Recruitment 4.0 The Power of Crowds

(pic by EA)

Recruitment 1.0 and 2.0 was about job pushing, advertising jobs in papers, internet job boards and placing vacancies with recruitment agencies 

This type of recruiting has cost and continues to cost companies lots and lots of money. In my experience it also sends employers into an angry panic, I was once told by a really angry employer that “He hates recruitment agencies!” I personally felt that what he really hated was being in a place of no control. On one hand employers panic because they have to fill the position immediately on the other hand they become angry about the cost it’s going to involve.

Employers have to want to change if they want to stop throwing money at recruitment, the angry employer that hated recruitment agencies will continue to have hatred for them for years to come as he is one of many that will not change. Similar employers have always recruited like this and even though their veins are exploding with pressure, somehow they must love the stress, the waste of money and have a secret pleasure in slating recruitment agencies! 

However there seems to be a glimmer of hope and some employers are seeing the light

(stats from the “graduate recruiter”)

89% of employers plan to recruit staff via social media 

55% will increase spending on social recruiting

1/3 of Employers plan to cut back spending on the more traditional methods (job boards, newspapers, agencies) 

25% of employers want to start engaging with 1st yr students to start building talent communties 

By 2014 70% of large companies will use gamification for at least one Business process, probably recruitment.

These employers that are starting to embrace change are moving away from the old models of recruitment, model 1.0 and 2.0 and are dipping their toes into models 3.0 and 4.0  

Recruitment model 3.0 is about employment branding and building communities that active & passive jobseeker can go to frequently

Recruitment 4.0 is about the value of these communities and understanding that people love to be rewarded especially publicaly so recruitment 4.0 is is about looking at clever ways to reward within your communities. 

I’ve already spoken about Gamification (check it out here) and this is going to play a huge part in Recruitment model 4.0 as will crowd sourcing. 

Crowdsourcing is all about outsourcing tasks to a large group of people online and offline.

Crowdsourcing lends itself beautifully to talent communities as these communities are there due to your industry or the careers within your industry. There is power in networks it’s then up to you to make them effective.

Within your community you could ask them to design a new logo for your company the winning logo wins a 6 month contract to work with your graphics team 

Unilever has recently dropped it’s ad agency in favour of using it’s talent community for ideas 

Within your talent community of employees, managers, jobseekers, passive and active you can ask them to help develop the company’s employee value propositions (EVPs), and the employer brand etc. Use social media like  micro-blogs, blogs, social networking sites, polls, etc to reach out and engage with the community. The community will more likely buy into a shared, collectively-created vision. They will interact with the company’s brand and they will feel a sense of ownership, even if they don’t work there (yet).

Crowd sourcing will have talent within your communities working for you whether that be as an employee, freelancer, creator, a spectator,or a job seeker. Micro payment or rewards may be given and the community can even effectively recruit for you.  

Recruitment 4.0 flips the the panic, anger & huge costs of the recruitment 1.0 & 2.0 method into  something  calm, engaging and Zero cost. You did read right zero cost because you will eliminate costs attached to method 1.0 & 2.0, you will not be hiring out of panic, so no costly mistakes. You will have a community of top talent so you can cherry pick, your own employees become hiring managers within the communities which gives them a sense of increased value which in return helps to retain good staff.

Follow me on Twitter @jobhopjulie 

Tomorrows work place >>> why it’s changing                          

By 2020 Millennials (Gen Y)will account for 50% of the global workforce, attracting their talent to your organisation is imperative for your survival.

But how are you going to compete with the world? We’re not just talking about the U.K we are in fact talking about the world because this generation see the world as a much smaller place and will have no hesitation in leaving the U.K. Millennialls actually think it’s their right to go and work abroad & experience different cultures. 

China, Russia and India want our talent and considering we already have a shortage of it, how will we make sure we do not lose anymore from the U.K? 

I see that two things must happen

1. Know your Employment Brand 
2. Know how to communicate with Millennials

Your Employment Brand has never been so important. If you don’t know what it is then you need to find out quick and how do you do that? Ask your employees, they own your employment brand. 

I say more about employment branding here but just ask yourself about your own company “why would I want to work here?” 

Look at it’s culture,it’s story, the ethics, what training you provide, the environment, the support, the opportunities.

