Job Search Tips - The One Day, One Job Blog

I originally came up with the idea for this article after reading Darren Rowse’s post on ProBlogger called Reasons to Have a Vanity Folder in Your News Aggregator. A “Vanity Folder” or Online Brand Management Folder is a way for you to monitor online mentions of your name or business. If Darren is truly practicing what he preaches (and I’d bet he is), then he should come across this post. Darren’s post was directed towards bloggers, but I want to discuss how this concept and the technology behind it can be extremely useful to both recruiters and job searchers.

Read the full article →

Whether you’re a first-time job seeker or a seasoned veteran, searching for a job on the Internet can be a daunting task. At One Day, One Job we do our best to find truly great entry-level career opportunities and pass on information about them to you. Since we only write about one company’s jobs each day, there are thousands upon thousands of jobs that we pass over. Just because we don’t mention a company on One Day, One Job doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth your interest.

Read the full article →

The last 3 years Google Trends shows a huge spike in searches for the keyword “jobs” in late December. From the graph it looks like this jump comes after the holiday gift giving search traffic bottoms out. In fact, it looks like the increase in job search traffic starts on December 26th (this is just a guess concocted from comparing this graph to some graphs of holiday related search traffic) and peaks just a few days into January. So for about a week, there is an extremely sharp jump in search traffic for jobs, then it levels off throughout the year. There also appears to be a significant, but relatively steady drop in job search traffic during the Fall, before the sharp upward spike happens again just after Christmas. Can anybody explain this?

Read the full article →

The top investment banks and consulting firms go to a couple of the best colleges, get 400 resumes, interview 8 candidates, and hire 2 seniors for their entry-level position or development program. These companies are employment brand giants at the campuses they visit. Often they skip most campuses, rarely accept resumes outside of the on-campus resume submission process, and reject over 99% of applicants.

One of my friends who is a Senior at an Ivy League school went to a lunch with representatives from a top consulting firm yesterday. One of the other students at the lunch asked about internships, and one of the recruiters responded that they were not actively recruiting interns at this school. The student then asked how one would go about applying and the recruiter basically said don’t bother.

Read the full article →

So, I told you about Facebook’s new Flyers Pro feature and how it’s going to change the world of recruiting, or at least help me a lot with building One Day, One Job’s audience. Well I’m still waiting to use Facebook Flyers Pro. Every time I try to set up a campaign – and I stupidly keep trying to see if they’ve fixed it yet – when I enter my billing information it tells me that the address that I’ve entered is not valid. So I e-mailed Facebook’s support staff for help.

My first e-mail to them on September 15th:

Hi, I keep trying to sign up for my flyer, but the sign up form keeps
telling me to enter a valid address. I have entered a valid address,
and it is definitely the address that is linked to the credit card. It is a
PO Box, which may be the problem. I also tried my home address,
which was also rejected. I want to get this campaign going ASAP, so
please help.

A response from Reece at Facebook on September 16th:

We are aware of the problem that you described and hope to resolve
it as soon as possible. Sorry for any inconvenience. Let me know if
you have any further questions.

My second e-mail on September 16th:

Thanks for your response. Is there any current workaround or is the
whole Flyers Pro program not yet up and running? Is there anyway I
could register my billing info through another form, and then save it
and have it used to get my flyer published?

Reece’s response also on September 16th:

Unfortunately, at this time you will be unable to purchase flyers on
the site. We are aware of this problem and are hoping to resolve this
glitch as soon as possible. We are sorry for any inconvenience this
has caused. Let me know if you have any further questions.

So I tried once more today, September 18th:

Flyers Pro still isn’t working for me, I’m sure you all are working
on it. I was just wondering if there is any word on when I’ll be able
to start launching some Flyers Pro Campaigns. I’m really chomping on
the bit to give Facebook my money.

And Reece responded promptly again today:

We are actively trying to fix this problem on the site. We thank you
for your patience and are sorry for any inconvenience this has
caused.

I expected it to take until Monday to get this issue resolved, but I’m still waiting. On Sunday, I noticed a lot more flyers and thought that maybe some people had found a way to start their campaigns, but since then I’ve just seen a lot of banner ads on the left side of my Facebook.

Two things to note in defense of Facebook. First of all, I didn’t see any press release on Facebook Flyers Pro. It appears that they just added the feature, so it should work, but at least they’re not hyping it yet. Second, their customer service response has been prompt and courteous. I guess Reece couldn’t have really helped me out, since the feature just isn’t working yet.

It appears that Facebook has fallen flat on its – er – face with this one. Has anybody had Facebook Flyers Pro work yet? Please respond in the comments.

Yesterday Facebook released their Facebook Flyers Pro CPC advertising solution in response to the demand for an alternative to the disappointing results that the original Facebook Flyers program delivered. Facebook Flyers enables you to target a specific network with ads at $2 CPM, which sounds cheap, until you realize that the click through rate is typically well under 1%. I did a test run on the Cornell University network and managed a .2-.4% click-through rate, which apparently is excellent compared to others who have used the program. Basically I was paying over 50 cents a click during my trial, which is a lot more than I’d like to spend per visitor.

