What Recruitment Can Learn from Minecraft and Gen Z

What Recruitment Can Learn from Minecraft and Gen Z I am very fortunate to have a gorgeous 5 year old. However, over the last 6 months a game called “Minecraft” (which is like a digital version of Lego) has taken over our lives. Having had to endure hours of this game, I have realised how much I learn from him and how different we see the world around us. It has really puzzled me to why he would spend hours on a game with no specific goals, but here are some of the things the world of recruitment could learn about this generation from this game: Community: Mineraft was designed with the main principle of building a community, in order for the game to be interesting, you play multi player. There is a heavy focus on engagement with my son playing with his friends and cousins across the world. There is no advertising on the game and no rule book or manual. When you first start, you are reliant on the community for ideas and tips however, there is over 68 million videos uploaded about Minecraft on YouTube. But once you get to grips with the game, its good manners to give back. This is why it is such a successful community full of user-generated and downloadable content whether it be videos, other worlds,  mods or skins. The game was made for Generation Z  because it is cultivating collaborative and intellectual stimulating. READ MORE:  How to Build a Talent  Community: Look for Sheep with Mice. Entrepreneurial: This generation are going to be the most entrepreneurial ever having watched Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and most recently Jan Koum come before them. My son’s idol is a chap by the name of Stampy Longnose a 23 years old who still lives at home with his Mum and Dad and makes a living from YouTube. Currently working 10 hours a day in his bedroom, Stampy has  2 million subscribers to his channel with some of his videos having as many as 11 million views more than Eastenders or Coronation Street have on television. His living costs come from advertising to give you an example his most popular video would have netted him $77,000. Not bad for a day’s work. My 5 year old seems to only ever talk about having his own business, maybe because I am entrepreneurial. He sells his old toys on eBay to fund the new ones he wants switched on right? We talk about unemployed youth but are these guys ever going to want a 9-5? RELATED:  Sack Your Boss! How to Become an  Entrepreneur  in 6 Easy Steps Digital native: My son is from a multi-device family and has been using an iPad and smartphone since he learnt to walk. Facetime, Skype and even Whatsapp are the ways he communicate with others.  Even though he is still learning to read and write, he can’t tell the time but since he started school he has been learning how to code via code.org. I am part of Gen Y and would consider myself tech savvy but these guys are something else! It’s like technology is in their blood just look at the way they watch television via YouTube and Netflix! Just recently my son wrote his first story about Minecraft on Prezi and made it look easy. My mind boggles because I can’t even begin to think what he will be capable of when he enters the work place! It’s all about me! God, are they demanding! Most of their communication is instant and with so much information out there, they are self-educating.  They are also self-aware and this is only going to continue just look at the #selfie craze! Creativity: With all these YouTube videos, photos, multimedia presentations, and personalized content, they are also the most creative generation yet. My son’s mind never stops, but the amazing thing is he doesn’t have problems only solutions Start preparing: With the first Gen Z population starting to enter the workforce, recruiters just aren’t ready for them. Most recruiters still can’t get social media and are still using LinkedIn as their main platform, whereas Gen Z have only ever known social media. Generation Z represents the greatest generational shift the workplace has ever seen. If you’re not going social and prepared, you’re not going to get the best talent in the future.

