Check out our updated stats for Week 3 of our Challenge:
We’ve used several features on LinkedIn to reach our goal of starting an employee at a Fortune 1000 Company (Burger King®) in 90 days or less! What have we done?
- Posted on LinkedIn groups
- Reached out to mutual connections
- Connected with BK employees
- Following company and more!
Tomorrow, we will discuss finding job listings via LinkedIn company pages!
Our series, “Ask a Recruiter,” gives all of you out there the opportunity to ask all of the questions you’ve always wanted to ask about hiring, interviewing, the job hunt, recruiters, career tips and more! In return for your questions, one of our experienced recruiters will answer them on our blog each week.
This week’s question came from a candidate on LinkedIn who asked:
I am currently employed but would like to find another job. I want to relocate but I don’t want it to turn away potential employers. What’s the best way to apply for a job in another location?
Here is the answer from Luke Bosso, a technical recruiter at SkillStorm.
Answer:
Thank you for your question. There are several things to consider when answering this question. The first thing I suggest to anyone who considers relocation is determining how serious you are about it. If you aren’t absolutely certain that you would move for a job opening, it can become difficult for recruiters to help you find a good fit. Ultimately, hiring managers want to know you are willing to move for the job, so be up front with your intentions and let recruiters know you are ready to move. Another consideration you’ll have to think about is relocation fees. Some companies cover these expenses and others do not. With a number of local candidates to choose from, companies may be less likely to pay for relocation. So, you may have to be prepared to pay your own relocation costs. If you are willing to pay for these, let the recruiter know. Only once you have determined that 1) relocation is for you and 2) you are willing to pay any necessary relocation costs, can you then begin your job search in other areas. Read the rest of this entry »
In today’s tight economy, it seems that all businesses (in one way or another) are working towards the same goal: cutting costs by saving time and money. What can organizations do to find a means to meet these needs? Consulting offers a perfect solution.
This whitepaper will answer several questions, including: What do consultants do? How can using consultants benefit an organization?
For your copy of the whitepaper, click here.
If you haven’t been following this series, here’s a little recap:
The marketing department here at SkillStorm is in the midst of something we’ve titled “The Ultimate LinkedIn Challenge.” What is it, you ask? We’ve given ourselves 90 days or less to get an employee started at a Fortune 1000 Company (in this case, Burger King®) through the SOLE USE of LinkedIn and all of its features.
Today, we’re reporting the first half of a two-part post, where we will discuss the power of, well, discussion.
Earlier in the week, we found an article from Forbes.com which listed the “Best-Ever Social Media Campaigns.” Among the list was Burger King® with not just one, but two listings (no other company was featured more than once!) for their campaigns: Subservient Chicken and Whopper® Sacrifice.
So, in order to generate some discussion on Burger King®(and generate some more publicity, as well), we took it to the groups and chose several marking and social-media related LinkedIn groups where we posted the following discussion:
“Hey everyone,
The marketing department at my company, SkillStorm, is currently hard at work hoping to reach a very ambitious (and totally possible!) goal: get an employee hired at a Fortune 1000 company (in this case, Burger King®!) in 90 days or less. The catch? We’re doing it through the SOLE use of LinkedIn and looking forward to revealing just how effective LinkedIn and its features can be for business!
We’ve posted several updates on our blog through Day 16 of our challenge but for our next update post, we’d like to discuss the power of LINKEDIN DISCUSSIONS. That being said, my discussion topic today concerns social media campaigns. I found an article on Forbes (attached) that showcases some of the best social media campaigns we’ve seen in recent history. I noticed Burger King® is the ONLY company to be featured more than once! I was curious to know – have you seen the two BK® campaigns featured here in the past? What did you think of them? It seems Burger King® is very savvy when it comes to social media, but I’d love to know – what’s your opinion??”
We’re giving our fellow group members a few days to comment and we’ll report the results back on Monday. In the mean time, we encourage you to have some fun and check out the two featured campaigns for yourself! When you do, answer this question: what did you make the chicken do?
