The Truth about Company Reps behind the booths at Career and Job Fairs

In my experience, the smaller the company usually means the more experienced the reps are at recruiting; but not always.  That is logical if you think about it because they usually have a smaller budget, go to fewer events, and, therefore have one or two of the same people doing all their events.  That means they get a lot of experience and practice.  However, with larger companies? It’s a totally different story.  They usually go to a lot more events and need a lot more people to help at those events; often, many of those people lack the experience. 

This is why I am very comfortable with saying there are as many poor recruiters out there as there are good ones, simply for the fact that many don’t do it enough to have the experience and practice needed to develop into good or great recruiters.  This is reality.  And the reality is that recruiting is a talent and a skill that needs to be practiced often to get better.  It is the experience and repetition that is critical for recruiters to develop the skills and techniques that enable them to wade through a sea of candidates to find the very best ones, consistently.  It takes a substantial and continuous amount of practice and learning to grow and get better.  How can you get better if you only do it once a year?  Even a better question: How can you call someone a recruiter that only does it once a year?

Now you might be asking, “Why is this important to me?”  It is important because it helps you understand the importance of preparing for poor or inexperience people that are functioning in some capacity as a recruiter.  If you get one of them, which again I figure is about a fifty-fifty chance, you need to ensure you do everything you can to prevent them from making a mistake. 

This is exactly why I teach candidates and give seminars across the country.  Job seekers need to format their answers in a way so no matter what the experience level or training of the recruiter or interviewer, the candidates gives a complete answer that needs no probing or follow up questions.  This is also why I train recruiters.  They need to know that most, year in and year out, will not give them enough detail in their answers.  The recruiter needs to know how to ask probing, follow-up questions to get the detail they need to fairly assess a candidate’s answer.  However, I can train all I want, but I can’t be in the room or at the booth to hear what everyone says.  That is why the candidate needs to take the responsibility of preparing. 

Mark Lyden

DoThisGetHired.com

Mark Lyden is the author of a number of books: College Students: Do This! Get Hired!; Veterans: Do This! Get Hired!; and Professionals: Do This! Get Hired! (Coming Summer 2011).  A substantial portion of the proceeds from book sales are donated back to charity to help veterans and to help the stray and abandoned animals at Logan’s Run Rescue.   

A Candidates Ability to Strategically Navigate the Online Application Process is the Most Critical Part of their Job Hunt

In the recruiting world, it is now being argued that a candidate’s ability to strategically navigate the online application process is the most critical part of their job hunt.  I'm not a 100 percent there yet, but I'm close.  The facts are there are more people getting hired off the Internet than through all the recruiting events and all the professional recruiters combined.  I see nearly every large, medium, and even small companies now having some kind of online employment application process on their website.  At job fairs and recruiting events, I consistently and constantly hear company reps instructing candidates to apply online, because that is the only way that they will be considered.

Why do you think the vast majority of companies ask you to go and apply online?   If I didn’t know and I was reading this, I would probably say something like: “Who cares?  Can you just tell me what I have to do to get noticed?” But having a true understanding of why so many companies are adamant about you applying online will help you understand why you have to do it a particular way.  After all, you don’t want to get lost in the abyss called “Applying Online” like most do, right? 

There are a few good reasons why companies want you to apply online.  The obvious one you already know: it’s an efficient way of collecting and tracking a talent pool with little to no touch labor.

However, in the predominant motivating factor for corporate America is fear:   fear of litigation and liability.  You see, if you are a big company and it can be shown that you didn’t treat someone the same as everyone else or that you were not fair in the hiring process, you leave yourself open to, potentially, a very expensive lawsuit.  Having some kind of system in place that treats everyone the same and doesn’t discriminate among applicants whether they are male, female, black, white, Hispanic, or whether their first name is Bill or Saddam, means that no one can be accused of discriminating against a candidate for gender or race or anything else.  This reduces liability, which is the goal of corporate America.

Mark Lyden

DoThisGetHired.com

Mark Lyden is the author of a number of books: College Students: Do This! Get Hired!; Veterans: Do This! Get Hired!; and Professionals: Do This! Get Hired! (Coming Summer 2011).  A substantial portion of the proceeds from book sales are donated back to charity to help veterans and to help the stray and abandoned animals at Logan’s Run Rescue.