Having a good employment brand will attract talent even before they’re on the job market. Children as young as 12 already say that they want to work for Google or Apple or are joining the XBox Live talent community

If you’re thinking that these are attractive because they’re technology companies then you’re right, millennials love technology. If you think you can’t compete because of that you’re wrong because others have, you just need to know their language and be able to communicate.

So what do you do with a Millennial that is obsessed with technology, you offer them more technology! This is a shock to some organisations because I hear horror stories of technology being limited, social media being banned. Millennials have grown up with the ipad, laptops, smart phones, social media xbox, instant information, this is what makes this generation unique, if you take it away from them they wont be working for you for too long. 

If you’re worried that an employee isn’t going to be productive then you have an employee issue it’s not because of technology. Millennials shiny stuff is their technology the more you make it available to them then them more attractive the proposition is to them.

Working environments need to change to adapt to a collaborative style of working, they are digital creatives and love to brainstorm. Millennials will work hard but will feel stifled in a boring rigid office, you want them engaged so you need to offer a stimulating atmosphere.

Millennials are committed to personal growth and learning so you have to give them the ability to learn. They will learn quickly and they will expect to grow quickly, they will be looking to climb the career ladder in months not years so you have to be prepared for that. 

If you don’t invest in them they will have no hesitation in going to work with your competitor or even set up themselves and do it their way, as they’re very entrepreneurial. They’re high achievers and are natural leaders so you must plan for that, even if it’s a simple earn your stripes system, Millennials have to see that they are climbing the career ladder.

If you expect your employees to clock in and out then you want be attracting any Millennials.They will produce more work in shorter hours and they will question why do they have to start at 9am when they’re more productive from 10am. They want respect and trust, if they can get the work done whilst at home then they will ask “why do you want me to travel all the way in?”  which they won’t ask over the telephone but with a tweet! 

Whatever you promise them then make sure it’s honoured, to a millennial a promise means so much, they trust you not to break it, if you do then there’s always social media! 

Millennials really value mentors and that is the best approach is to mentor them, rather telling them what to do. You can learn a lot from them and in return they want to learn about leadership, industry, leadership, self management.

Every talented Millennial is a passive candidate unless you can give them reasons to want to stay. 

Follow me on Twitter  @jobhopjulie

Julie Bishop  Founder of JobHop  

Yesterday I listened to a speaker who completely spoke my language, who inspired me and motivated me not to give up with my quest to make employment human again.

The event was held at The Space in Norwich & the speaker was Mal Fletcher, social futurist, speaker and broadcaster. The topic was social change and Mal is the chairman of 2020plus, a London think tank on social change and leadership innovation.

Within Social Change there are many subjects which Mal touched upon and I will put a post about those on our Norwich Social Media Wk site but for JobHop I’ll just cover what was said that relates to employment.

What is obvious is that change is happening and employers need to start putting some plans together for the age of connection.

Employers need to be thinking how they are to engage with the Millennial generation and if they haven’t got a strategy in place now for that to happen theres going to be trouble ahead.

By the millenial generation we mean the under 30 age bracket, there’s been the Boomer generation age 50 -60’s ( the make love not war generation) the Gen X 30’s - 50’s ( how do we make it happen now generation) and now the Millennials, the under 30’s ( shaping the future generation) 

I repeat the message: If you haven’t got a strategy in place that includes the millennial generation there’s trouble ahead, well actually the message was “Your plan is screwed” 

The Millennial generation are the “Futurists” , the digital generation, they are digital natives, they’ve had a head start on this digital era. If you’re my age, lets just say Gen X, try having a game on X box , hold a conversation on the phone, eat a sandwich & sort out a bit of HTML coding on a website all at once! It’s not easy, for this generation is comes naturally.

As employers you need to be investing in this generation, getting their attention as they leave college and nurturing that talent within your organisation. 

If you invest in their skills then you will receive their loyalty, you’ll have given them a story and Mal speaks really passionately about having a story.

Only the other day I was speaking to a Millennial and she was saying how she started at the company on work experience, she was then taken on and absorbed all the training & knowledge that the company could offer. The story was that she very quickly climbed the ladder and is now a very loyal, passionate Managing Director of the company, what a story!! 

Mal says that Millennials are loyal to a good story and once that happens then WOW! make them the face of your company, they are your advocates, let them spread the word round like Wild Fire. We then get into Employment branding which I’ve spoken about many times before and you can read an earlier post on that here.