By Andrew C. Abraham
I was always very ambivalent to the advantages of entering into a sales position upon graduation, but I soon realised how these skills are applicable to all aspects of my life. I remember shortly after being promoted to sales manager, I was training a group of newbies on the sales methodology of our company, citing different non-professional life situations where sales acumen was advantageous to succeed – picking up the opposite sex in a bar, meeting your in-laws for the first time, negotiating a pay rise, pitching to investors…the list is endless. Job hunting is no different, and job-seekers can learn many qualities that successful salespeople possess.
1. Salespeople create value: If you were to ask many people what they believe to be the most important characteristic of a salesperson, they might say “persuasion” or the “gift of the gab” or “persistence”. While these are important, the fundamental ingredient is creating value for the client. A great salesperson creates a perceived value that justifies purchasing their product or service. Job-seekers need to do the same and demonstrate they can add value to a company that outweighs the cost of purchasing their labor. After all, a position is available so the company can solve a problem, not because they want to increase their headcount.
2. Salespeople focus on benefits, not features: Creating value therefore switches the focus from yourself to the employer. The product that I used to sell was a media monitoring service that helped companies track press mentions online. The software came with some fancy analysis and distribution tools that were useful also. One of my colleagues was a master salesman. He consistently exceeded his monthly targets and appeared in the top ten list of salespeople within the company globally. If you ever listened to him on the phone, you’d understand why so many clients had bought from him. He never focused on the myriad of great features, but rather the benefits that one or two of them would add to the client’s operation. As a job-seeker it’s important you don’t just list your achievements to future employers, but focus on a specialized skill-set that will unequivocally benefit them.
Read the rest of this entry »
Do you know the power of a LinkedIn connection? LinkedIn connections can open doors to new business partnerships, potentials clients and an entire wealth of information for business. Establishing strong relationships on LinkedIn can be vital to business for a number of reasons, including gaining instant exposure to huge networks of professionals around the world.
For those of you out there who haven’t heard about our Ultimate LinkedIn Challenge, we’ll give you a little recap: get an employee started at a Fortune 1000 company (in this case, Burger King®!) in 90 days or less. The catch? We’re building this relationship through the SOLE use of LinkedIn.
We understand the value and importance of each and every LinkedIn connection, and because of that we’re establishing meaningful relationships with several Burger King® employees on LinkedIn every day! Here’s a little tip on what we’ve done: we’ve followed Burger King’s® company page on LinkedIn, which features key BK® players. This is a direct listing of company employees, all readily available to us! The company employees section also gives us the opportunity to follow recent promotions and hires – a great avenue to start building relationships with those employees. Don’t believe it? You can check out the Burger King® LinkedIn page (and all of these features) for yourself by clicking here!
Do you have any stories of LinkedIn relationships that have created opportunities for your professional career? Any tips or advice you can share with our readers? Share them in the comments below!
Check out the updates to our stats:
We used several features on LinkedIn to reach our goal of starting an employee at a Fortune 1000 Company (Burger King®) in 90 days or less! What have we done?
- Posted on LinkedIn groups
- Reached out to mutual connections
- Connected with BK employees
- Following company and more!
Tomorrow, we will discuss the importance of the LinkedIn connection. How many doors can one connection open? Be sure to check back and find out…
Our new series, “Parenting and the Workplace,” will cover a wide array of workplace challenges and triumphs faced by professionals balancing family life with career. From introducing your pregnancy to co-workers to balancing travel for business and family vacation time, we’ve got it covered. Series narrated by SkillStorm employees from our SkillStorm offices around the nation.
Written by Rebecca Amesbury, VP of Marketing and Communications at SkillStorm
Pregnancy can be the most exciting time in your life thus far, but it also carries it’s own stress, especially for those women that work in an office environment throughout their pregnancy. There are quick and simple rules to get you through these times, but no matter how professional you are going in to this situation, think of your pregnancy as a warm up to motherhood, a phase when like it or not, you’re not always in control. The 2 keys to managing your pregnancy at work, just like every other part of your career, is planning and learning how to get back on track when your plan flies out the window!
I am seven months pregnant with my first child and while I’m certainly no expert, I hope this blog can point out some of the mistakes and lessons I have learned that may help others in the same spot.
