Will Work For Klout

This picture of me was snapped recently at a local mall and it’s for realz!  Can you believe it? Me, Leslie Mason, reduced to soliciting social media scores on the street corner. Am I the only person who measures their social success by their Klout score and what in the world is going on???

My Klout score is dropping and I am concerned... not panicked yet but on the verge.  After all I worked really hard to get it up to 63 at its peak and three weeks ago it dropped below 59.  

Thankfully it recovered but just today when I checked it was back at 59, causing a sinking feeling in my stomach as well as a bit of dizziness.  Monitoring my Klout score has been a roller coaster ride for me over the past few months and I can’t figure out what is driving this behavior.  

I have carefully maintained all my social networks, judiciously sharing content and engaging with others and trying to spread out my interaction over all the sites that Klout monitors; LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Blogger, Instagram, Foursquare and Wordpress. What am I doing wrong?  Recruiters rely on their social media brand.  It is an indicator of our success, right?  I need to figure out Klout’s secret sauce… is it weighted heavier for sharing original content?  Most of the Klout heavyweights are publications or blogs.  Maybe I’m on to something!   

My company, Intuit, uses a methodology we call Lean StartIN which is a process of rapid experimentation.  We are applying it across the enterprise, including Talent Acquisition.  For my purposes, I want to test the impact of one blog posting on my Klout score over a period of time to see if this will move the needle… hopefully increasing my score.  I will monitor results and report back to you.  

If the experiment is a success my Klout score will hit 65 (an all time high) and if it reaches 70 I will share a video of me dancing a jig like Michael Flatly, the Lord of the Dance (I am Irish after all).  Or better yet... I'll do the Harlem Shake or celebrate GANGNAM STYLE… in fact I’ll post a poll and let YOU vote to decide which artistic celebration of dance you prefer.  This would actually count as another Lean StartIN experiment… look out, I’m on a roll!

For this experiment I will need your help, Dear Reader.  My ask of you is to please tweet, retweet, share, post, comment, like, +1 and utilize any other method of social sharing of my article to spread the word.  I’m also calling in the Big Guns… feeling a comeback!

Friends and Coworkers:

You know who you are, but like the academy awards I only have limited space to call out names. Forgive me for those that have been omitted.  

@StacyZapar friend and social rockstar… I’m happy to ride on your Klout coat tails anytime. ;)

@ghouston @aaroneden @LeanStartIN @JorgenSundberg @StephenMonaco @adriandparker @BillVick @ray_anne @smheadhunter @nmailey @crizzcoxx @scottaxel @fishdogs @philohme  @Mike_Anas @SherYoung @LindaBurkard @PHXRecruit @keli_intuit @KMGoodall @mint @Intuit @QuickBooks @turbotax @IntuitInc @IntuitPayroll @IntuitAccts @GoPayment @IntuitCareers 

Please… hook a sister up!!!

Shameless Self Promotion (really cry for help):

@Mashable @TechCrunch @twitter @LinkedIn @YouTube @Facebook @hootsuite @Google @instagram @Forbes @HuffingtonPost @GuyKawasaki @scobleizer @dannysullivan and all you other Captains of Klout out there… you have my permission to share and repost my content. 

And last but certainly not least:

@StephenAtHome Award winning twitter celebrity superstar that you are… I’d be thrilled just to see @leslie12002 show up in your timeline

Hmmm… wonder if @Klout would use this article in their blog?  Stay tuned for part deux… hope to see you on my timeline!

Leslie Mason @leslie12002

Find Me on:  

Defining Your Online Brand

Everyone knows what a brand is… most people associate it with a product or a company like Cheetos® or Nike®.  We have been talking about Corporate Brand in the recruiting industry for quite awhile and now Personal Brand has become just as popular.  You hear it on everything from the Wall Street Journal to America’s Next Top Model.  What exactly does Personal Brand mean and do you really need one? 

I teach a workshop on personal branding so I read a lot of articles on this subject.  Today I read an article by Jasmine Sandler about How to Create a Visible and Engaging LinkedIn Profile that also explains personal branding extremely well.  I would like to take it outside of LinkedIn and apply it to your career goals and personal life. 

What is it?  Your Personal Brand is basically what people think about you.  How they see you at work, in real life and more and more importantly these days, online.  Going one step further, what they will say about you to their friends, associates and colleagues. 

Why do you need one?  Even if you don’t think you need one, you have one. It might not be what you would expect.  People are forming opinions about you based on their interactions with you, word of mouth (what they see and hear about you) and how you present yourself.  You need to take control of how people view you and show yourself in the best light.  Good lighting is crucial for a great picture and you are creating a picture of yourself for the world to see.  If you are a job-seeker you need a strong, positive personal brand to attract prospective employers, present who you are and get interviews.  As an employee you need a good brand at work to make the best possible impression, define how you can contribute to the organization and advance your career. 

How do you do it right?  You should start by knowing yourself, your capabilities, and the direction you want to go and then start building your brand.  A key place to start is building a powerful online brand.  This will be the cornerstone of your personal brand.  The article I reference earlier is a great example of building out your LinkedIn profile which is the most important professional social network at this time.  You should also create profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and maybe even Pinterest to share your perspective and establish credibility.  Show your personality and let people see your thinking, world view and sense of humor.  (Remember to constantly manage and adjust privacy settings to only show professional pictures and interactions.)

Start Building Credibility… when you develop your online profile, make sure people can find you when searching by using key words that are the most relevant and make sure your profile reflects those key words.  Be sure and publish your recommendations and accomplishments. Highlight your successes… share the conferences you are attending, articles you have published and accolades received.  Stay informed… subscribe to publications like Forbes, Bloomberg, Tech Crunch and follow your favorite companies and people. Join groups related to your industry and comment on the articles that interest you or that especially touched or informed you.  Engage in conversations, share your expertise!  Be consistent, select a unified theme for all social media so people will easily recognize you everywhere. 

Become a Subject Matter Expert… decide what you want to be known for and make sure people know you for that.  Share your opinions, educate and inform others.  You can start by creating a blog.  It doesn't have to be super high tech, many sites like Blogger are very easy to use and set up.  Create engaging content about whatever you are passionate about and share your passion with the world.  Finally network and make connections… you never know where that next speaking engagement invitation or job offer will come from. 

Remember the three fundamentals… Be Seen, Be Heard and Be Respected. See you online!

Secrets To Successful Recruiting

Do you ever wonder what makes some recruiters so successful while others don’t seem to be able to produce great results?  I’ve been in the business for a long time and worked with many, many recruiters in both agency and corporate environments.  The great ones are happy to share their knowledge and secrets of success and I am an enthusiastic learner.  Allow me to share what I have learned with you and I would love to hear back what you have learned on your recruiting journeys.  What I have discovered is there are 4 basic skills that every successful recruiter has mastered.  They are; sales, smarts, savvy and storytelling. 

Sales:

Recruiting is basically all about selling… you sell the candidate on the job and you sell the hiring manager on the candidate.  Agency recruiters have to use super sales techniques to cold call into companies and sell the hiring managers on using an agency and paying a fee.  Corporate recruiters also face challenges in convincing hiring managers who assume calling their job out to an agency is the only way to get top tier candidates.  They have to convince their hiring managers to give them time to source, screen and submit qualified candidates that didn’t apply to the posting.  Then they sell them on why they should interview the candidates they have recruited.  Both face the ultimate challenge of convincing that perfect purple squirrel candidate to accept their role which, when successful, can be a feat of infinite magic and a wonder to behold.  This is one of the best feelings a recruiter will ever have… taking a stellar passive candidate, presenting them with their ideal job, arranging all the interviews, negotiating offer details and finally getting the signed offer letter… talk about time to celebrate and pat yourself on the back!  In the agency world we used to ring a bell when that happened and sometimes I feel like ringing a bell now when closing a really challenging req… if not ringing a bell then at least popping a cork.  J

Smarts:  

Recruiters have to be experts in their fields.  They are super sleuths like Nick Charles or Jake Gittes (“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”), private detectives prowling the cities and cyberspace… first finding top tier candidates; researching where they work and play, finding contact information and getting them into a conversation before they can even present a job opportunity to them.  Some great recruiters can work without any tools at all… just their intellect and industry knowledge.  I know one recruiter who only recruits for specific industry professionals so he pretty much knows all the players and has their contact information so that when he gets an order from a competitor, he just picks up the phone and starts dialing for dollars.  Other great recruiters use all the tools available.  (I happen to fall into this camp.)  We need tools not toys.  ATS, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Blogs, ZoomInfo, Boolean searches… you name it we use it!  We are building a social network and a personal brand to attract and engage with leaders in our industries.  I love it when I find people using new tools like Pinterest and can speak to them about their interests and interacting with new people who find me on Twitter and Google+. 