11 two years later

9/11 two years later For most people, September 11 has come and gone, but the anniversary will always be important to me because I was a block away when the first building fell. The people I have met who were at the World Trade Center that day never stopped associating the event with their work, and I am no exception. That day, I stepped outside my office to take a look at the spectacle. Before I knew what happened, I was blinded by debris and buried under a pile of people. I pulled myself out of the pile, but I couldnt see, had no idea where I was, and I couldnt breathe. I worried about my family until the lack of air became painful. Then I focused all my hopes on not having an extremely painful death. There was complete quiet. No one could talk because no one could breathe. Then I heard cracked glass. I moved toward the noise until I saw a glow coming from a broken window. Somehow, I lifted myself into a broken window that was above my shoulders. I found air. And then I thought only of water. I found my way to a bathroom in that building and inside there were debris-covered men in ties drinking out of a toilet. I drank, too. Days later, I went back to my software marketing job at my Wall-St based company, and though no one was really doing any work, I somehow continued to write my weekly column, furtively, from my desk. Soon, though, the company laid off almost all the employees, including me. I spent October in a daze. I spent November and December attending a group for people with post-traumatic stress syndrome. The way to deal with post-traumatic stress is to tell your story over and over again. The theory is that when you are in the moment of trauma, you have to turn off all your emotions to get yourself through it. After the fact, in order to stop having nightmares and panic attacks, you have to experience the emotions you missed. So I told my story over and over again. And each time, the story was a little different. (I still tell the story, although to be honest, most people are sick of it. Even my brother said, That just took 25 minutes. Maybe you need an abridged version.) When I began telling my story I saw myself as an imbecile for staying at work after the first plane hit, for standing so close to the building, for not trying to help anyone but myself. Later, my story focused on how I was a lucky person to have come out alive. And I was a lucky person to have a moment where I thought I was going to die and saw exactly what I cared about in my life. This is the process of reframing. How we frame our stories determines how we see ourselves. Its the glass half-empty/half-full thing: The trauma of 9/11 taught me to frame my life as half-full. Today, when I tell my World Trade Center story, my focus is on career change. Today I am the woman who nearly died at the World Trade Center. I lost my job as a marketing executive. I faced an incredibly tough job hunt, which I wrote about in my column. In the process, I became a writer; turning in a column week after week made me realize that I was a writer who was calling herself an unemployed marketer. I used to think career changes were planned and instigated and systematic. Now I know that some changes could never be planned, and some changes do not need instigating, they just need recognizing. Positive change comes to people who can frame their world in a positive light even a world where everything is literally falling down.

6 Things You Are Doing to Damage Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

6 Things You Are Doing to Damage Your Personal Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Are you investing time into building your personal brand, but it seems like no one has noticed? Your brand is very sensitive and even one little mistake can damage it. Whether it’s the way you’re communicating your message or how you interact with your audience, you may be unknowingly hurting your personal brand. If you can’t figure out why your brand isn’t getting the attention you want, here are six ways to tell you may have a personal branding crisis in your hands: 1. Too much self-promotion on social networks. Its important for people to find balance when promoting their brand through social media. While you need to promote your own content to build credibility for your brand, its easy to fall into the trap of too much self-promotion. Dont spend all of your time on social media blasting your brand. If you want to be influential, communicate your message through sharing your content and balancing it with news about the latest industry trends. 2. Your brand lacks consistency. You finally have your blog and Twitter account up and running, but after a week of being consistent with creating content, you become too busy and eventually forget about your profiles altogether. This is a huge flaw in personal brands because people forget about the key to a strong brand is consistency. Even if its a weekly or bi-weekly blog post, never let your followers feel like you disappeared. 3. You aren’t using your brand to network. The biggest advantage to having a personal brand is the network you can build. If you havent taken the time to reach out to professionals in your field, you arent putting your brand to use. Building a brand isnt only about making an online presence, its about building connections and creating an audience. 4. You never proofread. Make sure you proofread everything you publish on the web! From tweets to blog posts, review everything before you post. If you have one grammar or spelling mistake, this can seriously hurt your brand. When you make an error, it makes you appear careless and your audience will stop taking the time to read your content. 5. You lack credibility. Is your claim to fame your expertise in advertising or leadership development? Then make sure everything about your brand reflects your profession. Your followers will expect you to talk about the latest news and advice about your industry. If you arent displaying your passion throughout your brand, no one will believe your expertise. 6. You dont provide something unique. The purpose of building your personal brand is to market what makes you a unique professional. Its important to find something which sets you apart from the other people in your field. If your brand is blending in with the rest of the professionals in your field, then its not strong enough. Whether its a hobby or an interest, try to incorporate it into your brand in order to make yourself stand out. Personal branding is all about consistency, finding a balance, and making the most of your network. Be sure to center your brand on something that makes you unique and try to connect with people of similar interests. Your brand can be the most powerful thing you can do for yourself as a professional. Make sure you are aware of these signs in order to prevent a personal branding crisis. What do you think can damage a personal brand? Share your thoughts below! Author: Heather R. Huhman  is a career expert, experienced hiring manager, and founder president of  Come Recommended, a content marketing and digital PR consultancy for job search and human resources technologies. She is also the instructor of  Find Me A Job: How To Score A Job Before Your Friends, author of  Lies, Damned Lies Internships  (2011) and  #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle  (2010), and writes career and recruiting advice for  numerous outlets.

