JobsByRef.com blog

Lateral hiring - 3 things to remember

Sanjay Dattatri — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:18:36 +0000

Lateral hiring, especially at mid - to senior levels can be very challenging. Here are three things that can help you to net the right candidate.

1. Create a rapport.

A popular ad for a deo goes like this… ‘Because first impressions last’. This is true when hiring as well. It is very important to build a healthy rapport with the candidate. Ideally, you should already have a good network, both online and offline, so that you and the candidate have common friends. If not, now is the time to start. Even if the candidate does not meet your requirements for this position, you need to build a connection with him so that you can tap him later when required.

2. Assume she has 4 other offers.

Good lateral candidates are always in demand. Which means that you are not the only one trying to rope them in. How you interact with the candidate defines which company she chooses. If she has 4 other offers, all reasonably comparable, what will you do to make her choose you over the others?

3. Respond promptly.

One of the answers to the above question should be to respond promptly. However, this point is so important that it deserves a separate bullet for itself. Most recruiters do not respond to the candidate at all. Not only does this make the candidate annoyed with you, it also keeps him actively searching for that much longer. A prompt response to the effect that we have seen your profile and are interested and further messages as things progress will not only keep him in the loop but will also ensure that he reduces his job search efforts through other channels.

Happy hunting!

Write to us at support@jobsbyref.com for more information.

Do existing recruitment portals reduce your workload?

Sanjay Dattatri — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:43:19 +0000

Last week I met a few companies that had implemented HR/recruitment/applicant tracking systems. Almost all of them lamented the fact that, instead of saving them work, these systems have only added to their already heavy workload by way of additional data entry. All that these systems do is to provide a means to capture information pertaining to all the activities undertaken during the hiring process - they do not actually help in reducing the work or improving the quality of hire!

JobsByRef.com is different. JobsByRef.com uses the power of the computer to help reduce your work. The job-wise (TM) inbox, the automatic short-listing algorithms, the intelligent resume formatter and information extractor ensure that you can zoom into the right resumes without opening a single one of them. Leading to over 80% reduction in time spent with resumes.

Let the power of JobsByRef.com work for you. Remember - the computer is the slave, not you!

For more information on getting the best out of JobsByRef.com, write to us at support@jobsbyref.com.

Powering your referrals

Sanjay Dattatri — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:42:25 +0000

Our studies show that some of the larger companies get more than 30% of their new employees through employee referral schemes. But surprisingly, less than 10% of the employees actually refer candidates! All this, despite the HR team creating monetary incentives and promoting job openings aggressively among the employees.

The reason most employees do not participate in the employee referral programs is not that they don’t have friends. The reason is more to do with lack of initiative/interest. However, things can change if the HR team can actually track the referral activities of each employee and then individually coax people to participate more.

And that is where the comprehensive referral support that JobsByRef.com provides comes in. With your JobsByRef.com account, you can not only promote all job openings to employees, but also track the referral activities of each of your employees. This allows you to track who has forwarded which jobs to how many people - email contacts, facebook friends, twitter followers - as well as how good the responses are.

Write to us at support@jobsbyref.com to learn how to super-charge your employee referral program.

Writing good covering letters.

Sanjay Dattatri — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 05:08:33 +0000

Most people, when they apply for a job, write a covering letter to go with their resume. However, I find that most of these covering letters are useless and add no value at all.

Does your covering letter go like this?

‘Please find attached my resume for your kind perusal. I hope to work in your esteemed organization and will put in the best efforts… blah, blah, blah’.

If the answer is ‘yes’, then you need to rethink your covering letter. You can either do away with it (as the above letter is of no use) or you can write a better one.

A good covering letter will clearly state why you think you are suitable for this position. It will outline how you found the opening, what you understand from the ad about the job’s requirement, how your experience makes you fit for the position and how you will add great value to the company.

Such a letter shows that you have read the advertisement, understood the requirement, consider yourself suitable for the position and have applied because you are seriously interested.

JobsByRef.com has a place for you to write the covering letter. It is inside the applied page (the page you go to when you click on your application details). Make the best use of it.

Help companies find you…

Sanjay Dattatri — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:16:35 +0000

Hiring has started again in a big way, for freshers as well as laterals. Companies, as always, are keen to find the best candidates available out there in the market.

The question is how easily can they find you? Here are some things you can do to help companies find you quickly:

1. Complete your profile.

JobsByRef.com makes it very easy to complete your profile (check out the new profile home page). This will ensure that our match engine can suggest great jobs as soon as they get published.

2. Build your network.

We will find jobs in companies where your friends work so that you can get referrals and move into the inside track in the recruitment process.

Use the invite friends feature to build your network. You can also easily import your linkedin network so that you have a consolidated network all in one place working for you.

3. Use our Job search to find the right jobs.

We have 100s of jobs advertised on JobsByRef.com everyday. Surely some of them will be interesting to you. All you need is 5 minutes in the morning to do a quick job search on JobsByRef.com (make sure you look at both JobsByRef jobs as well as Jobs from the web) to know all the new opportunities out there.

Happy hunting!

Corporate branding through employees

Sanjay Dattatri — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:40:26 +0000

Even for the best of companies, getting employees to talk/write positive things about their company is next to impossible! This is not because there is nothing positive to write, it is just that the employees don’t find the right avenues to do so. After all, it looks very artificial if one were to write “My company is a very good company” on one’s facebook page.