Savvy: 

To paraphrase a Kenny Rogers song… you won’t get very far as a recruiter unless you know when to hold em, know when to fold em, know when to walk away and know when to run.  You never count your money when you’re sittin at the table...  Recruiters are like gamblers in a way; they have to read people and know what motivates them, when and how to approach them and how to give them what they want so that everyone wins.  This is a fine art and a skill that is honed over the years.  Every now and then you will come across a natural born recruiter but most have been seasoned, tried and proven thru fire.  They know what works because they have made mistakes and had great successes and learned from them both.

Storytelling:

If you can’t tell a story about the company you are representing or why this particular job is so wonderful for that particular person at that particular time in their career, you probably won’t see stellar results.  On the flip side, you have to tell the candidate’s story to the hiring manager so that they will understand how that particular candidate will successfully meet their needs for their team at that moment.  Great recruiters use their storytelling skills to paint a picture of the role they are recruiting for, the company culture, innovation in the industry, career path, success stories from former people in that role, what it would be like to work with that team, current projects and cool new projects on the horizon that they can be a part of from day one… you get the picture.  Some people think that if you offer a candidate enough money they will take your job.  They couldn’t be more wrong.  People change jobs for many different reasons but in my experience only about 20% or less focus solely on salary… it is usually the type of work they will be doing, who they are working with and if they will be challenged and afforded new growth and learning opportunities.  My hiring managers are interested in why candidates do what they do… what motivates them and gets them out of bed every day.  A passion for what they do and the fire to make things happen and make a difference… that’s what our hiring managers look for in potential candidates, we have even started hiring to our values in some roles over technical expertise, especially in customer care roles.  You can teach technology but you can’t teach desire, drive and a heart for the customer.  

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

I would wager that it wasn’t a recruiter.  This was a question I used to jokingly ask my potential candidates to break the ice, get them relaxed and open up.  Usually they would say something like “I’ll let you know when I decide to grow up” or “retired” or simply “employed”.   Funny, they all seem to hold true, even today.  I don’t ask that question anymore but the “retired” answer seems to be more and more attractive to me now.  If not retired, then maybe ready for my next stage of life that allows me to work part time from a remote tropical location and do what I love.  That could include recruiting or something to do with social media… maybe I’ll be like Bethenny Frankel and have an online empire and fabulously successful blog… WHAT… it could happen! 

My friend, Dennis Smith, recently posted an Infographic on his blog jobgeeks.com of the most popular jobs since 1970.  His comment was that he didn’t see “recruiting” anywhere on the list.  This made me smile and reminded me that when I graduated college with a BFA in Advertising Art, the world of recruiting was as unknown to me as outer space.  After all, I was going to be an advertising executive for the Richards Group working on incredibly creative campaigns like Chick-Fil-A and winning CLIO awards that I would display in my super chic, urban loft. 

Two years later I was still tending bar (a lucrative skill I picked up while working my way through college) and doing small projects for friends and customers like designing logos, business cards, signs, flyers, etc.  Not exactly the career I had mapped out.  But I was getting by and had a flexible schedule, no bills to speak of and kept a bag packed in the trunk of my car in case a spur of the moment trip materialized (which they often did, usually scuba diving over the weekend in Cozumel).  One day a friend of mine (who had been trying to recruit me to work for her at a Personnel Agency for months) came into the restaurant and pointed to a 40 something waitress working there and said that was going to be me in 20 years.  Suddenly I was considering a career transition…

After all Patty pointed out that I would be a natural recruiter… I had the perfect combination of sales, smarts, savvy, and storytelling (another skill I picked up bartending).  Hey maybe I should trademark that as the 4 S’s of successful recruiting – that could launch my online empire.  Stay tuned for my next blog…   

The next week I was working in an office in the Galleria Tower I for $800 a month draw vs. commission.  Somehow this seemed like a step back but not one to wimp out, I persevered and was given a desk, a marketing script and the yellow pages and told to start “dialing for dollars”.   This was my introduction into the world of recruiting… I was now a Full Desk Recruiter!  Turns out I was a recruiting natural and indeed have become moderately successful in this unplanned career.  Even though at times the path has been rocky (2002 was a really, really rough year) it’s always been interesting and I have lots of wonderful stories to tell.  Case in point – let’s revisit an earlier blog posting.  

Of all the recruiters I know, only a handful actually planned for this career.  Most like me, stumbled upon it and found success and an aptitude.  It’s not for everyone, but neither is blogging or social media which is the turn my recruiting career is taking me at the moment.  I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be writing this blog if I hadn’t made that decision 20 years ago.   

I’ve told you mine, now you tell me yours… what is your story… how did you become a recruiter?  