How to become a lawyer without a law degree University of Manchester Careers Blog

How to become a lawyer without a law degree University of Manchester Careers Blog Written by Kim Bailey, Careers Consultant Haven’t studied Law but considering a legal career? Firstly you are NOT at a disadvantage! Legal careers are open to all degree subjects, and law firms value a diversity of thinking. Secondly you need to have a good hard think about the question why you are interested in the Law? Would you like being a solicitor or a barrister? If you don’t know the answers to these questions yet it’s time to get down to some research… To begin with, useful resources to check out are https://www.lawcareers.net/Starting-Out and our Law for Non-Law Students Guide http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/whichcareer/law/ Start talking to people who work in the profession. Most people will say ‘but I don’t know any lawyers.’ Don’t panic! There are lots of ways to get in touch with solicitors and barristers: Come to the Law Fair on Tuesday 13 November, and check CareersLink for other legal events! Meet recruiters to find out what they look for in their applicants and learn about the different types of firms.   Log onto the Manchester Network. On here you can connect with and ask over 3,000 alumni questions about their jobs, and ask for advice. Some are even offering work shadowing or work experience. Don’t be shy, our alumni have signed up to help you and offer their support! Build a LinkedIn account to start connecting with people. Once you have a profile, a good place to start is searching for the University of Manchester’s page and clicking on ‘See Alumni’. You can even find people who studied your degree and are now qualified lawyers! Ask people you meet and connect with about their pathway to law, what work experience would be useful for you to undertake, and about the rewards and challenges of their jobs. Start looking for work experience Volunteering is a fantastic way to start building experience. Start with the Volunteer Hub. Click on advanced search and either look to develop the skills you need to be a lawyer, or look by area of interest to help people in your local community, many of whom are vulnerable and need support. Look for a few days, or a week’s work experience. Send off a tailored CV and covering letter to local, high street firms to ask for work experience. Be persistent and follow up your emails with a call a week or two later! Once you’ve built up some experience (not forgetting valuable part time jobs, student societies, and other life experience), you can apply for more formal work experience, such as vacation schemes (solicitors) and mini pupillages (barristers). After working through steps 1-3, if you’re sure that the Law is the right path for you, you currently need to undertake a one year Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL), followed by either a one year Legal Practice Course (LPC) or the Bar professional Training Course (BPTC). This can either be self-funded (there are some scholarships and bursaries available at the institutions who offer the courses) or sponsored by employers up front, although the latter is very competitive. During and after the courses you can continue to apply for vacation schemes, training contracts (on the job training for solicitors) and pupillages (training for barristers). However, the route to qualifying as a solicitor is changing, and the current courses will be phased out, and replaced by the Solicitor’s Qualifying Examination (SQE), from no earlier than 2020. If you start the GDL before the SQE is launched, you can still complete your training on the current route, as the two routes will run concurrently until the ‘old’ route is phased out. You may want to discuss this with the firms you meet on campus. It’s a competitive career path which is in the midst of further changes, but with the right determination, perseverance and motivation it can be an extremely rewarding one. Sign up for the Law Fair on Tuesday 13 November, 12.30 4pm at Manchester Central and visit the events  Facebook page  to keep up to date with what will be happening at the fair. Careers advice Graduate jobs LinkedIn advice career planning Law legal

Choosing the Right Executive Resume Writing Service

Choosing the Right Executive Resume Writing ServiceHow much should you pay for an EEC executive resume writing service? This is an important question to ask and depending on the service you hire, the answer may be different.An executive resume or executive cover letter writing service does a lot of work for its clients. As such, it is very well-known that these services provide the client with a professional resume, a proper cover letter, and related documents. But how do you know if the service you are thinking of hiring will be right for you? And if they won't be able to do the job for you, how do you choose one over the other?The first thing to keep in mind when it comes to pricing is to not be too price-oriented. While price is important, so is quality and what your requirements are. One cannot afford to hire a mediocre service just because it costs less than the next best choice.Ask about their experience of the kind of services they offer. Some resume writing services have a hi gh level of experience but do not necessarily provide you with quality. On the other hand, some services may not be experienced but provide very good services.The main reason why you are looking for a service to assist you with your executive resume writing is to make sure that the information you give them is good enough for them to give you the job that you want. Some services might try to save you some money by hiding information or providing the wrong details while others might try to hide the content from you to get you in trouble.If you are looking for a higher-end service then you might have to ask about their reputation as an EEC executive resume writing service. This is important because it is usually common sense that the more reputable a service is, the better they will do.Ask about the level of customer service the service offers. You can use this as a way to check how easy it is to communicate with the service. Also ask about the turnaround time for getting back to you. Once you have found a credible EEC executive resume writing service, you should be able to get your resume done within three to four weeks. Take the time to write down the results of the resume. You should find out if the service is charging you a higher rate for this service.

