Duties Versus Qualifications on a Resume

When crafting the perfect resume it is important to provide the information that recruiters want to see. By listing your job duties are you depriving yourself of a very important aspect of this process. Recruiters aren’t just looking for what you did in your previous job but they want to know what skills you can bring to their client. Here are some tips for turning your duties into qualifications to improve your resume.

• Sell your unique qualities. Rather than stating that you know Microsoft Office programs you may want to share how you used them to provide added value to your jobs. Did you create a document that solved a major problem for the company? Can you put together a financial spreadsheet that will help in budgeting?
• Be specific to the job. When you’re applying for a position carefully read over the job posting or description. What is the company specifically looking for? Use your own experience and job duties and expand them to meet the requirements of the job. This doesn’t mean you should lie, but you should share details and statistics of your accomplishments tailored to what the client needs. If they are looking for someone with excellent customer service share your award as top client services representative three years running.
• Ask yourself why someone would care. Look at all the bullets on your resume. To determine if they are simply duties or if they are skills and qualifications ask yourself why they matter. A recruiter is going to ask these very same questions when they glance at your resume for the first time. You want to capture their attention and make them see that your experience is a perfect fit for the position to which you are applying. They may not care that you can balance the books, but if saved your last company thousands of dollars by correcting previously overlooked errors this can be the selling point.
• Create a cover letter. Often a job posting will request a cover letter. This is the perfect opportunity to let your skills shine. Create a three paragraph letter. The first should be an introduction to you and your general background. The second paragraph should include some specific information about why your skills apply to this particular job. Be sure to include quantifiable information. The third paragraph should be a summary statement that expresses why you’re interested in their job and company.

Are you looking for the best way to craft your resume to get the right response from recruiters and hiring managers? Contact the professional staff at Gage Personnel today and see how we can help you.

JOB FAIR ALERT

Gage Personnel’s next Job Fair will be recruiting for Call Center and Hospitality positions available immediately. Please bring your resume and stop by our office at 101 N. 7th Avenue West Reading, PA to meet with a recruiter on the spot!  Job Fair will be held on Monday, February 25th and Tuesday, February 26th, from 11am to 2pm both days.

Candidates are also encouraged to submit resumes via email:

For Call Center positions: professionals@gagepersonnel.com.

For Hospitality positions:  hospitality@gagepersonnel.com

EVENING JOB FAIR – CALL CENTER OPPORTUNITIES!

Gage Personnel is recruiting for Call Center positions!

Please attend our evening Job Fair on Tuesday, February 19th, from 4pm to 7pm, to hear more information about these positions.

Where: Inn at Reading  1040 Park Road  Wyomissing, PA  19610

Please bring your resume and meet with a Gage recruiter on the spot!

Outstanding opportunity – paid training and great work environment!

Hope to see you there!

Building your Employer Brand

Everyone’s perception is their own reality and your online reputation is often at the front line of how employees and customers see your company. Some advice from social media experts is to engage your current employees to be brand ambassadors for you online. Your happy employees can show, rather than tell, the community what kind of company you really are and share their experiences. Use your current talent to share your story through video, social media and other online tools. Here are four practical tips for creating this type of online branding.

1. Build the foundation. Each member of your team will have different experience when it comes to social media. Some may be familiar with how to create viral videos and others might have thousands of followers on Twitter. Some may have no experience with social media at all. Develop a format and an easy to follow system for employees to share their own testimonials on their social media. Provide a guideline to let them know what is appropriate and what isn’t but don’t restrict their message too much. Simply monitor the social media to make sure the message is always positive.
2. Communicate with your team. In order to ensure that your team has the most up to date information to share about your company you need to keep them in the information loop. Inform your entire team about policy changes as they occur so your message remains consistent. Allow your team to express concerns so they can get clarification on subjects before sharing it on social media. Employees trust a company who takes their concerns seriously and creates real change.
3. Provide the social media tools. Don’t make it too hard for your employees to be your brand ambassadors. Participating employees should have access to your company blog as well as social media pages including their personal accounts. Select the best tools for what you want to present and train your employees how to use them.
4. Be grateful. Gaining the trust of the company is one great result to this type of social media branding but employees also like to know that their efforts are appreciated. Your employees are volunteering to share this information because they believe in the company. Their information will be more authentic if they aren’t expecting compensation. However, it is always nice to thank them for their time.

Are you thinking about working with your team to create brand ambassadors? Gage Personnel is at the front line of the employee experience and can help you today! 

Advice on Improving Employee Morale

What exactly is employee morale? It can be wrapped up within several topics including productivity, engagement, motivation, satisfaction, and retention. Keeping these principles in mind it is easy to create steps toward improving your own employee morale. Here are 7 ways to start today.