Evolution of the Mobile Phone… from Talking to Texting to Working

I remember my first mobile phone… do you?  Go back to the early 90’s with me (yes I said early 90’s).  My husband sold automotive accessories and was always lugging around this huge brick that he would use to make calls. Imagine the giant handheld device with a foot long antenna.  It was bigger than the satellite phones we use today.  

He lugged that phone everywhere and I’m sure everyone thought he was incredibly cool and hip.  It was a great conversation ice breaker.  I didn’t really see the value of having a mobile phone until he installed one in my car (yes, installed). 

At the time I was working for a temporary staffing agency as an outside sales representative.  My territory was pretty much all of Dallas and I spent the better part of my day in my car.  Having that phone in my car turned out to be one of the best gifts he ever gave me and initiated my relationship with mobile phones.  A love affair that continues and deepens every day! 

 

My next phone was a smaller handheld device… anyone remember these puppies?

Enter the SmartPhone… I’ll never give mine up.  You will have to pry my iPhone out of my cold, dead hand.  All my contacts, photos, emails, personal information – everything I need is on that phone.  I enabled the MobileMe locator in the event that I have a stroke or something and somehow it becomes misplaced.  My daughter started college and we have been talking over Face Time – she has a Mac computer and called my iPhone.  Now that I have my iPad we don’t even need a phone or phone number to talk. 

I’m now on my second iPhone (will have to pay full price for the iPhone5 now) and received a package from the Apple store yesterday with my new iPad2 in it.  SWEET!!! Couldn’t wait to get it synced and start using it.  

I’ll probably use it now more than my iPhone since the screen is larger and I can actually see the WebPages.  This will replace my laptop now when I’m out and about.  I can work, take notes, make videos, face time, the possibilities are endless!   

This made me realize just how far we have come with wireless devices.  We started talking on our mobile phones.  Then they introduced this little tool called texting… what a game changer!  Any of you who have children are texting pros I’m sure.  I actually prefer to text now and find that I don’t use all of my monthly minutes anymore, even downsized to the minimum package.  From texting I have noticed that I’m using my mobile phone more for work now since my Outlook is on my phone and I use at least 5 Social Media apps daily. 

My iPhone has become my mobile wallet and is used mostly for the apps and for those occasional phone calls or in case of emergency.  Can’t wait to see what’s around the corner… isn’t technology amazing?  

Just call me +Leslie

That’s right… I’m in Google+… totally socially networked now.  Are you impressed?  I’m overwhelmed!

Just when I was getting accustomed to using my twitter handle @leslie12002 (which I still use in my signatures and is a great way to reach me) along comes the new social network, Google+.  Thank goodness I have connections and was able to get past the bouncer at the door.  Now I’m at the club, just had my first trip to the bar but still watching the crowd to see what’s up.  Not sure I’m ready to get out on the dance floor yet.  Don’t want to give away all my moves until I’m sure this is a place I want to hang out.  Also I haven’t quite figured out yet all the security issues, the bouncer seems like a capable and reasonably good guy but will he be there if I get in trouble? 

My first thoughts are to keep this social network for my cool, socially connected friends who share relevant information with a twist of humor.  What I don’t want is another invitation to Farmville.  I’m a big city girl after all… or is that wicked city woman?   I started with just my immediate contacts in my circles, and then I found a list of all the Google employees and decided I had to have  a circle for them.  Is there a limit to circles?  Can I assign which circles come into my home stream?  What I really need is a HootSuite for Google+… has anyone found one? 

Looking over my 2 week old Google+ ecosystem… I now have 13 circles created thus far, 128 people in my circles with 32 people adding me to their circles.  I have no idea how these people found me or why they want me in their circle, I’m not sharing relevant or witty information yet (remember, still at the bar).  My first instinct is that they want to sell/send/spam something to me or even worse – stalk me!  (Of course I intend to use it for recruiting purposes, after all my momma didn't raise no dumb babies.) 

  

The jury is still out on Google+… for now I’ll continue to monitor my stream and selectively add to my circles.  I'm open to suggestions and creative solutions.  Let me know if you have anything that will sway me, all I need is a good reason to bust a move! 

LinkedIn Improved Email Settings Features

Someone at LinkedIn must have read my previous post... have you seen the new features under your settings page?  (I don’t remember it being this way before, but then again, my memory isn’t exactly the steel trap it was in my youth.)  They have made it much easier and more organic to manage all your email settings now by adding the new email preferences link that allows you to control how all email is sent to you.  Click on the settings tab (hover over your name) in the top right corner and land on this page:

Now if you click on the Email Preferences Tab you can manage messaging to you via email:


   
• Select the types of messages you're willing to receive
• Set the frequency of emails
• Select who can send you invitations
• Set the frequency of group digest emails


 
 
 
And you can manage how LinkedIn pushes information to you via email by clicking on the Frequency of Emails link. All this in one place!
 



