Minto Roy - Career - Recruitment Blog

1. Corporate Downsizing by large multi-national companies. If you are a small company, this is the best time to pursue talent within your industry who have great contacts, experience, and competitive intelligence. Many well networked professionals who may have been unaffordable in the past are now looking beyond the corporate giants to entrepreneurial small businesses. Those with decent severance packages in hand can justify taking a salary cut and investing in your company’s growth plan and potential.

2. Large companies reducing staff run the risk of diminishing service quality to their clients. Reduced staff and fewer resources could mean that existing clients accustomed to premium service might be disappointed to learn that the representatives whom they always dealt with are gone. It’s a great time to pursue these clients who might now consider moving their business to your small business and deal directly with the owner.

3. Public support. In this era of corporate bailouts, outlandish corporate salaries and rollercoaster stock dips, the strength of small business and a customer’s access to the actual business owner is comforting to the public and consumer market. The public has far more trust in the mom and pop shop businesses than the corporate giants responsible for the plummeting stock market.

4. Small business is nimble and reactive. Corporate giants have thrown down their anchors in their attempts to ride the economic storm. Millions of “No More Spending Memos” have been sent across North America, corporate layoffs, salary rollback, no more travel, no more client lunches, dinners etc… Large corporations are making it harder for their sales staff to close new business. Small business can strategically target key clients traditionally held by the corporate giants. Small business can react and create innovative approaches, incentivise their sales reps to travel the red-eye and take advantage of every opportunity available to close new deals.

5. Global Thinking. Small business can initiate and launch into new markets, globally, where consumer markets want or need their products. Large corporations require significant re-structuring, re-tooling and significant capital to pursue new markets. Small business can decide tomorrow if they want to expand globally. No red tape required, small business comes with the freedom to hire an agent or a representative in China or India to sell their products via agent agreement and become international overnight.

So let the newspapers continue to grow their businesses and sell newspapers with negative stories of rampant layoffs, restructurings, large business contract cancellations and the decline of the corporate giants. It is all good news for small business.

Minto Roy
President
Careers Today Canada
Mroy@careerstodaycanada.com
www.careerstodaycanada.com
www.mintoroy.net

Posted by minto at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Employment World doesn’t need another boring resume.

Here are Top 5 Things Not to Do when creating a competitive resume to set yourself apart from your competition. But first a quick ‘Marketing 101 lesson for jobseekers,

“If you are trying to set yourself apart from other jobseekers in the marketplace, don’t market yourself with the exact same methodology as the rest of your competition and hope to stand out.”

Most jobseekers traditionally use a resume to showcase their value. The resume showcases their past accomplishments, past experiences and past education. However, after speaking with hundreds of hiring managers, I am reminded that these managers are far more interested in what a candidate can do for them in the future, not what they have done in the past.

However, only a fraction of the resume focuses on the jobseeker’s future. The “objective section”, usually the lead paragraph, is the only part of the resume that contains any information about the jobseeker’s future objective. But most objective statements are vague and contain never ending clichés.

Objective: “seasoned professional looking for a dynamic and challenging position with a growth oriented company. A great team player, willing to work hard, flexible, loyal, etc…”

In hopes of being unique most job seekers provide employers with identically formatted marketing documents and statements hoping to set themselves apart as being unique. So here are 5 Things Not to Do when trying to create a unique resume

Number One

Don’t be too general and say the same things as every other job seeker.
Employers assume that you are honest, loyal and a team player. No employer disqualifies you right away and says, “Hey, this guy didn’t say he was honest, hardworking and loyal in his resume, he’s out!”

Number Two

Don’t assume that your resume has to showcase every one of your experiences and accomplishments.

Including everything you’ve done in your career doesn’t increase your odds of getting the job or another job at the company. Don’t hope that employers might look deeper at your qualification and figure out that you are qualified for another opportunity within the company.

Number Three

Don’t use words that are long term or process oriented words when describing your achievements. Use a short term, action oriented bursts. Write dialogue to attract the reader’s interest and emotions.

Number Four

Don’t go back more than a decade with your experiences and achievements. Even that’s a long time. Respectfully, not many people care about what you did ten years ago…It’s over. Remember, keep the focus of your resume on what you can do in the future.

