OK folks…I’m going to vent a little and hopefully help you out in the process.

I cannot tell you how many times I run across profiles of “Amazing Web Developers” or “Web Design Rockstars” who have not a lick of online presence.

My response? “Oh…REALLY”???

So here are a few tips that I would like to share if you are a Web Designer or a Web Developer in search of a new job:

• Have a website.
• Have a good website.
• If you have portfolio goodness: Put it on your website.
• If your prior work products are under an NDA: Make up new stuff.
• If you are a usability or interface architect / engineer: Link to the sites you worked on and describe what you did.
• If you are a Web Developer, I really don’t want to see a static HTML website.
• Put your resume’ somewhere on the website.
• Make sure I can FIND your website.

Bottom line: Show me.

You know that a future employer will ASK for portfolio items. You know they will ASK for work product…why make it harder on yourself?

So please…put yourself out there, make it visible. Make me want to CALL YOU.

Do it for the children.

Jen

So here’s the situation:

A contractor is contacted by several different staffing companies/recruiting firms to fill a specific contracting job at a particular company. The company is large and obviously uses many different agencies to assist them with their need.

The natural inclination for a job-seeker is to say yes to as many agencies as they can find in hopes that their resume’ will get into the right hands.

WRONG.

By taking this approach, especially for contract positions, you are shooting yourself in the foot. Attempting to game the system is a very bad move which may result in you not being considered at all without regard to your skills or availability to do the job.

I know you are thinking…”What? That doesn’t make any sense at all”!!!

So let me lay it out:

Companies that have contract positions typically engage with more than one agency to fill their need. This makes sense for a company to do this as it broadens their reach into the candidate marketplace without up-front cost.

Generally speaking, there is a limited candidate pool for any specific requisition–especially if it is a difficult-to-find skill set.

So naturally, a candidate may be contacted several times by different agencies for one requisition.

Now, here’s the hard part:

If a candidate is submitted by more than one agency for the same requisition, and the company is interested in the candidate…it sparks a chain of events that can lead to the candidate not being considered at all.

• Who submitted the candidate first? Agencies have to prove who was faster on the trigger. Often…this literally comes down to minutes or seconds.
• Who actually worked the candidate…promoted them? Again, has to be proved by the agency.
• Did the agency have permission from the candidate to submit them to a particular requisition?
• What is the company policy as it pertains to multiple submissions? Generally..it is the one who got there first.

So you see the problem…if a candidate engages with multiple agencies for the same requisition…it sets up an agency brawl internally with a company.

More often than not: A company will avoid the unpleasantness of jumping in the middle of an agency brawl and forego the candidate altogether.

NOW do you see why this is a bad plan?

So to all the contract candidates out there…please don’t try to game the system…it just doesn’t work. You will end up hurting yourself in the end. If you get a call from an agency…go with the first one that calls.

But what if the agency is doing a bad job of representing me???

It does behoove you to continue to follow up with the agency & make sure that you are properly represented to the company.

If you do not feel as though the agency is doing its best to get you in front of the client, write a letter to the agency disallowing them to represent you for this position any longer. Be sure to include details like when you were contacted, who the recruiter is, etc.

Get in touch with any of the other agencies that called (I assume you kept a list), and write them a letter giving them permission to represent you. Also include the disallow letter to the other agency in your communications. This assists the agency when presenting you to their client.

Using this strategy, you keep your nose clean and there is no question in the company’s mind which agency is allowed to present you as a candidate for the contract job.

I hope this helps…happy hunting!

So, over the last decade or so, I have been attempting to reduce the amount of chemicals and additives that my family is exposed to on a daily basis. Fluoride is one of the worst.

Toothpaste has always been a particular challenge as my husband suffers with a gum condition and I just really like my teeth to be clean. We’ve tried the “natural” brands with little success. Plain baking soda and peroxide was not satisfactory either mainly due to ease of use.

So, this afternoon I had a brainstorm and got in the kitchen to concoct a toothpaste that would fairly approximate the feel and action of commercial brands. Here’s what I came up with:

1/2 Cup Baking Soda: Baking soda provides mild abrasive action and kills germs, freshens breath

1/2 t. Sea Salt: Sea salt provides many trace minerals that can be absorbed by the gums & also kills germs.

6 packets of Stevia or Xylitol sweetener: This helps to counteract the strong salty taste of the soda and salt. Xylitol actually promotes good dental health by killing cavity-causing bacteria.

1/2 t. Borax (20 Mule Team Brand): Borax or Boron is a naturally occuring mineral that we all need, in the toothpaste it serves as an emulsifier (blends water & oil)

2 T. Hydrogen Peroxide 3%: Hydrogen Peroxide is well known to combat dental caries and freshen breath. Helps to whiten teeth.

1 T. Aloe Vera Gel: Gives the mixture some body & “slip” Aloe is also well known to aid in tissue repair.

1 T. Coconut oil: Coconut oil also provides some body to the mixture. It is also well known as a very effective anti-fungal.

4 Drops Frankincense Essential Oil: Frankincense is an excellent freshening and toning EO…assists in gum health. (Myrrh is also a good choice)

4 Drops Cinnamon Cassia Essential Oil: Cinnamon is great for freshening breath and is also an effective anti-fungal

30 Drops Peppermint (Or other mint) Essential Oil: Peppermint is fantastic for freshening breath. It is also excellent for balancing mouth flora and promoting gum health.

The process is really simple…throw all ingredients in a food processor or blender, essential oils last and whip until slightly foamy…will resemble whipped egg whites. Funnel into a squeeze bottle (I like the food-service ones you can get at a warehouse store - a pack of 6 is approx. $5). Label it and start brushing!!!

To Good Oral Health!!!

Jen

Just a little background: I am a pretty social gal, I go to a LOT of networking events, job fairs, etc.

I have a LOT of business cards. I am a terrible typist.

So…after doing a good deal of research, I decided that an optical business card scanner was just the thing for me. Voila! scan those puppies into a database, pop them into a CRM…done.

Boy, was I wrong.

I run a Mac and there are very few peripherals that are Mac supported, so I was super excited to find one that was at my local neighbourhood Fry’s Electronics.

I ended up with an IriScan Express 2 for about $149.00.

Got home, got it all unboxed giddy with anticipation. First order of business: install the software. Okey Dokey.

Pop the first disk in, it’s the IriScan software. Get that loaded up, plug in the scanner. Easy peasy.

Now the heartache begins.

I go to put the first business card in to scan…nothing happens. I consult the manual…it says to hit the scan button. OK..well, where the hell is the scan button??? Turns out it’s on the device itself. *Facepalm*

So, push the button…still nothing happens. I dig through the software sitting idly on the screen and discover that the business card option is grayed out. WTH??? Did I not just install it???

Turns out there is yet another piece of software that needs to be installed to read business cards. Oooookay…so I do that. All happy now thinking this is going to work. Nope.

By that time, Brian was home for lunch & I had to get him to sit down & try to figure the sumbitch out. It took a friggin’ software engineer to figure out what direction the card goes in the scanner & which button to push to even get an image on the screen.

By this time I was a very unhappy camper.

So, he leaves and I am left alone with it once more. There is supposedly some type of address book that you can scan these images and OCR text into from IriScan. I spent an hour trying to find it within the software. It was nowhere to be found.

By this point, I was pissed. Did I mention I was mad?

Suffice it to say that I am completely disappointed with this product. Sorry Fry’s…it’s coming back.

Major negative points:

Poor overall product design. Who doesn’t have a operational button in the UI???

The UI is total crap. I had to download & install 2 possibly 3 different programs to accomplish 1 action. It is so completely counter-intuitive so as to render it completely useless.

I am convinced that the “manual” was written in Martian, translated into Vietnamese and then into English.

On the plus side, it does do Chinese…maybe they will have better luck.

‘Cause I’m done.

So, I have been struggling for a long time with whether or not it is important to blog.

In conversation with several of my friends and colleagues, the answer is an unequivocal…duh! Must blog, gotta blog…can’t go without it.

So here I am…trying to find my voice…resisting the urge to write academically, and very, very nervous.

I imagine that there will be a variety of topics ranging from job-seeking advice to political topics to general randomness. I suppose, in many ways…this blog will be me in written form.