What to do when you find out:
1. Celebrate!
2. Read your HR docs. Consider everything from time off for doctor’s appointments (you should plan on approximately 2 doctor’s visits per month until month 7 or 8 when they can double; by the last month, you’ll be looking at weekly visits) to maternity leave rules, short-term disability and dress code (as crazy as it sounds, somewhere along the way, you’ll probably need to give up on heels.)
3. Come up with your plan. It may change as you progress, but it’s the basis of how you will manage your pregnancy and early motherhood. You’ll need to take into consideration your own career goals, your finances, the help you have from family or friends and the detail you learned from your HR documents. With this plan, you should know if and when you will return to work, when you would like to tell your boss (see the next point for more help) and how your workload will be managed while you’re gone (you may want to make suggestions to your employer, but don’t set your mind to your plan – the company may have other ideas).
4. Tell Your Boss. When to tell is probably the most heated debate amongst newly pregnant women. The general advice is to not tell anyone until you are 12 weeks along. The idea is based on the probability of miscarriage lessening every week, but realistically, if you are unfortunate enough to suffer a miscarriage, you’ll need time off to recuperate emotionally and perhaps physically also, so that will probably bring the pregnancy to light anyway. In addition, if you suffer morning sickness it can range from very light and infrequent nausea to daily debilitating sickness. And that’s hard to hide!
I would suggest holding off on telling as long as you can, build your plan on what to say and how, and tell when the time is right for you.
How to tell your boss
Luckily you have your plan! Schedule a meeting with your boss. Be frank and not emotional. Your boss will be very happy for you I’m sure, but this can be a good time to show that being pregnant won’t affect your level of professionalism. You want to come across as if this is something you’re taking in your stride. Tell him/you’re your due date and mention that you have a plan for maternity leave and the best way to handle work load at that time. Ask if he/she would like to hear it now or speak about it at a later date. If it’s later, set another appointment, you don’t want to catch anyone off guard by leaving earlier than they anticipate. Finally, ask if they mind if you tell coworkers or if they would prefer to break the news themselves. Again, this shows your level of professionalism has not been affected at all.
5. Tell your coworkers. Share your news however you feel comfortable, but don’t gush. This is so easy to write and so hard to do! Try to think of people that aren’t having any luck getting pregnant, or those coworkers that have no interest in babies. You don’t want people avoiding you because of your pregnancy, and those that are interested will ask.
6. Contact HR. You reviewed your documents, but your HR professional may know of programs that are offered by your healthcare provider. This is also a good time to ask any questions about wardrobe, maternity leave, returning to work and short term disability benefits (always find out whether there is a pay back in the case you cannot return to work for unforeseen circumstances).
7. Go for a haircut. OK, maybe this isn’t a business priority, but believe me you need to decide what to do for color now. In addition, further along in your pregnancy, you may find yourself wishing for a new look. This is the worst time to chop off your hair, so avoid temptation by getting a cut or trim now, with time for it to grow back!
Back to work
When the news is out, no matter how professional you try to remain, you may find that coworkers put you in awkward situations. My next blog will cover working together from both points of view: what to say or not to say to a pregnant coworker and how to deal with awkward situations at work when pregnant. Until then, congratulations on your pregnancy, I hope this blog has helped; if you have any questions or suggestions for another blog topic, please leave me a comment.
Our series, “Ask a Recruiter,” gives all of you out there the opportunity to ask all of the questions you’ve always wanted to ask about hiring, interviewing, the job hunt, recruiters, career tips and more! In return for your questions, one of our experienced recruiters will answer them on our blog each week.
This week’s question came from a candidate on LinkedIn who asked:
What advice do you have for recent college grads that are entering the workplace for the first time?
Here is the answer from Nikki Reusch, a recent SPEED graduate and technical recruiter at SkillStorm.
Answer:
Here are some tips to recent college grads that are new to the workplace! Read the rest of this entry »
Currently, the U.S. unemployment rate is at 9.5% and thousands of job seekers are in search for jobs. Even if you currently have a job, you may be thinking that now might be the time to start looking again. I have been interviewing candidates for the past two years for my company and have seen job applicants do the right things and the wrong things. Here is my best advice on how to ace your next interview:
