Archive for November, 2009
Tips on Contracting and Permanent employment
Author: adminAdvantages of a Contract Job:
Contractors earn higher pay compared to permanent employees.
Contractors cost companies much less than permanent employees.
Companies are happier hiring contractors because they don’t need to pay benefits, unemployment insurance, or holiday and vacation pay.
Contractors Immigration issues are handled by staffing company rather than client.
Advantages of a Permanent Job:
Permanent job offers job security and stability.
Permanent employment is better for individuals deciding to settle in life vs earning more.
Permanent job offers more employment benefits and bonuses like health insurance, pay raises and holiday pay.
Bottom Line: If you are well settled and looking for more stability Permanent offer is better, if you are an immigrant and need lot of support for immigration purposes contracting is better as you earn higher and stability to immigration status.
Tips to writing an Effective Cover Letter
Author: adminHow to write a cover letter?
Cover letter has to be a KISS (Keep It Short and Simple). We all live in a world where time is most important resource. It is always important to be very precise and attract the attention of reader within 10 seconds as most of us are multi tasking to keep up with our work loads, here is how you can keep your cover letter crisp and attractive.
A Short introductory first paragraph of cover letter
Your short introductory paragraph should mention about how you heard about the position and emphasizing the fact that your skills match the position. The first two lines should make the person feel you have the skills required for the job and it should interest him to read further.
Example: I am writing in response to your ad in Lucidjobs.com on March 20 2009 for a Java Developer. I have worked for over 8 years as a Java Developer in various levels with major focus on database concepts and ETL. (Give only what the client is looking for, nothing more)
Your second paragraph of cover letter
Here you let the reader know who you are. It describes you professionally and states your most important qualifications and accomplishments.
Example: Most recently I was employed with (Company Name) as a Java Developer, with strong focus on various Java platforms along with Database concepts. My Bachelors in Computers science combined with strong interest in the subject lead to an exposure with various high level projects.
The Third paragraph of cover letter
Here you must show that your specific skills are a good match for the position—your connection to the company.
Example:
My experience working as a java developer with (Company Name) combined with my extensive knowledge on database concepts and ETL with extensive knowledge of various applications would be an asset to your company.
Conclusion of cover letter with contact details
Your letter will conclude with “next steps.” And your contact details (Name, Email ID and Phone Number). Always be courteous and understanding of your reader’s time, and use a tone that shows interest without being pushy.
A simple sentence, such as ‘I look forward to hearing from you soon,’ is a good way to end your letter.
A slightly more aggressive sentence is, ‘I would be delighted to discuss my background and your company’s needs in person if given an opportunity.’
Communicate effectively with a well-written Job Posting to attract job seekers.
As your Job post travel’s to various places like Twitter, Google, SimplyHired, Indeed & more. It is very important to craft a well designed job post to attract qualified profiles.
Title: Job Title is a form of advertising to reach your audience. Keep the Title short Precise and readable. People prefer to search for position title or designation they have held in past (E.g.: Java developer can get your more java resource compared software developer, software developer might not even show up in searches on search engines). It is powerful and must be used to their fullest advantage to attract resumes from different sources.
Location: Give exact location so that you can attract local resources who are readily available to take up the Job (you can enter address to be precise of the location, job posts integrated with Google maps when address is entered).
Industry: Mention the Industries you might fall into as some people only search for certain industries.
Immigration Information: Many people from outside the US want to come work in the United States or with In US with out proper employment authorization. Please specify Immigration Information within your job posting. Kind of work authorization you are looking for or any specific clearances or if you are ok to accept foreign applicants. By doing this you not only limit the number of applications that you need to sort through and respond to but you will also prevent excited job seekers from various sources from having false hopes of getting a job in your company.
Salary: It is always good to mention salary so you can avoid some of the questions and also it helps people who are skeptical about pay.