Over the next few years Business as we know it will change and Millenials will be the driving force of that. Mal says that you must have a digital team and you must get Millennials to run it, if you want to speak where people listen then you MUST be involved in Social Media. Barrack Obama understood the viral collectiveness of the Millennials and it’s time that Businesses also understand it.

Businesses have to realise that the Millennials bring collaboration and collaboration is an engine for change. 

I remember queuing up at Woolworths to get the new Adam and the Ants single ( Gen X ) Millennials download everything, it’s the age of the Wiki, collaboration & sharing. There is one thing that they would queue for though..Technology! Technology is the new Rock and Roll!

Businesses will become digital and collaborative, one warning of advice from Mal was “Don’t let your technology get out of date” 

Companies need the Millennials digital skills and in return mentor them and grow their talent in other areas. 

But for businesses wanting to attract talented Millennials a change must happen. Trust is a small word but some employers find it so hard to do. Millennials are in the era of Trust.. ie Ebay, it’s normal for them to trust the other person online to pay. If employers don’t trust their employees they will walk and that means trusting your employees to use technology within the workspace. Instead of having Social Media guidelines, many companies just ban Social Media use within the work place.!!  Remember that isn’t a social media issue thats a performance issue, just like someone using the phone all the time for purely non work activities.

If you don’t trust your staff then how can you expect loyalty? 

Employment is going to be very different and only those with the ability to change will survive. 

Mal Fletcher is currently on tour around Europe I would urge everyone to go and hear his message about Social Change, it will change the way you think for sure.

Using QR codes to recruit                                                          

QR codes are now becoming very popular but just in case some of you haven’t come across them yet QR stands for quick response & it’s a code, like a barcode but funkier, that can be read using a smart phone.

Once the QR code is scanned it can link back to a website, a video,a profile, text, tel number etc..

The scope for QR codes is huge so how can they be used to recruit candidates? 

Addidas have used QR codes to reach candidates successfully at tradeshows. They realised that whilst they were at these events promoting their products they could also attract potential employees. 

Many passive candidates are at trade shows working for competitors, on other stands, which makes it difficult to actively recruit but a QR code takes a second to scan so you can   capture talent whilst they walk past with their mobile in their hand. 

Addidas found that by using the QR technology it reduced costs, they held less recruiting events, they built a talent community and they saved time.

If you still want to do job fairs then put your QR code onto stickers & give them out to candidates as they walk past.

The point of QR codes in recruiting is to be able to reach the mobile candidate so you have to think where will your ideal candidate be? When will your candidate be mobile with their smart phone at hand? 

Would your ideal candidate be on the tube/ train? at an airport? 

Perhaps you’re looking for a technical minded person, what about at an internet cafe? Perhaps you could get your QR code onto the coffee cups at the cafe, or onto the window.

What if you need young recruits straight from college, perhaps getting the college to use your mouse mats with your QR code on them.

Billboards are a popular place for QR codes and upon some of these you’ll find MI5 recruiting candidates this way.

So think mobile candidates and think how can you reach them using a QR code whilst they’re on the move.

For more tips on reaching candidates, employment branding & building talent communities get in touch or follow me on Twitter  @jobhopjulie 

Attracting Talent using Social media

Employment Branding 

Attracting talent using social media 

When job seekers want to find out more about your company, do you know what they do?

If you said they go to the company website then you’re a little bit right because a few might tap in the whole URL address into a search bar but the majority will GOOGLE your company name! And yes, you’re web site should come up in the search ( if it doesn’t tut tut!) but now anything being said about your company can appear. Google isn’t just a search engine anymore it’s a social search engine and relies on relevance. If relevant people are saying relevant things about your organisation then it will appear in the search rankings. 

So what will a strong employment brand mean? 

It will mean that your organisation becomes like a magnet, attracting top talent 

It will mean no more pushing jobs

It will mean reduced recruiting costs

It will mean saving time 

It will mean not being bombarded with unsuitable C.Vs

It will help you with retaining talent 

It will mean a good message is being heard 

What do people think of your organisation when they hear the name?

Would it receive the same reaction as Google, Apple, Innocence, a cool place to work? 

Virgin, Zappos, Sheraton, adobe, America Express, Starbucks, Microsoft, KPMG, all of these companies have talent scrambling to get in.

So why should top candidates work for your company? 

Find out from your own employees why they love working for you, is it the flexible working hours, the great training, the fantastic career prospects, the creche facilities, the company ethics?