• InMails
• Invitations
• Messages
• Group emails
• Announcements
• Status updates
• Notifications
• Network Activity
• And several others including LinkedIn Partner Emails


 
 
 
Thank you LinkedIn! 

Too Much Information? Easy Steps to Manage your LinkedIn Status Updates & LI Twitter Stream

Recently I received an email from one of my LinkedIn connections requesting that I “remove him from my list”. This person is a connection that I know personally and I was surprised at the email since I don’t have a list and wasn’t sure what he meant. Turns out he was referring to the frequency of my LinkedIn status updates… seems he had all his connections status updates set to come to his inbox and my daily updates were becoming “too much noise”.

For a recruiter, this can be a fine (on) line to walk… how many updates are necessary and how many are too much? My solution was to twofold… to show my connection how to manage his LinkedIn Status Updates and for me to manage my LinkedIn tweets and only post the tweets especially relevant to my network and my role as a recruiter. Seems I have gotten a bit overenthusiastic on twitter lately. 

My part was accomplished by going to my LinkedIn settings under “manage twitter preferences” and checking the box to only post my tweets with #in instead of every tweet that was going out.

For all of you out there who are having this problem, here are the steps to manage your LinkedIn Status Updates so that you won’t be affected by all the online noise.  This is how you can turn off status updates on your LinkedIn Profile and you won’t receive any of them at all in your stream:


1. Go to your LinkedIn profile and click on your name in the top right corner

2. Click on SETTINGS

3. Click on the ACCOUNT tab on the left bottom of the page

4. Under settings – click on “customize updates you see on your home page”

5. Under the General tab uncheck the “status updates from your connections”

Hope this helps… we are all out here in the sphere together… let’s all try and get along.

Five Reasons Why I Love My Job

All the headlines I read today seem to contain numbers; 13 Strangest Ways People Found Out Bin Laden Died, 3 Traits of the Most Compelling Internet Companies, 6 Tips to Improve Your Cover Letter, The 3 P’s of Success, 10 Tips To Get People To Act On Your Emails, Top 10 Corporate Blogs and 33 Clever and Creative Billboard Ads. Are we becoming a society reduced to getting our information fed to us in list form? This actually works for me as I constantly multi task and am easily distracted. (oohhh, something shiny...)

Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, back to numbers. If I can recall my numerology training, we could have a little fun figuring out the meaning of all these numbers. Today is turning out to be my day of Fives… which was actually the numerology value of my maiden name. Now 5 is the number of senses we have and is a very tactile number, describing feelings, sensations and emotions.

All my tweets so far today have been about Fives… 5 Ways to Be More Efficient on Twitter, 5 Top Mobile Marketing Myths and 5 Best Practices for Travel and Tourism Brands on Facebook. I must be feeling the love because to continue with this theme, I’m dedicating my blog today to the Top 5 Reasons I Love My Job. There are way more than just 5 reasons I love my job… there are many reasons why Intuit has been on Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 Employers List for the past decade. In fact last year, we moved up to number 44… not too shabby! So let’s have a big GROUP HUG and find out my personal top 5:

1. My passion: I love recruiting and especially enjoy my role as a strategic sourcing recruiter. We receive extensive training in cutting edge social media recruiting tactics, encouraged to blog, tweet, make videos, post on Facebook and YouTube.

2. My colleagues: I am working with the best group of people! They are truly supportive, helpful and appreciative of the work we all do, always ready to help out wherever possible and provide positive feedback

3. Company culture: We have a flexible workplace, collaborative environment that encourages innovation and personal development, and is friendly, open and positive

4. Our Products: Intuit has a suite of products that address almost every financial management need for consumers and small businesses. We have the opportunity to work on reqs for high demand, cutting edge technology and business processes in areas like; Mobile, Social Media, SaaS, Global and Data

5. Recognition: My managers are quick to respond, eager to assist, understanding of challenges, appreciative and recognize achievements

In over 20 years of work, I have had the opportunity to work for some amazing and some not so amazing companies. Intuit is right at the very top of my personal “Best Place to Work”!

Data Driven Decision Making - YouTube as a Recommendation Engine?