I hope you will bear with me as I grow in this genre. Forgive the mistakes and perhaps take something away.

I look forward to it!

Jen

Job Seeker Tips Episode 1: The Resume’ from Jennifer Wojcik on Vimeo.

In the current economic situation we find ourselves in, some people will face lay-offs or Reductions-In-Force. With downsizing occurring daily and companies unable to stay afloat, it is inevitable that many will find themselves unemployed.

As a recruiter, I have seen many job seekers who are woefully unprepared to face stiff competition for the remaining jobs. It frightens me that quite a few people don’t have any idea how to effectively look for a job, much less interview well and get hired.

Over the next several blog posts, I will outline strategies that will help job seekers to organize their search, open minds to other opportunities, create their own opportunities and successfully utilize agencies and networking to once again become gainfully employed

We will begin at the beginning: Crafting an image.

Job Seeker Tip #1: Create a Resume’

This may seem obvious to most, but there are a surprising number of people that have never written a resume’. The resume’ is a basic framework within which to communicate your skill-set, aptitudes and background. I get many questions about what should be on a resume’ and the answer is: It depends. If you are a seasoned professional, it is not likely to be prudent to include jobs you had in college. On the flip side, if you are relatively inexperienced, it may be a good idea to include High School club leadership positions, or volunteer activities. The idea is to communicate to a potential employer that your skills would be ideal for the position they are hiring for.

I am often asked if a person should have more than one resume’…my answer: Absolutely! I am of the opinion that the resume’ is a fluid document that should be tailored to each individual position applied for. This strategy allows you to highlight which portion of your skills are applicable to the potential position at hand. This is also true for the “mission statement” portion of the resume’. There should always be a “mission statement” at the very top underneath the contact information. It needs to be specific. I see many that say something to the effect of “My goal is to be the best employee ever, please hire me”. This simply doesn’t work…its empty and meaningless. A better mission statement would be “I am a multi-million dollar sales producer with a desire to make XYZ Corp. the preeminent supplier of widgets in the United States Midwest Region”. That’ll get their attention!

Underneath the mission statement should be a block containing short descriptions of your most desirable skills. These can be bulleted or denoted otherwise. This will be the portion that is tailored to the individual position.

Many people wonder if there is a difference between the timeline resume and functional resume’ in the eyes of employers. The answer is once again: It depends. If you are a serial entrepreneur or consultant, the functional resume’ is often the best choice as it highlights the skills rather than the timeline. For most of us, however, a timeline resume’ works best. This is simply where you list your positions in chronological order with dates, position held, etc.

Be sure that the resume’ is well organized and readable. Remember that the point of the resume’ is to draw the reader into the document. If it is poorly written, verbose, or disorganized, it will likely be passed over. Spelling and diction are important here as is voice. Always be sure to use active voice when describing your accomplishments. An example of this is “Organized and coordinated a cross-functional team to deploy a new file-sharing system”. Passive voice sounds more like “I helped IT get the new file-sharing system installed”. Which sounds better? Active. Think of active voice as action words; doing words. Installed, motivated, designed, organized, etc.

Questions often arise as to the length of resumes’. I think that a resume’ needs to be long enough to tell your story. Many will say that it needs to be X number of pages in length…I don’t subscribe to that theory. If it takes 4 pages to tell your story, then so be it. Once again, the first few lines in any resume’ should be compelling enough to draw them into the rest of the document. Think of it like a movie trailer…you get just enough information to cause you to want to see the whole movie.

Using a resume’ writing service is fine, but I typically find that most people can write their own without too much difficulty. If you are stuck, find some templates on the web and then tweak it, or use a template that you like as a framework. After all, no one is more familiar with you experience and skills than you.

Above all, be honest. Don’t embellish your accomplishments or make things up. Any recruiter or company worth their salt will see that coming a mile away. Don’t be shy about your experience or accomplishments, but tell the truth. Everything on your resume’ should be verifiable by a third party.

Be sure to see the video complement to this series posted on YouTube and here at YouGuru.net

Stay tuned for Episode 2: Utilizing Social Media for Job Searching