Category: Job Search Tips

May 4, 2013

What does the job market look like for the class of 2013?

The Economic Policy Institute says, “For the fifth consecutive year, new graduates will enter a profoundly weak labor market and will face high unemployment and underemployment rates and depressed wages.”

But its not all doom and gloom. About 27% of campus recruiters expected to boost starting salaries, up from 20% the year before, according to surveys by the College Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.

In the infographic below, SpareFoot shares some stats and figures on the Class of 2013.

College Class of 2013 Storage Infographic

April 30, 2013

Your Job Search, Social Media and Background Checks

Today and yesterday, I was fortunate enough to attend a local SHRM event where I learned (and shared) a lot of data on HR Trends, especially as it pertains to social media. (Look for a post about that soon.)

If I had this infographic in my back pocket today, I would’ve referenced it to all concerned. I am posting it now with the hope that it still proves useful.

How employers Screen Job Applicants:

# Over 90% of recruiters are screening candidates through or using social media
# 47% of employers look at social media profiles
# 69% rejected a candidate based on their social media activity
# Facebook and Twitter are being used to screen candidates at a very early stage of the process for personality profiling

How are employers screening job applicants?

April 9, 2013

This is Why They Asked You That Weird Interview Question

There are no stupid questions…but do you have a smart answer? During its research, SuperScholar found that employers at major companies ask some of the hardest and weirdest questions to test the intelligence of prospective employees. 76% of the productivity and contribution of an employee is attributable to his or her level of intelligence, making it the most important thing these employers look for.

For example:

Amazon asks: “Jeff Bezos walks into your office and says you can have a million dollars to launch your best entrepreneurial idea. What is it?”

The real question: How strong is your ability to plan?

Forrester asks: “If you were to get rid of one state in the US, which would it be and why?”

The real question: Can you set priorities?

Check out the infographic below for more more weird interview questions and the reasons behind them.

Intelligence: The First Quality Employers Look For

April 9, 2013

Job Hopping is Bad for Your Career (…and this is why!)

I stumbled across a VERY interesting infographic from Bullhorn today that I just had to share. Its all about job hopping and how it affects your career. Since so many millennials expect to stay in a job for 3 years (max), one could easily assume that job hopping doesn’t matter anymore. But, au contraire!

As the title of the infographic below tells you, job hopping damages employment prospects more than age or unemployment. Wow! I would love to hear what my recruiter pals think of that. Do tell in the comments below.

April 4, 2013

This is why your resume was rejected

I stumbled across a very interesting infographic today that I had to share. It details reasons why resumes (commonly known as CVs overseas) are rejected. As I reviewed it, I speculated how closely it mirrored the attitude of recruiters here in the good ol’ USA. My guess is that their reasons for rejecting a resume is pretty similar to ours.

Check out a few of their reasons:

1 Typo on your resume and you are rejected
Applications are received within the first 200 seconds of posting a job. (Was yours among them?)
1 in 3 Employers reject you due to something they found online. (I gave a presentation on this recently. This is sooo true here in the USA.)

Check out the rest of the stats below. And, I would LOVE to hear from my recruiter pals. What do you think of these stats?