Survey your employees and start building case studies, if you get any negative feedback then use this opportunity to turn your employees into ambassadors. Every employee that talks about their experience whilst working at your company contributes to your employer brand.

"Employees have always owned the brand; they just haven’t had the tools to broadcast their opinions to large audiences as they do today."  Dr John Sullivan 

Your employment brand is not owned by you it flows from your employees and is spread by them and with social media it will spread faster than you’ve ever known it. 

You must let all your employees know that they are brand ambassadors and that they must represent the company brand when they're at work and when they’re not at work. 

When candidates source information about your company and come across positive comments from employees,it’s becomes apparent that they’ll be joining an organisation that they can trust. 

A couple of tips that help with employment branding and to give candidates a better insight to the organisation are:

1. Have a culture Blog

Where employees can blog & vlog about their work activities, company social events,    fund raising days, anything that is done in the name of the organisation.

Zappos does this brilliantly check them out http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/inside-zappos 

1. Video Tour

Video is so powerful and your candidate will emotionally connect with your organisation if you do it well. Take them on a tour round the company, have different employees chatting, go to different departments, show how your employees unwind..you might have a TV room or have a gym. Show the environment, are you surrounded by lovely countryside or are you lucky enough to have a station across the road and a convenient bus stop.

So remember ask yourself the question “Why should top candidates work for your company?” 

There’s a new name for head hunting and it’s called social recruiting, it’s about being engaging and building talent communities 

If you’re a recruiter then I’m assuming that you’re familiar with Linkedin, getting your head around Facebook, have a few followers on Twitter and you're most definitely using Job Hop! Recruiter’s know that usually the most desirable candidates are the ones that are currently employed, social media gives you the ability to reach the talent that “are not actively looking”, powerful ay! So right now tweeting your #jobs and #careers are working a treat, you’ve connected with some top talent & are building some great relationships and you’re asking is there anything else you should be doing?  There are so many tools out there that will help you connect with candidates and show you how they’re communicating, too many to mention so I’ve just included a few favourites. 

www.bullhornereach.com   has now more than 35,000 recruiters on this platform & a network of  more than 20 million social media profiles.When anyone within your recruiter network of contacts updates their profile it shows up on your dashboard alerting you to a move might be on the cards.If they’ve been in touch with any other recruiters you will also be notified. It’s easy to put on jobs which are then posted to job boards and sent out across Twitter, Facebook and linkedin.There are great analytics, showing you how many views your jobs have received and the relevant traffic sources. Onlooking job seekers can find out more about you via your public profile and any sharing of articles, videos, blogs etc via Bullhorne will help with your recruitment branding.

www.activeinterview.com Perhaps you want a better insight to your candidate before inviting them to the office, the perfect product is Active Interview. Of course you can you use skype and many recruiters do these days however active interview allows you manage everything in one place. You can provide your candidates a questionnaire prior to the on line webcast, have a public questionnaire so candidates can opt to take part and  they can even attach their c.v’s. You can interview 15 candidates for free and  opt for an upgrade if you like it and want to continue using it.

The other nifty tool that I’ve come to love is www.zoho.com  This great applicant tracking system keeps everything simple, is very effective and frees up your time to concentrate on sourcing talent. With just a few clicks you can post jobs to multiple job boards, review c.v’s,reach and organise candidates and book in interviews. Source, engage, manage, how simple is that!    

So get rid of any recruitment headaches and try out the recommended tools  

you can follow Julie on Twitter @jobhopjulie 

How many times do we say "8 out of 10 employers now search on line for a candidate" ?

So could you lure the perfect employer by changing your Twitter name? perhaps to 

@carsalessteve  @phpdeveloperPaul  @ LandscapegardenerJill 

Do you make sure that your tweets are linking back to your professional profile? (preferably your Job Hop Profile ) Is your profile packed out with the expertise and skills that the employer is looking for?

Why not link your tweet back to your Job Hop Blog and your future employer can leave a comment for you.

Try stalking the companies on Twitter that you want to work for and engage in conversations with them. If they are asking questions then make sure you reply with the answers, even if you have to google the answers!

Set up TweetDeck for the companies that you want to work at and follow the conversations they're having.

Set up a Twitter list for Recruiters, check into it daily and see what new jobs they're looking to fill.

Why not try and get a job at Twitter  follow their recruitment department @JoinTheFlock

Twitter is another platform for you to build relationships with the right people. Before you know it you will be at the forefront of employers minds when it comes to them filling a vacancy.