Number Five

Make the end of the resume count. Remember, most people remember what they read at the beginning and at the end. End uniquely, by creating an exciting explanation of your passions and interests outside of work.

The end of your resume should provide employers insight into your competitive drive, your creativity, your commitment to charity, volunteer work, how you might save the world!

Be bold, be creative, use the final part of your resume to compel the hiring manager to want to meet the professional and the personality behind the document.

Minto Roy
President
CareersToday Canada
www.careerstodaycanada.com
www.mintoroy.net

Listen to Minto on Careers Today Radio. Every week on The Buzz 1410 am Saturdays from 3-4 pm. Past shows available can be downloaded on the Careers Today website.

Posted by minto at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are fortunate enough to get in-the-door of the right company looking to hire someone with your professional skills and qualifications then you will have to deal with some difficult interview questions.

The typical job interview takes about one hour; Sixty minutes of time that determines where you will spend at least 8 hours of a day, a crucial meeting that solidifies your professional identity and future lifestyle for you and your family in Canada.

With my experience of assisting thousands of professional immigrants with their job search, the questions that cause most anxiety relate to the lack of Canadian work experience. It’s extremely important that new professionals handle this question with a solid response.
Most professional immigrants arrive in Canada with a great education, years of work experience, lots of talent and a commitment to hard work. Yet lack the understanding of how to effectively communicate their value during a job interview. It’s vital that newcomers showcase that they DO HAVE the drive, skills and experience to take on a professional job similar to that of their home country.

Forget Interview strategies for this column. Here are some real interview answers to get you through the number one toughest question your will face. Practice these answers, memorize them and use them. This type of professional language will help you understand and respond effectively to the dreaded Canadian experience question:

Employer Question:

Why should we hire you, over other candidates with greater Canadian experience?
To answer this question you will need a plan or a rehearsed script. Think about famous actors when they perform in a play or a movie. They do so only after massive preparation. Every word, every pause, every facial gesture has been practiced. In fact, professionals in every field recognize when called to perform at a competitive level they must be ready. They practice until their responses to an important situation becomes second nature.

Treat your response to questions or concerns related to your lack of Canadian experience with the same degree of practice and performance. Rather than taking a defensive position with your answer, go on the offense. Turn the question into an opportunity that mirrors commonly held business concepts.

Here’s a script to rehearse.

Answer:

“We’re in a dynamic global economy, I understand you are (or want to be) a global company. A company that thinks and acts beyond Canada’s borders. My work experience has many common traits that you are looking for.” (Give a clear example at this point that matches their requirements.) Write down your own experience example and rehearse it before the interview. Practice over and over again, memorize and make sure you provide examples of experiences that match the criteria for their job description.

Here’s more dialogue for you to memorize.

“I also hope to assist with your companies initiatives locally and globally. Many Canadian businesses are realizing that more than half of their products and services are being bought by new immigrants. I hope with my multi-language skills and cultural understanding that I can help service and grow your customer base in new markets that are growing each year with the increase in Canadian immigration.

These responses will be extremely attractive to companies that are targeting their products into immigrant market segments. Your competition will not be able to compete with your language and cultural insights that match social demographic changes to Canada’s population. If you’re interviewing with a progressive company, there may already be plans underway to move their products and services global or at least local plans to reach growing immigrant communities in Canada.

I know most of your realize that you must commit to improving your English skills and practice every day. But go beyond practice and pretend you are an actor in a movie learning a foreign accent. You’re not trying to be fake when job interviewing, your simply trying to present full value of your potential.

You shouldn’t be relegated to low level entry jobs in Canada. If you’re a professional take responsibility for preparing and presenting yourself until you can answer well enough to present your skills and experience. Practice interview answers until you can quote them perfectly. Memorize, practice and face questions about your lack of Canadian experience with confidence. Become dedicated to your interview performance, like actors in-front of paying audiences. Because when your interviewing for a job, you are performing in-front of a paying audience, your future employer.

Minto Roy
President
Careers Today Canada
Mroy@careerstodaycanada.com
www.careerstodaycanada.com
www.mintoroy.net

Posted by minto at 06:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)