1. Effective communication. No one likes to be kept in the dark. The best way to motivate your employees and improve their office morale is to tell them what to expect; and what their roles and your role will be throughout. Be honest, effective, and efficient.
2. Active listening. Good communication isn’t just about telling your employees what needs to get done, but also about listening to them. Make sure your employees feel comfortable talking to you about problems or ideas. It is extremely important to really listen to what they have to say and be able to comment intelligently on it. You also need to be able to take action when necessary.
3. Access to training. Really good employees want to grow within your company. The best way to do this is to offer additional training or educational opportunities. If you are able to offer tuition reimbursement that is great. Otherwise you can provide access to local seminars, webinars, and other continuing education opportunities.
4. Don’t micromanage. The real cause for micromanagement is poor hiring decisions.  If you don’t feel an employee is capable of handling the job without your constant attention then perhaps they aren’t the best employee for the role. Make better hiring decisions and allow your star employees to take ownership of their roles. This will improve not only their performance but also the confidence of the entire team.
5. Unexpected rewards and recognition. A chief complaint from employees with low morale is they feel unappreciated. Or worse, they feel they are only recognized for mistakes and punished. Correct this by rewarding your team for a job well done. Genuinely recognized someone’s excellent work. Money is always welcome but even words of praise are better than nothing.
6. Don’t play favorites. Often, managers will hire individuals that remind them of themselves and treat these employees differently. This can lead to favoritism. Both rewards and punishments need to be perceived as fair and even throughout the team. Even the perception of favoritism can be damaging to the team.
7. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. When you say you are going to provide something or take an action it is extremely important to hold up your end of the bargain. Employees will begin to resent you as a manager if you can’t do what you say.

Are you looking for more ways to improve employee morale in your office? If you are looking for employee management, and staffing strategies, contact the professionals at Gage Personnel to see how we can help you today! 

Using LinkedIn Groups to Land a Job

There is more to LinkedIn than your profile page. It is an online professional networking site but many users don’t maximize the potential. LinkedIn offers many great ways to connect with industry professionals; including groups. Joining LinkedIn groups may be a great way to find your next job opportunity. Consider which groups might be a fit for your goals and then read the discussion threads to learn how you can network. Here are four tips for joining and using LinkedIn groups.

1. Participate. Once you’ve seen what kind of discussions are being held on the group join in where you feel you can add your expertise. Answer questions and respond to requests if you think you have information that can help. This kind of participation can lead to collaboration which can lead to other opportunities.
2. Connect to members. Once you have gotten to know some of the active members of the community consider sending LinkedIn invitations to them directly. They may work for a company you’re interested in or have industry connections that make sense for you to know. Get to know them online to better understand their job and see if there are ways you can help them directly. Eventually you may find yourself in a position to ask if they have any available opportunities. Remember, networking is a long process of relationship building whether you’re online or face to face.
3. Ask for advice. Use the discussions to tap into the expertise of the community. Do you have a question about how to improve your skills? Ask if anyone knows of seminars or webinars on the topic that they have attended previously. When you ask relevant questions you’ll hear from many people who may become excellent connections.
4. Don’t oversell. Groups are set up for people to share information not to sell their products. You’ll see this frequently on a group message board. Many groups have a strict no solicitation policy. You can promote yourself by sharing you blog posts if you think the information is relevant to the group, but don’t oversell.

Are you looking to make the most of your LinkedIn account? The professional recruiters at Gage Personnel can help you develop a job search strategy, and land you jobs in Reading PA.

Improve your Quality of Hire With Technology

You review a resume and interview the candidate. Did you like them? Can they do the job? Then you should hire them, right? The real answer is “maybe” and here are some technologies that can help you improve your quality of hire.

• Test your candidate. They may say that they can do the job, but can they? There are many ways to have your candidate test their skill level. New websites that can do this for you are Smarterer.com, ShinyNeedle.com and HireArt.com. However, make sure you are testing everyone in the same way or you could be subject to discrimination claims. The best way to ensure you’re doing it right is to work with your local staffing company who will administer these tests as a part of their process.
• View recommendations. There are some new sites available like Recmnd.me and Zao.com that allow professionals to rate each other. The problem with these is that not everyone uses them and you may miss out on a great candidate by only relying on these sources. LinkedIn allows for people to get recommendations and endorsements so you can view them there. References  are another service that your local staffing partner will provide.
• Use online video conferencing. Rather than scheduling a face to face interview at first or even doing a telephone interview, consider using an online video conference service to virtually meet your candidates before setting up the next step. Google+ Hangouts are extremely easy to use and reliable. Skype and Facetime are also popular.
• Collaboration with the candidate. Google really has a handle on the next wave of interaction. They have tried a couple of different collaborative platforms but Google Doc has proven to have staying power. Imagine giving the candidate a task to complete before setting up an interview where they might edit a document or create a spreadsheet for you based on your directions. This can give you a real insight about what kind of employee they will be and how well they follow instruction.

Are you looking for creative new solutions to make your recruiting process easier? The professional team at Gage Personnel can help you understand today’s best technology.