Finding Jobs In Norwich

Norwich is a lovely place to work with plenty of scenic places to walk during your lunch break!A huge variety of different Businesses Bernard Mathews, John Lewis, Bertram Books, Makro's, Bupa as well as many small businesses.

Norwich boasts a huge Research Park, Norwich Research Park where you'll find Norwich & Norfolk University Hospital, The University of East Anglia, The Sainsbury Laboratory & The John Innes Centre.

The East side is the place to watch with The Broadland Business Park which already has plenty of businesses on there & continues to grow.

The Tourism Sector is always busy In Norwich, it is a place people flock to on sunny days & a great Holiday destination.It also has it's own airport, Norwich International Airport & guess what it's expanding, so that means jobs!

Whenever you hear a company intends to expand then you must act immediately find out who the right contact is & find out when they are interviewing.Read The Eastern Daily Press religously as they will report when companies are intending to expand.

If you want to get a job in travel then get in front of the companies & you'll find them at Travel fairs which you'll find being held at The Norwich International Airport & Hotels such as The Holiday Inn. Here you can find out who the contact is , perhaps introduce yourself to them there & then at the event & offer to ring them or send your c.v to them.

It doesn't have to stop at Travel fairs check out all the fairs & see whether you would like to work in that field. If you're a dressmaker or a cake decorator perhaps you should check out the Wedding fairs & put yourself in front of the companies that exhibit there. There are numerous weding Fairs in Norwich, The Caistor Hall Hotel, The Oaklands Hotel & Sprowston Manor hold them regularly.

Get in front of employers at Business to Business events. Be fully equipped with a 1 page summary about yourself with a photo attached, hand them to the businesses that you know you would be suited for. You can ask for them to be passed to whoever recruits for the company or you may get to speak to that person at the event. By leaving them something you can say that you will contact them in a couple of days to talk some more. Businesses love pro active people.

 Try out the All about Business event at Carrow rd in March & The Challenge Norfolk 100 in February.Get a list of all the networking events in Norwich & start attending them. At these networks you will be chatting over a coffee & some nibbles with the Managing Directors of companies, what a perfect opportunity to get noticed. Some that you will find in Norwich are 4N, The Business Club, Business Womens Network , Wire, The Weetu Network , Antidote & 25am

Of course you can also register at the many recruitment companies around Norwich Cocoabean , select  ,  14recruitment  & have a look at whats on offer at The Norwich Job Centre. 

The Passive Candidate

You know who you are!

You are really playing the game, you're working smart not hard. You have created the perfect profile & it is on JobHop & Linkedin. 

You've branded yourself, you're known as an expert in what you do, your profile photo is professional & is consistent throughout the networks. You regularly blog, post videos & contribute to groups & forums.

If anyone asks you are you looking for a job you will say No however if your dream job was offered to you then of course you wouldn't say no!

You are not an active Job seeker you are a passive job seeker, you are the one that employers really want & you know it! 

So you're in the job market voluntary or you've been put there, or you're considering entering the job market. It's such an effort though you have to update your c.v , register with recruitment agencies, read untold job adverts, constantly phone people and buy a new suit!

There are a few things that you can do to make it slightly easier for yourself. The main thing is to be organised, make a job folder & get a job diary.
In your job folder (fold out type or on your p.c)you should keep research material, contact names, copies of c.vs & your daily call list ( this is a list of companies that you cold call on a daily basis, companies that haven't got a job advertised but you have to convince them that they need you) In your job diary keep interview dates and details & follow up call dates recorded. Make sure reminders are set either on your P.C or your phone so you never ever forget to make that important call.

Do not procrastinate write out your daily plan the night before & make sure your most dreaded/difficult call is done first ( Eat that Frog) then the rest of the day is easy.
Experts say that 75% of jobs are filled by referrals so keep circulating!
Subscribe to Trade magazines & look out for events & seminars where you can meet new contacts.

Do not send out the same c.v to everyone, always make sure it matches the job description & highlight what they are looking for.

Make sure that any on line c.vs/resumes are packed with key words therefore making it quicker for employers to find you.

Don't send c.v's in as an attachment make sure you paste them into the body of the email, you have to make it as easy & quick as possible for someone to read it. If the attachment takes a while to open then it may never get opened.

If you've received an application form then always send in your c.v also, however never put on your form as a reply to a question "see my c.v"

Look out for Business expansions because expansions means Jobs!

