Spotlight: Attorney of the Moment

As an addendum to our candidate of the month, I would like to introduce you to our candidate of the moment.

Amanda, JD

Bar Admission in RI & MA

EDUCATION:

Seattle University School of Law, Juris Doctor, May 2011, cum laude

Providence College, Bachelors of Arts, Biology, Psychology, May 2006 

EXPERIENCE:

• Northwest Justice Project , January 2011-May 2011
• Rule 9 Extern
•  Snohomish County Public Defender Association, August 2010-December 2010
• Rule 9 Extern
•  Rhode Island Office of the Public Defender, June 2010-August 2010
•  Rule 9 Intern, Courtroom Advocate
• The Barton Law Firm, September 2009-March 2010
• Law Clerk

For more information about Amanda, or any of our other terrific legal candidates please feel free to call the office at 401.331.2311 or email marketing@citypersonnel.net

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving!

 

November Candidate of the Month

Criss 

Bi-lingual Administrative Assistant

• SKILLS: 
• Bi-lingual, fluent in Spanish and English
• Certified Microsoft Office Professional
• Comfortable working in fast paced environments
• Experience with multi-line phone systems
• WORK EXPERIENCE:
• Five consecutive years as an administrative professional
• OBJECTIVE: To obtain a position as a receptionist or administrative assistant in a progressive office. 
  

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City Personnel provides the highest caliber of staffing in the area.  Besides having exceptional administrative candidates we also have provide candidates for all levels of legal staffing, accounting, human resources, medical, sales and other office positions.  For a more detailed look at Criss's background, or information on any of our other candidates, please contact City Personnel at 401.331.2311 or by email at resumes@citypersonnel.net.

To keep up with the latest candidates of the month and other happenings at City Personnel please follow our blog.

Interviewing? How to Make a Killer Impression

Yesterday I spent the day down at URI conducting mock interviews for the School of Business.  For all my companies out there reading this, it is definitely worth your time to work with the local schools.  The programs they are trying to build for their upper class men will not only benefit the students, but it will also benefit employers by teaching kids early whats expected in the working world.  Enough of my PSA though.  Almost all the students I interviewed said their number one concern is preparing themselves to make a killer impression on a potential employer.  This tip sheet is for them.

5 Steps to Making a Killer Impression
(Forbes)

1. Go in with a clear intention: Before you get in front of your interviewer think of what points you would like to get across and how you would like to be perceived.  Mentally visualizing these things will help you be able to convey them when it comes time, I.E. in your interview.
2. Think about what you're wearing: Before you get dressed be aware of the message your clothes, make-up, jewelry, watches and shoes are saying about you.  Your outward appearance is the first thing an employer will see and like it or not establishes some type of a judgment about you.  Make sure your outfit is saying what you want it to.
3. Body Language:  Be aware of what you are doing and how it can be perceived. Stand up straight, angle your body towards your interviewer. The way you physically respond can say a lot.  Slouching can be taken as low confidence, sitting angled away from the interview disinterest, and the list can go on.
4. Avoid Bad Days:  If you're having a bad day sometimes it can be hard to shake it.  The results can be written all over your face in terms of frowns, swollen eyes, etc.  Either figure out how to shake the mood or reschedule. The last thing you want is an employer to feel this is your day to day mood.
5. Be Interested and Be Interesting:  Make eye contact, listen to what the other person is saying.  We have all been taking to someone and known they are uninterested in what they are saying. Its a turn off.  Also be interesting.  Open up about what makes you unique.  

Office Decor to Die for

Office feeling a bit drab lately?  Looking at these photos probably won't help. Check out a few of the coolest offices from around the globe.

Google Office, Zurich

 Pixar Office, Emeryville, CA

 LEGO Development Department, Billund, Denmark

Inventionland Offices, Pittsburgh, PA

October's Candidate of the Month

Candidate of the Month

Beau,Management Trainee

• EDUCATION: Bachelors Degree, University of Rhode Island
• WORK EXPERIENCE:
  ·  Product Development/Actuarial Assistant
  · May 2010 – September 2011
  ·  Legal Intake Technician
  · January 2011-May 2011
• OBJECTIVE: To obtain a management position in the the field of finance, marketing, or legal.