Those of you who have been following my tweets are aware that I have been strongly evangelizing my company's involvement in our push to “data driven decision making”. We are offering our products as online/SaaS offerings as well as mobile applications. With this direction, data becomes more and more a priority and talking point.

From Intuit’s business perspective… one of our greatest assets is in the data we collect through our software and services for small businesses and general consumers. Our goal is to transform our data assets into innovative services to better serve our customers. We are currently in the process of transforming our DaaA strategy... specifically in web analytics. We are focusing our efforts on data driven insights on customer behavior, customer acquisition and lifetime value. Over the course of the next two years we will be building a linked collection of data assets to provide near real-time market intelligence to our internal and external customers.

From our recruiting perspective… how do we use data as a two way experience in our recruiting efforts; for a better candidate experience as well as from a branding and awareness recruiting best practice? Being on the forefront of Social Media recruiting, I am taking this discussion to the cloud and would appreciate your insights as candidates, customers, colleagues and interested parties.

Intuit Careers already has a strong presence on Facebook as demonstrated by the data we receive from fans and downloads of our video chat presentations. We also have a strong LinkedIn presence with our Intuit Careers page, Alumni Community, Data and Insights Community and many other Intuit product pages. We are also seeing more and more candidates following and interacting with Intuit Careers on twitter (follow @intuitcareers and our list of Intuit Recruiters).

Going one step further I am proposing using our YouTube channel as a recommendation engine and am asking you to visit Intuit Careers on YouTube where we have many videos posted about our products, culture and our various business units. Go ahead… surf, browse, view, play, share and most of all comment! We want your opinions/feedback/suggestions here: www.youtube.com/intuitcareers.

Pease give us your honest feedback as your insights will help us shape and improve the way we interact with you through our social media channels. Stay tuned… more to follow!

Why Intuit employees agree with Fortunes Best Places to Work designation

Networking to Find a Job… Are You Using LinkedIn?

There is just no getting around it… LinkedIn has become the major player in networking. Whether you are looking for sales contacts, employees, or just company information; this should be your first stop on the research train. If you are unemployed, underemployed or just looking for that dream job… this tool could just be your ticket.

Recruiters have been using LinkedIn for years to source passive candidates. Why don’t you join the party and use LinkedIn to network for a job? Intuit is proud to have the most connected woman on LinkedIn as a part of our Right Talent team. Stacy Zapar has over 30,000 first degree LinkedIn connections and she will be on the Intuit Careers Live Video Career Advice Series Facebook Chat on Thursday, February 17th at 11:00 am PST.

No matter if you are a seasoned LinkedIn Uber user or a relative Newbie to the tool, you will find something to take away from this chat. Please join Stacy Zapar tomorrow as she discusses how to use LinkedIn in your job search.
Participating is simple. Log on to www.facebook.com/intuitcareers and click on the chat and blogs tab on the left hand side of our page up to 10 minutes prior to the chat beginning. You do not need a webcam to participate. After Stacy’s presentation you will be able to text chat in your questions for Stacy to answer live.

And while you're at it... if we are not already connected on LinkedIn… here is a QuickLink invitation to join my network: http://bit.ly/feKQg0. Hope to connect with you soon and Happy Networking!

Live Facebook Video Chat Tomorrow ~ Career Advice Series ~ Intuit Careers

Mark your calendars and join us tomorrow. Intuit Careers resident career advice expert and social media leader, Gail Houston, will be hosting a live video chat on our Facebook page tomorrow… here are the details. Hope to see you there!


You are invited to attend the Intuit Careers Live Video Chat Career Advice Series Tuesday, Feb 8th at 11PST. Gail Houston from Intuit, co-lead of Crossroads Career Transition Workshop will teach applicants how to create a resume that will get noticed – even if you are entry level. Participating is simple. Log into Facebook up to 10 minutes prior to the chat beginning. You do not need a webcam to participate. After Gail’s presentation you will be able to text chat in your questions for Gail to answer live.

Facebook Link - http://www.facebook.com/intuitcareers?v=app_10339498918&ref=ts

If you do not have a Facebook account, or if you encounter any issues with the link in Facebook please use this alternative link. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fe-m-marketing.com%2Ffacebook%2Fintuitcareers%2Fintuit_live_chat.html&h=54f6dzAs5O178WjcK4XIzAH9IKA. 

You will enter the room as a participant. You can either use your name or it will default to User####. All participants will be able to ask questions by entering questions in the text chat box at the right hand corner of the room.

We look forward to seeing you there.