And that suit, do you really need a new one? Look through your wardobe & see what you can put together before you rush out to spend your money.

We'd like to give you a phone interview. O.k it's not quite a full on interview however this is your chance & you must make it your objective to get a face to face interview.

If a representative calls you to make an appointment time with you make sure that you get the details of the person ringing you. You want their full name and their position in the company.

With this valuable information you are then going to google this person & find out as much information as possible about her/him. Have they recently won any awards? Has there been any press releases involving them? Do you have any mutual interests which you could slip into the interview somehow...  ie If you get asked "What additional skills did you bring to your last company that you worked for?" and you say "I use to voluntary organise the annual golfing tournament so that we could network with our clients in a fun way" Knowing full well the interviewer is a keen golfer then you will get a big tick!

It's also handy if their e mail addresses appear in the search as you could then send them an e mail just saying that today his/her colleague booked a phone interview on Tues at 10am with them and that you are looking forward to it. ( Little things like this can really impress an interviewer)

Whilst you are on Google I shouldn't have to tell you that you must find out as much as possible about the company and the position that you are applying for.

You will get asked "So tell me what do you know about our company?" and you say "I don't really know anything but I do see your vans now and then" Will not go down well.

So the day & time has been set & you know who is going to ring you and the number they will ring you on is... I hope you haven't given them a mobile number to ring you on. The reason being is that sods law they will be slightly early & you'll be driving, parking the car up, still in the middle of the shopping mall or worse still you have no signal! Always make sure they ring you on a land line & pencil out 15mins prior to the call so you are sitting by the phone in case they ring early.

Don't play games & wait 10 rings before you answer, you will be expected to answer  the phone immediately.

If the interviewer hears Jeremy Kyle, Loose women, or Countdown in the background they will be immediately put off. The television must be switched off. Even if you think it sounds cool to have the stocks and shares on Bloomberg going on in the background it's best not to, most interviewers will want the environment totally quiet.

Children and dogs must be as far away from you as possible, you do not want to be trying to talk over a dog barking madly at the postman or a baby screaming because it's hungry, or a child asking for a biscuit..no no no! The interviewer may love dogs and children but all they will be hearing at the end of the phone is chaos and they will think that you are chaotic.

Never let your children pick up the phone and then shout out Mummy/Daddy it's for you, or I had one once where I had booked a 2pm phone interview and the child answered and said Daddy is sleeping! I didn't ring back.

Once you are on the phone chatting happily to your interviewer remain standing as this up lifts your body & helps your breathing and remember to smile. An interviewer can detect in your voice if you are miserable, not smiling, stern or generally don't have a good attitude. Always smile and sound focused and positive.

Do not mumble or umm and err. Do not keep using the same word over and over again, like "you know what I mean, so I had to get the clients to use it, you know what I mean" or " Basically, yes it's simple really, basically what you do is basically" or "you know where I'm coming from, it was quite funny really but I had to say it, you know where I'm coming from"  I hear so many and I cringe. My advice is that perhaps you get a member of your family or a friend to regularly get you to talk for a few minutes at a time about any old object & you are not allowed to umm or err or say anything repetitive. Doing this regularly will definitely improve how you present yourself, you will become a lot more aware of what you are saying.

The interviewer will ask you a list of questions in front of them and they are either the same questions that they ask everyone or a couple will be swapped round.

They may ask about your present or last job, what type of person you are, what salary you're after, what are your strengths & weaknesses, why are you applying for the position with them and so on. You must be prepared to just reel the answers off.

Remember that your objective is get a face to face interview so ask them some questions, have your list in front of you. Saying something like " When I was looking at your web site I noticed that you were expanding the design side more, would my skills be useful here as well?" This sounds great because it shows you've really researched the company & that you could be put to many uses.

Always ask " What additional information would you like from me?" and give them a link to your professional profile on JobHop or LinkedIn.

When the time comes for them to say Good bye make sure that you say "When is the best time to follow up with you?" If they say give it a couple of days you must make sure to say that will give them a call at a particular time on a particular day, then proceed to say Thank you very much & I look forward to talking more on Tues, Weds,or whenever you'd arranged.

Good luck

The Best Tip to get a Job

is to Brand & promote yourself.

Make getting your dream job your business &  take tips from successful businesses.

A successful business has a brand & always promotes itself,  their aim should be to create a fan base.