Now, with the Facebook Flyers Pro option, I’m extremely excited about the prospects of advertising on Facebook. Beyond the fact that now you only have to pay for results, the platform allows for an impressive amount of targeting (by gender, relationship status, network/school, interests, age, etc). It’s a phenomenal platform at first look, but if the low click-through rates continue, it will still be difficult to get a meaningful amount of traffic from Facebook unless they give you a ton of impressions. I will be trying it out as soon as they get over their little problem of rejecting my billing address every time I try to sign up for a campaign. If anything, the results have to be better than their original Facebook Flyers solution.

In terms of One Day, One Job and recruiting in general, this platform has a ton of potential. It can be a supplement to on-campus recruiting, or it can be used to reach campuses that a company may not be able to visit. It is certainly a tool that I will be using to build my audience, and I think it also has potential to be used as a supplement to drive traffic to a company’s One Day, One Job posting. I will certainly be testing Facebook Flyers Pro and figuring out how I can best leverage it in the recruitment of college students and recent graduates for entry-level jobs.

I went to the Cornell University Career Fair yesterday. In the 3.5 years I spent as a student at Cornell, I never went to any of the Career Fairs. Now I wish I had. It was fun. My goal at the fair was to talk to recruiters when they weren’t talking to students and offer them a free trial of One Day, One Job. Overall, the day was extremely successful. Most of the recruiters I spoke with were enthusiastic about One Day, One Job and seemed to really like the idea. Anyways, that’s not the point of this post.

My girlfriend also went to the Career Fair, since she’s a Senior looking for a job. She spoke with dozens of employers and got interviews and invites for dinner and drinks right on the spot. That sounds like good recruiting. Wine and dine the kids you really want and get a chance to meet them. Then read through the rest of the resumes and see if you missed anyone. My girlfriend was particularly excited about one company, which I won’t name, and was upset she had to turn down their invitation for dinner because of previous obligations (possibly a boyfriend in town). So she played phone tag with someone on the recruiting team, and arranged for breakfast this morning.

At the Career Fair, the representatives from this mystery company had told her that they were recruiting for a Sales Development Leadership Program. My girlfriend said that she was interested in a Marketing position and was told that they only offered those to MBAs, but that this Leadership Program would eventually lead into the same career track. The Leadership Program is 18 month long and would consist of working on a single product team for the duration. Well at breakfast, the story changed a little. That Marketing position that she envisioned herself working towards was now 3-5 years way. After the Leadership Program she’d spend the next 1.5-3.5 years working on exciting projects that would move her towards her goal of working in Marketing, right? Not quite. She’d be driving around in a car selling their product to businesses door to door. This is definitely not what she had in mind. My girlfriend is extremely talented, and has an impressive resume, but selling door to door would certainly not be one of her strong points. Maybe she had been confused about what she heard earlier in the day, since she had been talking with employers most of the day; however, the other girl at the breakfast was just at perplexed when she found out what this job actually is.

This company needs to buy a couple hundred copies of Recruit or Die.

So where did this mystery company go wrong? Did they miscommunicate what their position was really about? Or were they pulling a bait and switch? I’m guessing that this was a miscommunication, but it’s a really huge mistake to make. They are offering what I’m sure is a great job, but they were offering it to the wrong people.

To expect Ivy League graduate to stay in a door to door sales job for 3-5 years before they come close to doing something that interests them is ridiculous. It’s a bad investment. The new recruits will quickly get bored and they will leave. Now I’m not trashing this job, because I’m sure it’s an excellent opportunity for someone, but this company was selling it hard to the wrong people.

Now I know that some of you are probably thinking that Generation-Y needs to drop the sense of entitlement and pay some dues. That sounds great, but it’s not about us. It’s about this company and the business decision they are making by recruiting this way. It simply won’t work. The money they dump in to the Leadership Development Program will be lost when their new recruits leave after 6, 12, or 18 months. Whether the recruits are being selfish or entitled for leaving doesn’t matter; they will leave, and this company will pay the price. Moreover, my this company is now off my girlfriend’s list, and I’m sure she’s not the only one who was annoyed by the recruiting team’s failure to be upfront with her. This company’s booth was absolutely packed yesterday, but today that positive attention has been reversed. Their employment brand, at least at Cornell, will certainly take a hit.

So that’s why One Day, One Job is about upfront recruiting. Companies must allow self-selection to happen before the hiring process goes to far. Luckily for this company, they only invested some time at the Career Fair and a quick breakfast, but imagine losing the applicant in the third round interview because you misrepresented the position from the start. An information-rich job posting may lead to fewer applicants, but they will be more qualified and more interested in the job.