The Top Ten Reasons Recruiters Don’t Respond

Whew… just finished my very first video chat on Facebook. Glad that’s over. I couldn’t get out of that chat room fast enough. Sorry Gail for leaving you hanging. I’m not usually the nervous type but working with technology and all the hiccups we’ve been having lately, I was expecting the worst. Thankfully all the technology worked just fine… it was me that had the “technical difficulties”.

I can sit and write forever… give great advice, respond to questions and actually sound moderately intelligent, because of the ability to edit before sending. Unfortunately my mouth doesn’t have an edit filter and I tend to blurt out the first thing that enters my pretty little head. So if you were on the chat today, hopefully you enjoyed the presentation and could appreciate my slightly warped sense of humor. My apologies if anyone was offended. I promise to do better next time… if I’m ever asked to do it again.

If you missed the chat, the slides will be uploaded on slideshare.net and here is my Top Ten List:

#10. We receive an email with the subject line: “do you have any job openings?”
#9. We receive a resume for a candidate asking us “what do you think of my resume?”
#8. The resume is full of spelling and grammatical errors and has an inappropriate email address.
#7. We receive an email with no resume attached or no contact information.
#6. The candidate applied to over 20 jobs in the database in all different disciplines.
#5. The candidate will not disclose current or last salary.
#4. The candidate becomes angry with denied an interview.
#3. The request is to “meet for a cup of coffee” to discuss openings at your company.
#2. The candidate clearly doesn’t meet the minimum requirements of the job.
#1. This is your LinkedIn profile picture:

New Year’s Resolutions… Confessions of a Corporate Recruiter

It’s Sunday, January 2, 2011 and I’m sitting in my living room looking at all my Christmas decorations thinking… this is really going to take a lot of time and effort to put all these away, and today is the best time for me to do this since it’s back to work tomorrow. My next thought is… so what else can I do to procrastinate? I know… I’ll write my New Year’s Resolutions for 2011!

Now I have long since abandoned personal New Year’s resolutions so this posting will be dedicated to my professional endeavors to make myself a better recruiter. I will try and keep it short and succinct. (My recruiting Jedi master will admonish me for that last statement… Do or do not, there is no try.) Anyway, here is the list:

1. I will answer all my emails… yes all of them.

2. The priority and job appropriate emails will be responded to within 24 hours and the courtesy emails within 72 hours. (OK, realistically 120 hours… but no more than 5 days.)

3. I will enter all my candidates into the database, completely filling in all the fields and attaching a new copy of their resume and ALL notes.

4. I will keep all of my submitted candidates informed of their status within 72 hours of submission… even if it is just to apprise them there is no feedback from the hiring manager.

5. Once I receive an open requisition, I will submit at least 3 qualified candidates within 7 working days.

6. I will proactively source candidates in anticipation of future needs and have them packaged and ready to go when new requisitions are open.

7. I will accomplish these goals in a timely manner that will not interfere with my personal activities and time allotted to my family and friends.

8. Oh, and I almost forgot… I will finish writing and post my blogs the day I begin them. And post a minimum of 2 blogs each and every month.

Just how long do you think it will take for me to break these resolutions? Would any of you analytics professionals out there like to help me create a test? The Vegas money has the odds at 5 to 1 for three weeks. Personally, my money is on the length of time it takes my naturally red hair to lose its fiery, copper red sheen… typically between 4-6 weeks.

In the interim, and just for grins, I’d like to know how long you think it will take and/or how long it usually takes you to break your New Year’s resolutions. Please complete this survey… we can all have a good laugh next month.

Technical Difficulties

In our world of high tech: blogs, video chats, LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter, etc. What are we supposed to do when our technology lets us down? Soldier on? Not likely... I’m more the freak out and run around with my hair on fire type. Hup two three four... get out of that fetal position and make the best of it! Ummm Hummm.... I know, right?

Sooner or later it happens to us all... the best we can do is... keep on keepin on, make the best of a bad situation, gittin jiggie with it... OMG! How many more Soul Train references can I come up with?

In case you haven't guessed, I was the victim of technical difficulties this afternoon. We were presenting a video chat at work today on our Facebook page and right after we started our computer crashed. Being totally prepared, we quickly switched to our back up computer, and realized the video camera wasn't working. We diligently pressed on and continued with the presentation. Just a few minutes later the network at work went down... arrrgggghhhhh!!!!

Somehow we managed to keep the voice up and running along with the PowerPoint and we were able to finish the chat and limp away licking our wounds. The moral of the story... you can never be over-prepared (and next time we will run the chat with multiple admins stashed away at hidden locations) I'm not saying it's a cave in Afghanistan but... this next time the SAT phone stays on! Stay tuned... more to follow... same bat time, same bat channel.

