Ishmael. Remember to write your bio in third person.  After including your full name once, it is fine to refer to yourself by your first name for the remainder of the bio.  If, however, your career path requires a more formal style, use your surname for the rest of your bio instead.
  • Be yourself. You are not writing a research paper on pelicans or economics, so resist the urge to revert back to college composition class (where you wrote a certain way because you needed an A).  Your personal bio needs of course to be readable and grammatically correct, but don’t confuse a need for professionalism with a reason to stay bland and generic in your writing.  Allow some of yourself to show through your words.
 
Posted by funnelthru but reblogged from mlarson
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Success guide: 1. Cultivate risk tolerance. 2. Cultivate endurance.
Reblogged from mlarson
 
Posted by funnelthru but reblogged from blakewhitman
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The way to accelerate your success is to double your failure rate.
Thomas J. Watson Sr. (via blakewhitman)
Reblogged from blakewhitman
 
Posted by funnelthru but reblogged from orangefret
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If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.
Albert Einstein (via orangefret)
Reblogged from orangefret

via eekim:

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement (by Harvard Magazine). Beautiful speech on fearing failure, the power of story, and valuing your friendships.

Reblogged from eekim

Job Recruiting and Your Odds

via Glassdoor.com and John Sumser comes some info on why “hiring is a crap shoot”:

  1. “Within a year, hiring managers regret 50% of the hiring decisions they make.” – Recruiting Roundtable 
  2. “46% overall hiring failure rate and a modest 19% great hire success rate.” – LeadershipIQ 
  3. “Only 10% of attempts to hire a top performer are successful.” - Recruiting Roundtable 
  4. “Nearly two-thirds of hiring managers come to regret their interview-based hiring decisions.” - DDI 
  5. “Of all the ‘perfect resumes’ sent out by mystery shopper candidates, only 12% were actually scheduled for interviews.” – Hodes™ Healthcare 
  6. “Nearly half of new executive hires quit or are fired within the first 18 months at a new employer.” – Corporate Leadership Council

Number 5 is particularly scary.  I’m not sure what a ‘perfect resume’ but I would assume it is a dream candidate that is fully qualified, has great experience, and comes with top notch recommendations.  If only 12% of those applicants can land an interview the process is broken.

Also, an interesting point by John to close:

It is worth considering the fact that hiring failures make for recruiter job security. Under most circumstances, there is little incentive for a recruiter to care for or try to influence the success of a new hire. Just the opposite is true. Recruiters depend on high attrition rates as a part of their role in the company. If recruiters were constantly generating great hires, you’d need far fewer of them.

Ouch.  It makes sense but seems really negative.  There are types of bonuses paid to recruiters if the employee stays for a year, but yes - it would hurt the recruiting industry if everyone loved their job and stayed forever.

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