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City Personnel provides the highest caliber of staffing in the area.  Besides having talented sales and marketing candidates we also have provide candidates for all levels of legal staffing, accounting, human resources, medical, and other office positions.  For a more detailed look at Beau's background, or information on any of our other candidates, please contact City Personnel at 401.331.2311 or by email at resumes@citypersonnel.net.

To keep up with the latest candidates of the month and other happenings at City Personnel please follow our blog.

Laid Off? Make LinkedIn Work for You.

Laid off recently?  I'm sure you already know this, but you aren't alone. Not even close.  You are in the good company of roughly 10%-11% of the population.  Depressing, I know.  Well now that you are gainfully unemployed its time to get your but over to LinkedIn and get to work.  Here are some tips, courtesy of Forbes, for making your LinkedIn work for you and land you a new job.  

Professional Headline:

• This is key.  It's the line which goes under your name and is meant to give a generic example of what you do. I.E. CEO, CFO, Marketing Manager, etc. Do not limit yourself to what your last job description was, put what you would like to be and feel you are qualified, based on your experience, to be. 

Current Position:

•  You are currently out of work so make sure to move your last position into your work history an add an end date. In this economy there is no shame in being between jobs and this lets recruiters know you are definitely available to work.

Summary:

• In this section you need to describe just how fabulous you are in a few short paragraphs or less. This is definitely a less is more block. Put in here your key skills skills and a short list of workplace accomplishments.  Finish it all out with a sentence like "I am currently looking for an opportunity to expand on these skills."

Experience:

• Do not, I repeat, DO NOT lie in this section.  Make sure you accurately describe your past positions and length of time you were there. Also, request recommendations from co-workers and managers a like to a test to your skills.

Education:

• This block poses the unending question of "should I put my year of graduation or not?" There are pro's and con's to each.  Putting a year of graduation allows another point from which someone can connect to you from, but on the other hand it also denotes age which may hinder certain employers.  It is really a personally call, however once again the key to this is don't lie.  Employers will find out.

Picture:

• This aspect was not discussed in the Forbes article, however it is important.  Pick a professional looking photograph.  Preferably one where you are smiling.  Do not use photos of you and other people, or you in overly social environments, I.E. the bar.  Keep in mind this picture is representative of how you want an employer to see you. 

   

National Disability Employment Awareness Month

In honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month we at City Personnel have taken the initiative to find some statistics on disability in the US just for you. I know, you've been wondering why has it taken us this long?  I mean we're already 11 days in!  Well I apologize for the delay, and fully blame it on Columbus and his holiday, but without further a due here are the stats:

• In the US 54 million people have a disability
• West Virginia has the highest percentage of people with a disability at 18.8% of the population
• Utah has the lowest percentage with only 8.9% of the population having a disability
• Hearing difficulty is experienced by 10.2 million people, of these 10.2 million, 5.8 million are 65 or older
• Visual problems account for 6.5 million people
• Roughly 13.5 million people struggle to concentrate or make decisions, of these 2.1 million are aged 5 to 17.
• Approximately $35.3 billion has been received by veterans for service connected disabilities for 2008
• Around 21% of the population over 16yrs old with a disability are below poverty level
• Nearly 72% of disabled people over the age of 16 are not in the workforce

The New Background Check, The Most Revealing Yet?

This is for you under 30 crowd.  Remember all those times your parents got on your back about minding your P's & Q's online?  You know what I'm talking about.  All those reminders that it probably is a bad idea to post all the various times you've woken up hung over, or those pictures of you acting like a fool in Vegas?  Well turns out they were right...again.  Trust me when I say I feel your pain. 

You all probably suspected that prospective employers may Facebook stalk you during the interview process, but I'm hear to assure that they do.   In a regularly cited survey released by Microsoft Research last year 70% of recruiters asked said that what came up when they googled you lost you a job. 

Reppler, a start-up tool for monitoring your social media usage, recently conducted another survey to see how 300 recruiters are using social media to screen candidates.  The results are astounding.  A whooping 91% of them are using social media tools to pre-screen candidates.   About half of this 91% screens before they even met you and the other half screens during the interview process.  69% of these recruiters said they had denied a candidate employment based on what they saw.  The biggest fault they identified,  lying about your qualifications for a position.