Answering the “Tough” Questions

Not many people enjoy the interviewing process, including the person conducting the interview. It is a skill we should all have but we hope we rarely have to use it. There are some questions that will be asked that may throw us off our game even if we have practiced. It is best to be prepared before the interview begins so you can maintain your confidence and get that job. Here are some tips for answering those tough questions.

1. Practice and prepare. Before you ever meet face to face you must prepare for the interview. This can start with researching the company. It is best to know as much about the individual business as possible so you can sound not only informed but interested in the specific job. Also, consider some of the common or more difficult questions you might be asked and literally practice them out loud in front of a mirror. Remember, no matter how much you prepare the interviewer can always throw a curve ball. The way you handle it is what they are looking for, not the answer itself. Also, don’t memorize answers to the common questions. You need to speak as an individual and answer honestly. All of these things will show the company that you believe in yourself as a candidate.
2. Understand what the interviewer wants. Regardless of the specific questions they ask, every interviewer is looking for the answers to these three questions; do you have the skills, are you motivated to do a good job, and will you be a good fit with their existing team? Keep these three points in mind when you’re answering everything the interview asks you.
3. Be confident and professional. Chances are your interviewer is not experience in the art of interviewing either. They may ask questions that don’t seem related to the job. As the interviewee you need to answer every question politely, professionally, and to the best of your ability. Your attitude is as much a part of the process as your answers. You may also be asked a question that seems inappropriate, such as about your marital status. They may not know they shouldn’t be asking those questions so rather than drawing attention to it steer the answer away professionally. Rather than saying, “You can’t ask me that,” respond by explaining that you are a dedicated employee, have a history of professionalism in your previous jobs, and your personal life does not get in the way of your performance.

Are you looking for more advice to ace your next interview? Contact the professional recruiters at Gage Personnel to help you in your job search.

The Cloud has Become a Trend in All Industries

The future is now!  We’ve all heard about the Cloud but what is it and what does it mean for businesses. The Cloud works by storing all of your data and information away from your own computers and servers and allowing you to access them whenever you need them. Here are some key facts about using the cloud and why more and more businesses are moving in that direction.

1. Lower cost. Because the Cloud doesn’t require a lot of hardware and additional equipment setting your business up with it can be less expensive than onsite data storage solutions. There is a potential slippery slope when it comes to the economics of cloud computing but in general for small business applications it is going to have a lower cost average than other IT solutions.
2. Current technology. One thing the Cloud does make possible is to stay updated with all of the current versions of software and programs in your system. Because the information is stored off site and can pull from various sources it is much easier to simply click a button to upgrade the system than to go through a process of manually updating your information.
3. Endless application possibilities. There are literally countless applications that can help your business that exist in the cloud. For instance, data sharing between offices can become streamlined and simple with the use of DropBox or Google Docs. There are lots of helpful options for sales such as SalesForce and various lead generation programs. If you need simple access to photo manipulation try using Pixlr.
4. Eliminates problems with down computers. Because the cloud is not a centralized system failure is not a problem. Almost every business has experienced a problem where their system has crashed or they don’t have access to their computers for a much longer period of time than can really work for production. Since the cloud is designed to pull information from various sources if there is a hardware failure on one end the rest of the cloud can make up for it keeping your business up and running.

Are you looking at the newest technology to help your business run efficiently? Contact the professionals at Gage Personnel to help you streamline your hiring process.

Have Well Researched References

References are as much an art form as creating the perfect resume and acing the interview. Many job seekers overlook this simple step and often find themselves filling out applications with random phone numbers and hoping for the best. Before you even begin to submit your resume to your dream job you need to consider who you have in your contacts who can give you the best possible reference. Some companies don’t even bother calling your references and others make sure they get detailed responses form everyone you’ve provided. You can’t know which company is which so it is best to be prepared. Here are some best practices when it comes to your references.

1. Contact them first. Make a phone call or send out a professional email to some of your former managers and co-workers. Ask them if they would be willing to be a reference for you and if you can give their contact information to the interviewer. This will give people the option to say no. If someone doesn’t want to be a reference they shouldn’t have to be. This will also allow you to make sure you have the best contact information available.
2. Your reference is a reflection on you. You want to make sure that the individuals you have the potential employees contact are as professional as you are. The conversation they have about you will reflect on you. Choose your references wisely.
3. Find out the company policy. After you’ve left an organization you should find out the specifics of the company’s reference policy from the HR department. If they only allow confirmation of dates of employment you may wish to speak with a different contact to give you a more detailed personal reference.
4. Get letters. Many companies still have a policy of personally checking your references but you can eliminate a step for them by providing a professional reference letter from a previous employer or co-worker. Be sure that it includes current contact information so the hiring manager can verify any information that the reference provided.

Are you looking for a company to help you with your job search, resume writing, and references? Contact the professional staff at Gage Personnel today!