The Gift of Christmas… Everybody’s Christmas™

Christmas is just two weeks away… how did it sneak up so fast?  Seems like just yesterday it was Thanksgiving and now if I don’t have my packages in the mail next week, my friends and family out of town won’t receive their presents before Christmas.  Looks like I’ll be in a wrapping gift frenzy tonight and tomorrow.  Fair warning to anyone planning on visiting me this weekend… be prepared to tape, twist, snip and curl!

Thinking about this makes me realize just how fortunate we are… we have gifts to give and receive.  And we have a Christmas dinner to prepare and enjoy in our nice warm, cozy home.  We even have too many party invitations to be able to attend them all so we selectively choose our events and make sure we see our closest friends.  Oh and I almost forgot… we have new holiday party clothes to keep us stylishly warm and make a good impression during all these festivities. 

We tend not to think about the people we don’t see during this season, the people who aren’t invited to our parties or not part of our immediate circle of friends.  Sure we by presents for the Angel Trees, give to the Salvation Army helpers, donate to Toys for Tots and other wonderful charity organizations.  And while these are good things to do and things that need to be done, they don’t really affect us on a personal level.  So this year I am going to do something extra for Christmas… I’m going to make this year’s Christmas Everybody’s Christmas™.

Everybody’s Christmas™ was started by Crosswalk Worship and Lovers Lane Church Outreach Ministry at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church.  It was conceived to be a Christmas eve, eve worship service and grew to become an outreach into the Dallas community to bring in people who wouldn’t normally be able to have a Christmas celebration.  What happens on this night is... a dynamic worship service, a free amazing Christmas meal for the community, coat give aways, exciting childrens activities... and much much more.  All are welcome, join us if you can.  You can watch the video on YouTube.

I hope that Everyone has a very Merry Christmas this year!  God Bless.

Shopping for a Job?

Happy Holidays! I can't believe Thanksgiving is over and it's time to gear up for the Holidays. Shopping is on everyone's agenda right now and some proactive people braved the crowds on Black Friday to find great bargains and whittle down that Christmas Wish List. Can you spell STRESS?

Tis the season, right? Right, but for many people the holidays are extra stressful because they are unemployed or underemployed and searching for a job. It's hard to get excited about the holidays if you are on a tight budget or no budget at all. It's a fact that this season finds more people depressed than any other. So what can you do to navigate the holidays while shopping for a job?

Here is a great article from TheAfter5Edge to walk you through the seasonal job search:

http://theafter5edge.com/2010/11/27/essential-holiday-job-searching-tips/

Maybe we should also get into the spirit and help someone find a job this holiday season… we can help by giving encouragement, support and passing along job leads. We can also help them network and connect with recruiters and hiring managers in our networks. I am extending an invitation to visit my company website, http://www.intuitcareers.com/, and let me know when they have applied for a job online at Intuit.  I can't promise you an interview but I will make sure that the recruiter handling that job is aware of your interest.  At Intuit, we pride ourselves on giving back to the community and this is just one small way I can offer my services as a recruiter. 

Let’s start paying it forward... get into the spirit and help someone have their best holiday ever… Happy Networking!

Does Your Do reflect Your Who?

I found this blog while scanning my tweets and wanted to share with you too.  It is from Blogging4jobs and really got me to thinking... who am I?  Does your Do reflect your Who?

Authenticity, Lifestyle, & Purpose — Who Are You?

Welcome to the Jungle... Rock On with Intuit!

As you may know by now... I work for one of the BEST companies in the world, Intuit.  Not only were we recognized by Fortune Magazine as "America's Most Admired Software Company" in 2008; we have been named by them as one of the "100 Best Companies to Work for" for over a decade.


One of the many reasons I love my job so much is that our senior leadership is awesome.  Leadership makes all the difference in a company's culture because it sets the tone for the rest of the employees.  Our leaders are all extremely sharp, approachable, really know the recruiting industry, always willing to help and most of all... they know how to have fun!  
   

Let me introduce you to two of our top performers in Recruiting: Axl and Slash. (not the original ones from Guns N Roses, but a close second, right?)  This picture was taken on Friday in our San Diego, CA location right  after lunch... looks like they were  brown bagging it that day. :-)


Maybe one reason Intuit is the best place to work, EVER, is that these are some of the people responsible for making decisions on who we hire and bringing new talent into the company?  I like their style and am happy to be part of the team... Rock On Intuit!