It isn't all bad though.  68% of recruiters also said that more than once a candidate's Facebook profile landed them the job over someone else. Why?  Because it showcased their honestly, relevant qualifications, creativity, and personality. 

All this in mind it shouldn't come as a shock that in June the Federal Trade Commission approved a company called Social Intelligence which runs background checks of web content.   The FTC determined that the company is in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act allowing them to operate.  Their service uses data mining to compile full records of what you have said and posted to Facebook/Twitter/Flickr/Craigslist/Blogs/etc.  If something job threatening shows up in your report it is saved on file for seven years.  This certainly makes posting things to the internet a bit more risky.  You do have to sign off on this the same way you would a criminal background check or credit report, but none the less think before you post.

Another Success

Two weeks ago tomorrow was my favorite day of the month, Candidate of the Month day.  That was only about 9 business days ago and guess what?  As of yesterday Joni is employed full time in Providence.  I would say that this months feature was another success.  Thanks so much to all of our terrific clients, we couldn't do it without you!

Hats off to Joni, and don't forget to keep checking in for our future Candidates of the Month!

Success in Numbers

Typically Wednesday's are not very exciting.  It is the hump day of the week.  Not quite as exciting and crazy Monday and Tuesday, and the sweet relief of the impending weekend that Thursday and Friday bring is not yet here.  Today is a little different.  Today I'm excited about Wednesday because not one, but two of our fabulous candidates have found full time work after only a week in the interview process.

Lets start with success number one.  We met Gina just last week and let me tell you, she was fabulous.   Just graduated college and moved back to the states and incredible eager to work and open to whatever possibilities we had to present.  Her terrific attitude parlayed itself into an interview for full time permanent job the following day.  Shortly after her interview we were contacted with an offer and as of yesterday she has begun her journey in the world of employment.


Our second success surprised even us.  Lisa is moving back to the area due to her husbands military transfer.  When I originally spoke with her on the phone she told me that she would be here permanently the first or second week of October.  She sounded terrific on the phone so we had her do all her paperwork via email and then while visiting the area for other interviews this past week she popped into the office.  I immediately sent her resume to one of our clients who interviewed her the very same day.  After her interview my client informed me he liked her but needed someone to start sooner. I conveyed this to Lisa who rearranged her move and is starting with my client on Sept 26th.  Her great attitude and flexibility made my job so much easier and resulted in a terrific resolution for all parties.


Congratulations ladies.  We wish you nothing but the best and are so proud to have worked with you.

Fall for September's Candidate of the Month!

Meet Our Candidate of the Month!

Joni, Administrative Support

• EDUCATION: Bachelors from Rhode Island College 2010 & Certificate from Boston University 2010
• WORK EXPERIENCE: Three internships with top publishing companies
• SKILLS: Highly tech savvy, certified in digital media, experienced in Adobe Suite, outstanding communication skills

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City Personnel provides the highest caliber of staffing in the area.  We provide candidates for all levels of legal staffing, accounting, human resources, medical, sales and marketing and other administrative office positions.  For a more detailed look at Joni''s background, or information on any of our other candidates, please contact City Personnel at 401.331.2311 or by email at resumes@citypersonnel.net.

To keep up with the latest candidates of the month and other happenings at City Personnel please follow our blog.

Cold Calling 101

Raise your hand if you've heard of Pat Cavanaugh, CEO of Cavanaugh Promotions, before this sentence.  I'm hoping some of you raised your hand for two reasons.  One is that your co-workers are now looking at you a bit mystified and two if your in sales hes a guy worth knowing.   For the NCAA basketball buffs the name may ring a few bells.  He was a standout player at Pittsburgh and has evolved into a standout sales man.  He generated 100 new accounts in the first quarter of 2000 alone and says that he can make 200 cold calls a day if left alone with the phone.  So whats his advice on success?  You'll find it below courtesy of Inc.com. 

Q: Do you have any tips on devolping cold-calling skills?

•  Warm up prospects with an inexpensive promotional item
• Ask for an appointment at a certain time, rather than "Tuesday"
• Respect the other person's time
• Do your homework on the person you are calling before you pick up the phone
• Timing is everything 
• If you get their voice mail, leave a message. The right message gets a return call
• Follow up

Q: What advice do you have for a cold caller who sells services?