However, if you have an effective employee referral program, you can actually piggy-back on that and create a corporate branding program. What you need to do is to marry your referral program with an effective social recruiting program. Not only can you improve referrals 3-fold but also improve dramatically your brand value among candidates.

Here’s how you can go about building your company brand and image while simultaneously improving your employee referral program:

Get your employees to promote your jobs on their networks.
Once they start doing that, people in their networks will post follow up questions such as “Is your company good?”, “Do they pay well?”, “Is there potential for growth?” etc.
Having promoted the jobs, your employees have already taken on the role of ambassadors of your company. So obviously they will respond positively. After urging their friends to apply, they are not going to turn around and suggest otherwise!
These positive messages will become visible to a lot of people thereby enhancing your image among your employees, their friends, their friends’ friends and to the world at large.

Your jobs postings can be the nucleus for meaningful and positive conversations about your company.

To know more about how to take advantage of social recruiting, write to us atsupport@jobsbyref.com.

All the best!

We heard you…

JobsByRef.com Staff — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:53:13 +0000

If you had visited the site in the last couple of weeks, you would have noticed a lot of changes in the website. These are the direct result of your feedback to us.

One thing for sure you will notice is the speed. The pages load much faster now and the response time to your actions are also perceptibly faster.

But the biggest change is in the profile home section. We have now put your entire profile into one page so that you dont have to navigate across several pages in order add/modify/delete your data. Additionally, the imported data is clearly marked in yellow with a confirm and copy link nearby which allows you to quickly check the details we have extracted from your uploaded resume and import it into your profile.

Of course, we have also changed the aesthetics of the site and we hope you like the improvements we have effected.

Please keep your feedback coming so that we can serve you better.

All the best.

The 3 ‘P’s of recruiting

Sanjay Dattatri — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:22:02 +0000

Here is a simple 1-2-3 process to get the best out of JobsByRef.com

Step
1: Publish your job
Use the easy “publish new job” feature to publish your job openings on
JobsByRef.com and we will ensure that it gets published on several other
sites and gets prominent placement on google search.

Step 2:
Promote the Job.
Use the “Job promotion” facilities to promote the job through email,
facebook, linkedin, twitter and linkedin groups. What’s more, involve
your employees and tap into the social and professional networks of each
and every one of your employees. Track all job promotions and see how
much more powerful employee referrals can become.

Step 3:: Process applicants easily.
Use our patent-pending
resume inbox to easily find the right candidates without having to open
even a single resume. Cut through the clutter and noise and zoom into
the right candidates by using our advanced match-score technology.

JobsByRef.com is the only solution that takes you through from
sourcing to selection. To get the best out of your account write to us
at support@jobsbyref.com
for a training session.

Feedback please

Sanjay Dattatri — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:18:52 +0000

As a job site, we get a lot of traffic from all over the world. Of course a majority is evenly distributed between India and the US.

One thing we have noticed is that we get a lot of feedback from our US members, but hardly anything from Indian candidates.

At JobsByRef.com, we are working hard towards building an effective job finding tool and constructive feedback from you will help us help you better.

Some of things we have done for you:
1. Complete privacy. Even when you are registered with us, we do not expose your resume to anybody when you are in stealth mode. After all, it is your resume and you should control who gets to see it. So, in order to be seen by a company, you need to apply to that company.

2. Suggested Jobs. Once you build your profile completely, our software works hard to find the right jobs for you from our database of jobs. While you are out there searching for the best job, we are also doing the same for you so that between us, we should be able to find great job openings and opportunities quickly.

3. One resume. Who wants to maintain multiple resumes across multiple job sites, right? We understand that this is a painful part of job search. That is why we allow you to build your resume here on jobsbyref.com and use it anywhere (even when you are applying to a job outside JobsByRef.com).

4. One network. We let you build your network on jobsbyref.com as well as allow you to import your network from LinkedIn. This lets us automatically find jobs in companies where your friends work so that you can use your connections to find even unadvertised jobs.

There are many other features that we think will be of immense use to you. However, more than what we think, we would like to know what you think!

For suggestions, criticisms, bouquets and brickbats, write to us at support@jobsbyref.com. We will be glad to hear from you.

You are unique, just like everybody else.

Sanjay Dattatri — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 06:24:10 +0000

When we are born, each one of us is different from the others - different finger prints, appearences, different levels of progress and growth.

Then comes schooling where the over-arching policy of educational institutions seems to be to bring about conformity - to make us all into identical beings.

Then, one fine day, we are thrust back into the real world where we can stand out from the crowd only when we have special talents and capabilities.

Most of us are not born geniuses with some inherent easily appreciated talent (Music, Maths, art,…). Most of us have “regular” jobs. But even here companies are looking to pick the right person. So when you are looking at a specific job, what makes you special - the right person for that job?

There are hidden inherent traits in all of us (though they may not be dramatically or easily apparent). One way to find what that is, is to describe to yourself how you would want others to describe you and then, be that.

Some simple examples are:
“He is a real meticulous person”. “She is a problem solver”. “She is a people person”. “He is a good planner”.

So, how would you like others to describe you?

Go!