What’s your resume’s social quotient?

 

If you are reading this post then I am sure you are not new to Social Media. Power of social media is immense and widespread. Not only it has turned an introvert to extrovert but also has redefined human connect. Today we don’t need a newspaper to share our story, we are self sufficient and are proud owner of our own brand. Yes, being social today has new way of personal image management.

When talking about our own brand, a resume is a close relative. Resume ideally helps us to establish a perspective in the interviewer’s mind even before our interaction starts. It has been a prevalent practice for ages to make an effective and impactful resume in order to qualify for that dream job. But now it’s time to accessories your two pager through social resume.

Social resume is nothing but all information related to you - widely available online. So it’s a wide terms which covers lot under one umbrella. Considering the social media usage and popularity most of the recruiters have started using the same as a talent acquisition tool. As it goes Internet has no delete button and it can help trace back all your social media activity, hence here are couple of tips which you should focus on lest you miss out on your golden goose.

1. Mostly social networking is a long term association or activity and unlike a job interview we can’t hide our true feelings here. But it’s very important not to leave any digital footprints which can be considered against you or can tarnish your social personality.
2. ‘It’s all in the Name’. Having a profile which can help recruiter relate to you instantly is a mandate or else no matter what you do socially it can’t be considered you ‘social resume’ for sure.
3. Blogging has changed the writer’s world. Gone are the days when publishing an article took months of follow up, but now spreading your thoughts is just a click away. And if you write what a recruiter considers relevant and is close to your expertise, then your dream job is just a call away.
4. ‘A Man is known by the company he keeps’. Your online network speaks a lot about you, so make sure whom you are adding to your friend list. Richer your network more valued is the profile.

Social media itself is a wide subject and has both pros and cons but using it for your own benefits it just in your hands. So for your next job hunt don’t forget SOCIAL!!

 

 

Have you read the JD?

“SALE SALE everywhere but what I seek is RARE”

This echoes my thought while I was reading today's newspaper full of monsoon sale offer.60 % OFF in font size and color too loud for anybody to hardly miss. Until sometime back I too was an ardent follower but soon realized the catch that “Jo Dikhta Hai Who Bikta Nahin”. So this actually took me back to my mailbox where I had made job postings and received more irrelevant job responses only to unsubscribe the same.

 

Job posting is a great way to advertise about an opening so that it’s easier to connect with right talent in the minimum possible time. Doesn’t this sound like a great recipe for Talent Acquisition!! It almost was doing the job till such time the seekers started rushing to apply to any job without reading the specifications. Quite a fact is that all those telephonic interviews where I asked job seekers about going through the job profile before applying for it, responses were not close to convincing even. So a job portal has become a market place where job seekers come and just click on what they feel is relevant or could be relevant and sometimes leave it to recruiter to decide. Why take pain when it is free!! Similar to picking up a discounted item and later realizing that you never needed the same.

 

Now this is the point from where the challenge starts for all the three parties: Recruiter, job seeker and portal. Yes, most of them promise to have great algorithms controlling the relevancy factor but still controlling humans is way beyond any technology. Recruiter who for a change is not happy with the overwhelming not- so-relevant response and changing portal service has been not much of a value add too, considering sample remains the same. So best done was moving them to a folder where they don’t worry you much. However some serious job seekers kept wondering what must have gone wrong when they actually matched the requirement 100%.

 

But when ‘there is a will there is a way’. Mostly a follow up call to the HR department does the job. However the point still remains how an effective tool because of misuse or overuse has lost the entire purpose. Only if we read the job description and self evaluate before applying most of can avoid cursing a portal for being ineffective. Also please remember every time you click on a job which doesn’t fit your profile you are only making the talent hunt even harder for all three.

 

It takes five mins to read an job description but is that asking for too much when it’s about your next career move?

 

 

To ERR is HUMAN...why blame HR

Last night I was on my usual social networking site reading interesting status messages when read somebody saying “HR professional, sounds like an oxymoron”.

So are the HR departments incompetent?

Absolutely not!! I have personally met some very fine people in the HR fraternity but probably such is  nature of the job which makes it very susceptible. At any given time Human Resource is dealing with two poles, employee and employer and come what may there is always an employee in the human resource whose heart is inclined to one but actions have to aligned with the more powerful entity. So this proves there is some human in human resource.

 

Now being in the industry for a while , sitting on the hot seat has never been easy. But I still have to find an organization where people love the HR department. It always makes me wonder that is the people functions really for the people  , by the people and of the people…Not sure!!

Mostly HR departments are cursed for salary payouts, delayed appraisals and many such transactional activities which keeps them occupied enough to get into other strategic or transformational aspects. However the buck doesn’t stop here whenever organization effectiveness comes in picture HR is first to be questioned. Though market trends lead to lot of internal changes but still this one department must have done something wrong to not predict and take corrective action at the right time.

Doesn’t this sound like a one sided story?

'Reminds me of a simple and hardworking boy who was trying to be good to everybody but his returns were always otherwise.'

But as soon as you turn the table reality will strike…Lets recall the last employee engagement activity which you bunked and also missed the realization of efforts put in to the arrange so many activities every month.

Blaming the HR is easiest when annual hikes are delayed but only if the forms are filled up on time HR too would be entitled for the revised salary.

Average hiring time must be showing in bold red but what about expecting to onboard a Rock-star.
Policies are mostly referred as HR weapons but aren’t they all employee facilitation tool in line with organizational benefits.

Mostly till the time operations run smoothly HR effectiveness is not measured but sadly weighted only at the time of mismatched expectations which just make the HR department a perfect scapegoat.

To sum it all , mistakes are part of learning and only when they are taken positively will it contribute to growing further of an organization. So lets stop the blame game and complement each other to reach next level!!