• Don't waste an appointment collecting information on your prospects. Make the appointment once you have a match. That's when you're ready to start the selling process.

  Q: I got there voice mail, now what?

• Leave a message. 

Q: How should I address my staffs concerns regarding the impact of economic downtown?

• Your team must have faith in their products and services so that they can convey that faith to customers

 Want more sales tips? Check out the original text at Inc.com

Suella's Success

Who remembers July's candidate of the month, Suella? Well, if you don't take a quick scroll back in our blog and check out her profile and then I'll share some great news.  Shortly after our campaign Suella was offered a full time permanent position within a clients relations department.


Thank you all for your support of our Candidate of the Month program and please keep checking back to see if any of our selections suit your office.  In the meantime hats off to Suella and best of luck to her in her new position!

Hurricane Irene

I'm hoping that you didn't have to make the trek to work just to read our blog, although I'm flattered if you did, because we sincerely hope that you have your power/internet/cable/etc back at your home.  We've been following the news about the outages and thought perhaps the following links would be of use.  


Nationalgrid has been terrific about updating their twitter through this mess

You can also check the restoration plan which was updated this morning at 6AM


The real time map is also a useful tool


 

Needle in a Haystack

I know, I know, you're tired of me not so subtlety hinting that you should let us handle your staffing, but seriously...you should.  Bloomberg Press agrees with us on that.  In fact they even recently dedicated a whole article to the struggle to find good caliber staffing for open positions.  The Washington Post is in on the scope too.  They also have an article from June discussing the exact same dilemma.

Unemployment is currently around 9.1%.  With a rate that high it would seem that filling that accounting position you've had open would be easy, but that's just not the case.  Business owners and HR professionals are forking over thousands on advertising open positions only to be inundated with resumes of unqualified candidates.  The big question is why can't we find anyone to fill these positions? 

Simply put it is because there is a mismatch between jobs and skills.  In the worlds of academia & politics this mismatch is referred to as structural unemployment.  This is a problem that exists across the board.  Companies are not finding the level of talent that their positions require for entry level or higher end positions.  Adding to the mismatch is the fact that more than 40% of the employed population has been out of work for 27 weeks or more.  Their absence from the workforce not only makes them less marketable, but also contributes to the erosion of their skill set.

The founder of Begal Enterprises, Inc was a contributing voice to a panel of a half a dozen entrepreneurs who where questioned regarding their recruitment experiences.  In his opinion despite the fact that the "pool" of potential candidates has gotten deeper the caliber has decreased.  He and the other panelists said some candidates lack the "right set of skills" which others do not meet the "most basis of qualifications" such as proper spelling on their resumes.  That in mind their opinion was that the "top talent search" is equally, if not more, challenging than it was prior to the recession.


Divya Gugnani, a New York employer, says that of five openings she presently has, only one has been filled.  She has received more than 1,000 applications.  In her opinion, getting the right people is "brutal" like "finding a needle in a haystack."

Need Accounting Help? Meet August's Candidate of the Month

Having trouble Finding Quality Staff? 

Take a Look at Our Candidate of the Month!

Monika,Accounting

• EDUCATION: Bachelors & Masters degrees in Business Management
• WORK EXPERIENCE: Ten years solid experience as a senior accountant in multinational companies
• SKILLS: Trilingual, computer savvy, cash flow management, financial analysis, cost accounting, inventory procedure and payroll management.

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City Personnel provides the highest caliber of staffing in the area.  Besides having talented sales and marketing candidates we also have provide candidates for all levels of legal staffing, accounting, human resources, medical, and other office positions.  For a more detailed look at Monika's background, or information on any of our other candidates, please contact City Personnel at 401.331.2311 or by email at resumes@citypersonnel.net.

To keep up with the latest candidates of the month and other happenings at City Personnel please follow our blog.

Interviewing 101

Interviewing stress you out?  You're not alone, but trust me when I say it could be worse.  The famous "what is your worst trait" question is far from the worst your interviewer could do.  Just take these sample questions from the technology industry.   "Why are manhole covers round?" "How do you measure four gallons of water using only a three and five gallon jug?" "How many dogs are there in the United States?"  Don't know the answers? Neither do I, but don't fret Forbes breaks down why questions like this and others are asked and what interviews are looking for in your response.  More after the  jump.