Is the customer always right Your comments. - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Is the customer always right Your comments. - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog My post on why The Customer is Always Right is wrong has generated an amazing amount of attention. Its been read by 100,000s of people and been mentioned all over the blogosphere. It even got picked up in The New York Times. But most of all, it gets a LOT of great comments. Here are some examples. Chris wrote: I run a small company with about 20 employees. One day I heard commotion coming from the reception area. I hear a man yelling I am the customer, you work for me and the customer is always right!. I immediately went up and said, No sir, you cant get away with what you get away with at Walmart here. This young lady works for me and no matter what you think you were right about, you raised your voice and are no longer welcome. He needed our services and wrote a letter of apology for his cranky mood. You raise your voice and you are out. No exceptions. Thats it in a nutshell. Grant wrote: I read this post the other day and it was hiding in the back of my mind then this past Thursday I had a job interview. The interviewer asked me, ?What do you feel about the statement, ?The customer is always right??? I remembered this post and mentioned these points as well as embellished to make it more appropriate to the job description. After I answered that, the interviewer told me that I was the first person all day to answer that question correctly (she had already interviewed 6 people). Today I got a call offering me the position. I?d like to think that it had something to do with this blog post. Thanks :) SEE MOM! BROWSING THE INTERNETS IS A GOOD THING!!! Ive told Grant that I take full credit for him getting the job and given him an account number where he can deposit 10% of his first years salary :o) Marie wrote: We recently had a customer who bounced a check, and had the audacity to call my customer service manager with a tirade of yelling profanity (before she could explain what had happened). She was calm and waited for him to settle down and tried to explain He continued to use profanity, only to stop when my CS Manager politely told him that if he didn?t quit, she would hang up Later, he emailed a complaint to the corporate office stating how rude and unprofessional she had been The customer DOES NOT have the right to harass my employees. I just happened to be in the office that day and could hear him screaming at her over the phone. I think she handled it WONDERFULLY; I took her out to lunch! I don?t believe that a customer has the right to verbally assault my employees and I have trained them not to take that type of abuse from anyone. SueBob writes: I worked at a print shop where my manager would occasionally fire customers. In four years, I think it was 3 people. He told one person, ?I won?t have you abuse my employee.? I would have crawled through broken glass for him. It was one of the best employment experiences of my life. These comments show that there are many companies out there that realize that putting the employees first actually results in better customer service. The formula is simple: Happy employees = happy customers. But of course not everyone gets it. Yet. Anonymous writes: I work in a call center and showed this article to my boss. I?m told that senior managers view the ideas presented here as ?silly.? Is it any wonder employees think our company is out to get them? Customers are allowed to verbally abuse our employees and this is supposed to be a sign of great customer service. All the while, lower level managers are directed to keep turnover down. The company doesn?t understand that people are not satisfied in a job where the company supports abuse towards them. Get a clue. Sheeesh! Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Revealing the #1 Secret to Being Found by Recruiters on LinkedIn - CareerEnlightenment.com

site:linkedin.com (inurl:pubORinurl:in) -intitle:directory -inurl:dir (controllerORCFO) “Charlotte, NorthCarolinaArea”Make Your Profile Rank in 5 Easy StepsFirst, you need to know what keywords recruiters are using to find talent; read this article  on  finding  job-related  keywords to learn more. Identify the top five keywords that you want to be found by.Insert at least one of your top 10 keywords into each of the five key areas I mentioned above. This means you might not be able to be as cute in your headline. Sorry.Update your profile’s customizable URL so that it includes the BEST keyword. The end result will be: http://linkedin.com/in/BESTKEYWORD.Be sure you have plenty of recommendations that contain your keywords.Be absolutely sure your profile is 100 percent complete and looks great. Watch  this  video  for  tip son  how  to  polish  your  profile.Why Paying for LinkedIn Will Help A Lot!If you are looking to get found on LinkedIn then there really is no way around th is. You must get a paid account. Otherwise you are just half-assing the strategy. Here’s why:Paid profiles will always rank higher when organizations post jobs. You essentially become a featured applicant.You can turn on the “OpenLink” feature, which will allow other paid members to email you without depleting their monthly quota of In-Mails.There are some third- party recruiting applications, such as Social  Job-Search  Matcher or Bullhorn  Reach, who may look at this an indicator of your level of commitment.Once you get your job, you can cancel the paid membership if you want to.For more practical advice on winning your next job with LinkedIn, check out my new book, Job  Searching  with  Social  Media  for  Dummies.