After reading this post on job seeker etiquette, I thought I would make a list of etiquette tips for recruiters who are hiring milennials. Please add yours in the comments section.

1. Respond quickly to each applicant with a description of the hiring process and a timeline.

If I don’t hear from you for a month or three, I tend to think I didn’t get the job. So when you e-mail me three months after I applied, I’m probably doing something else, or I’m no longer interested. If you can’t get back to me quickly, it tells me that you don’t have your stuff together. The excitement about getting an interview isn’t the same after such a long lag between applying and getting a call back.

2. Don’t rely on e-mail as your sole form of communication.

A phone call goes a long way. It’s personal. It’s friendly. Most of all, it shows that you are interested in the applicant.

3. It’s none of your business whom else I am interviewing with.

Maybe I’ll tell you when you make an offer, but what does it matter to you? I wouldn’t be talking to you if I wasn’t serious about your position. This is a can’t win question. If you answer that you’re interviewing with many other companies, the recruiter will think you’re not serious about the position; if you say that this is the only job you’re interviewing for, they won’t think you’re serious about looking for a job. Don’t create awkwardness by asking this question during the first interview, wait until later in the process when the answer to this question actually matters.

4. If you’re going to delay your decision, or the process has changed, let the applicant know.

It’s not hard to keep people up to date. You’re much less likely to alienate those who are in the middle of the hiring process by being up front with them.

5. Be polite to the people you turn down.

If you aren’t nice about it, you’ll never get another shot at this person again. Even if the person was clearly unqualified for the job, you don’t want someone telling their friends and blogging about how rude the recruiter from such and such company was. Moreover, the person you turned down could be a customer. Don’t turn people off to your company and its products because of your attitude – it’s not just about your employment brand. Lastly, give some constructive feedback with your rejection if you can – it’s just a nice thing to do.

6. Call when you say you’re going to call. E-mail when you say you’re going to e-mail.

When the applicant scheduled a 9:00 AM phone interview with you, he woke up early (yes that’s early for a college student, don’t look down on him for that), ate breakfast, looked over the research he did on your company, and found a quiet place to sit down and talk to you for a half an hour. I think you can be sure to take the 2 minutes to call when you said you would. And don’t ever say you’ll call on Friday, but not call until Monday – that is atrocious and makes you and your company look really bad. Even if you’re telling the person they didn’t get the job, don’t put it off at the cost of the applicant’s anxiousness and nervousness.

7. Don’t look down on an applicant for having a life or being unique.

Applicants have Facebook and MySpace profiles with inside jokes that you won’t understand. There are embarrassing pictures. Just because they look bad, doesn’t mean they are. Maybe they are bad, but can you say that nobody in your company behaves in the same way? We all have quirks, if you start picking on people for being different, you are going to end up with a pretty small pool of talent. Don’t write people off because of what you find while you’re snooping. It’s the people whom you can’t find any dirt on that you should worry about anyways, they might have made the conscious effort to hide things from you.

8. Realize that sometimes you wake us up when you call.

College students can’t really transition into the working world until they’ve actually started a job. Until then, they are living the college life, which they should be. Don’t expect all of your applicants to act like professionals yet, they’re not.

Anybody have any additions? Do any recruiters disagree with these? Why?

What are the questions that recent graduates want answered when they read job postings? Here’s a list that I’ve compiled, please add your thoughts in the comments section.

About the Job

What will I do every day?
What are some typical projects?
What are some atypical projects?
Whom will I be working with?
What kind of knowledge do I need to get this job?
What should my educational background be?
Are there any skills that would be particularly useful in this job?
What are the passions and interests of people in this position?
Where can this job take me?
What kind of internal career paths are there?
Do people in this position go on to top graduate schools?
How does the job pay?
What is the benefits package?

About the Company

What does the company do?
What makes the company special/different?
Who is on your leadership team?
Where is your company located?
Who are your clients or customers?
Is there a book that defines your company? Or one that your CEO often recommends?
What is the future of your company?

About the Life

As you can probably see, we format our job postings to address these questions directly and efficiently. We think that a job posting that answers these questions will lead to a much higher level of applicant quality.

We’ve spent the past week putting together a new design that looks a lot better and will be much more functional. Our goal with this design is to make sure that One Day, One Job addresses the questions that entry-level job seekers have when they peruse job listings. Often, the answers to these questions are left for interviews when significant time has been committed by both the job seeker and the employer. If the answers to these questions are turn offs to the job seeker, then significant time and effort may have been wasted. Furthermore, the answers to these questions may attract excellent applicants who would not be drawn in by a blander job posting.

Many job seekers have certain constraints. These can range from location to schedule flexibility to need for travel. What is a strong negative to one reader may be a strong positive to another. We want to allow the self-selection process to take place before there is a significant time commitment so that job seekers and employers are able to use their time more efficiently.

Welcome to the One Day, One Job Blog. This is where we will keep you updated about the goings on at One Day, One Job. Here we will give you an inside look at the development of the site.