What types of interview questions do you typically ask or get asked?  Do you have a favorite?

Welcome Back NYLO

Anyone remember the great flood of 2010?  Yes, it was the flood that turned Warwick mall into the "first underwater mall" in the country and yes that's where the footage of people rowing boats down their typically quaint residential streets came from.  With those images in mind I'm sure we can all agree that the flood did a lot of damage to not only small residential neighborhoods, but also large established businesses.  NYLO hotel in the Pontiac Mills Complex in Warwick was one of those businesses.

The 163 room loft style hotel opened to rave reviews in September 2008, only to be devastated by the flood waters from the cresting river at the end of March 2010.  The river took not only their back deck area, but it also severely damaged the hotels main lobby, front desk, meeting room, lower guest rooms, and restaurant.  

 

Back Deck of NYLO-Flood 2010

Almost 2 years later, and many extensive renovations later, the hotel is set to re-open.   Michael Muller, the hotel chains CEO said that a corporate restructuring in addition to the replacing of custom fitted interiors, such as furniture and fixtures, designed specifically for NYLO Providence/Warwick are what lead to the delays in re-opening the hotel.

In addition to re-opening the hotel next Tuesday, NYLO has also named a new leadership team.  Kingston, RI resident Susan Shaw is the new General manager. North Kingstown resident Joanne McNulty Schroeder has taken the helm as Director of Sales and Marketing.  Providence resident Robert Minger will be over seeing the culinary experience as the Director of Food & Beverage.  Jenna Cowan of Providence will be the Front Desk manager and rounding out management will be Allan Thompson of Boston as Controller.

The hotel has provided jobs for roughly 35-40 people, down from their pre-flood staff of 60.  Of the 35-40 employed Shaw says that roughly half of them worked at NYLO prior to the flood, herself included.

 

Welcome back NYLO Hotel.  We've missed you.

Google + : Leading us into the Future of Networking?

Google + is the future, or well it may be for job seekers anyway.  I’m sure you’ve all heard the hype about the new social media site.  It was rolled out in limited use a few weeks ago and the only way to get involved is to be invited.  The exclusivity has rubbed some people in the wrong way, but it wasn’t too long ago that Facebook operated on the same principle.

Right now Google + isn’t for everyone, or all job seekers.   Currently it is mostly populated by those in technology, marketing, social media, or internet.  Despite the narrow present narrow market there are already 20 million users on Google + and it is rare to not see it pop up in one news feed or another.

The big question is how will Google compete with the likes of Facebook and Linkedin?  They have the market corner.   Linkedin is your professional online identity and Facebook is your private one. Google+ is capitalizing on being easier navigate and control than its two predecessors.   

You’re probably wondering what I mean by control.  The Google “circles” concept allows you to create numerous different viewing groups such as school, work, family, etc and then chose which content can be view by which groups.  This means that you can post the pictures of your weekend cookout for your friends and family to see and then in the same breath post your updates resume for employers to view.  No more switching between Linkedin and Facebook to post different content, now it’s all in one place.

One of the other perks is that on Facebook a follower must be accepted as a friend while in Google + it is more one sided.  If you want to follow the company of your dreams you can, but they do not have to follow you.  Depending on what circle you place the company in you can control what, if anything, of your content they are able to view.

With all that in mind lets go back to the topic of job searching.  As I mentioned early on Google + is currently populated by mostly techy folks and is only in the trial phases.  It lacks the job listing section that Linkedin has and obviously the population diversity of Facebook.  This means that people in accounting or healthcare for example probably shouldn’t jump on right away expecting to find work, but those in marketing, PR, and tech should definitely get on early and begin building their network. “Google+ invitations are currently scarce, so active users are generally well-connected. In my use of the service, it seems that the vast majority of early adopters are people related to the technology industry and Silicon Valley,” said Jon Burgstone, founding faculty chair, Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology, University of California, Berkeley. “I expect job-seekers, at least for now, would find more and higher-quality opportunities on Google+ than LinkedIn.” Eventually, he continued, Google+ will appeal to “a broader population. People who should know, report that Google+ has a very, very large number of people waiting to be invited to user the service. If accurate, Google+ could grow very quickly.” 

Want to get involved? Send me an email at bbert@citypersonnel.net and I’d be happy to send you an invitation.