If you wanted to buy a computer you would probably get loads of people who have & love Apple, they will try to convince you to buy an Apple.

If you wanted to buy a good quality beautiful smelling soap with no chemicals, then Fans of Lush may convince you to buy Lush.

So the same with you, you need to create a fan base via branding & promoting yourself.

How?

Lets look at what you want to do.

Make up artist, goes without saying your make up should be impeccable however there are lots out there that don't even try at their own & how many times have you come across a hairdresser with awful hair! A wardrobe stylist should dress well, a cleaner should have a clean home, A declutterer should have a well organised office & a  P.A shouldn't be dizzy & constantly losing their keys!

You need to become the person & start your personal brand, it's about how you look, how you act, how you talk, what makes you unique?When you are branding yourself make sure it follows through with everything ie if you are telling people you are a family man make sure you're not seen out every week end with a different woman. If You want a top job at a law firm then dont let the photos of you with your boobs out on Face Book be seen.

Get out there & promote yourself, let everyone know what you do & that you're available. Eventually you will gain fans,once you have fans they will talk about you & promote you. i.e If somebody asks me if I know a good builder, web site designer, haidresser, dog groomer there is someone  I would promote for each of those jobs because I am a loyal fan.

Become the person become the brand then promote & gain fans.

Social Networking is becoming the fastest growing way of filling a job vacancy and the easiest way for potential employees to look for job vacancies.

The recession has also changed the ways in how Companies recruit and it has most definitely helped in growing the Recruitment Social networking phenomenon.

Companies can no longer afford the recruitment agency fees and some fees are huge so they are looking for alternatives.

Recruitment networking is so straightforward as well, companies just post their vacancies on Twitter, Job Hop, Face book (and if they wish the many others out there) and contain a link back to their company and job details.

In some cases the response can be overwhelming, where the vacancy has been passed on and retweeted etc.  You do need to be exact in what you require as it's best to get a few excellent ones than hundreds that you are not sure about.

The beauty for the employer is that they don't have to just go on a c.v prior to interviewing. Through social networking sites if the candidate seems suitable then you can get a better insight to that person by viewing their profile, reading their blogs, checking out pics and videos etc

For the potential candidate they have to keep their profile up to date and really treat it like their shop window to advertise themselves. It may be an idea to have a personal and a professional profile to keep things seperate or use a site like Job Hop purely for your professional job seeking profile.

And of course social networking is Free!

So is it the end of the Recruitment Agency?

Economists are saying that every 4 out of 5 jobs lost belonged to a man.

Approximately 287,000 people lost their jobs in the first 3 months of 2009 and the majority of that number were men.

How do men feel when this happens to them? A lot feel like they should be the bread winner, the head of the family and will feel shame and guilt.

A lot of men will start to be depressed especially after trying to search for a new job and find that most doors are closed.

Some women are taking upon themselves to get out there and get any work that will bring in the money jobs such as cleaning, school cook, carers, dog walking, child minding. When it comes to the man though a lot will not want to take on any work that they feel could be beneath them. Friction can start to happen at home and currently Relate reports a rise in marital problems due to the credit crunch and job losses.

Perhaps men need to take a back seat for a bit and don't beat themselves up about it. Job losses are happening so take this opportunity and learn a new skill.

Three million vocational qualifications were awarded last year and the number of schools offering them in the last 12 months has doubled.

So men don't crumble see this as a challenge and just do something different.

Ask yourself was that the job you really wanted to be in after all? sometimes something negative can turn into something positive....

JobHop is here! It all started from an idea that some people are in jobs that they really don't like. The reason for that is a regular pay cheque, lucky to have any job, haven't got time to join recruitment agencies, and they had given up on getting their dream job anyway.

What if there was a place where they could stay at their secure job whilst letting other Hoppers and employers know what they would really like to be doing..No risk if a better job or their dream job comes along then Hop!

And as an employer myself I was tired of paying expensive recruitment fees and I thought that the ideal candidate is probably in a job somewhere and I have no way of making contact with them. If there was a place where i could see people that may be in jobs but if they were offered their dream job they would be enticed.

So Job Hop was born 2 years later! Yes it took that long!

Of course there will still be improvements to be made so please e mail any feedback as that would be very much appreciated.

We have only been live a few days and we have had one drama when the site crashed ! It took hours to be put right however I am told that if anything like that happens again it can now be fixed straight away. Perhaps that was a positive thing to happen early doors then, we all love a challenge don't we!