Description: Writing your job descriptions is a critical to your job post. If you write your job description poorly you could find yourself overwhelmed with unqualified candidates or it could result in too few responses. The more information you provide in your Job Posting the fewer questions you will have to answer from interested applicants about the job. This job description is submitted to all search engines out there to attract the job seekers.
Tips for a Job Interview
Author: adminTips for a Job Interview
An interview is a critical step of hiring decision. The interviewer will look for your Knowledge, Skills and Attitude.
- * Ask questions the work, the environment so that you can tailor your experience to reflect what they are looking for.
- * Do not lie about technologies you do not have familiarity with.
- * Focus on your strengths and the knowledge you have.
- * If you are asked something you have not worked with you might be able to overcome that by stating experience that is similar.
- * Think about what you have done, your rolls, and the technical involvement you have had on your projects.
- * Speak SLOWLY and CLEARLY.
- * Make sure you are somewhere quiet and somewhere that you can focus on the conversation.
- * Close the interview down by reiterating interest and asking for next steps.
Do’s: Logical questions, questions about work environment, examples of previous work experience, positive attitude, body language and gestures.
Don’ts: Argue with interviewer, Lie to Interviewer, Over Confident, Speak ill about previous company, Emotional and jittery/nervous.
Employer Application Tracking System (ATS) Guide
Author: adminLucid Jobs Employer Application Tracking System (ATS): Welcome to Lucid Jobs Application Tracking System. This will allow you to work from anywhere and keep all the data organized.
1.1 Activity: This tab records all the activities you on Lucid Jobs such as posting jobs or changing candidate status or adding an event etc. You can refer back to it to keep a track of all the activities.
1.2 Notepad: You can make notes on ATS notepad to easily access back anytime you are online..
1.3 Calendar: Organizing your schedule should be easy with Lucid Jobs ATS Calendar. It is easy to keep a track of events such as interviews and meetings all in one place. You can import or export events from/to other calendars.
1.4 Memo: You can share your memo with your colleagues to convey message. We will group all your colleagues based on their Email IDs and URL in the registration page. Only the poster can edit or delete the memo.
1.5 Recent Hires: Here you can view a list of recent hires you have made with their contact details for quick reference.
1.6 Graph: Reports are generated in two formats: Line graph and Pie chart, with all the data of resumes you are working on.
1.7 Candidate Name Search: Search for candidate using their first name or last name. From the results page, you can filter out the undesired results by deselecting the check boxes on left panel in the results window.
1.8 Job ID Search: Search for candidate using a job id to get the applications for a particular job. From the results page, you can filter out the undesired results by deselecting the check boxes on left panel in the results window.
1.9 Job Title Search: Search for candidate using a job title to get the applications for similar jobs. From the results page, you can filter out the undesired results by deselecting the check boxes on left panel in the results window.
1.10 Tags Search: Search for candidate using tags to get the applications that contain the keywords . From the results page, you can filter out the undesired results by deselecting the check boxes on left panel in the results window.
1.11 Left Panel: The Left panel on the results window consists of 5 options: Rating, Updated in, Application Status, Contact Status and Job Title.
* Rating: You can sort the application by rating assigned.
* Updated in: It gives you an option to check the resumes received within a period of time.
* Application Status: It gives you an option to narrow your search results depending on application status.
* Contact Status: It gives you an option to narrow your search results depending on contact status.
* Job Title: It gives you an option to narrow your search results for a particular job.
1.12 ATS Detail Page: ATS detail page will have the contact details of the candidate along with cover letter and resume. The activities you can carry out with applications you have received are as follows:
* Add Tags: You can add tags so that you can easy search resumes with those tags.
* Application Status: You can change the application status from new to other status (Reviewing, Contacted, Decline, Shortlisted, Submitted, Interview, Offer Made, Not in Consideration and Client Declined).
* Contact Status: You can record contact status so that when you come back to this page you have the record of contact status.
* Assign to: Assign to” is to share the resume between your colleagues / clients who are registered users of Lucid Jobs- all you need is their User ID (Email ID) on Lucid Jobs.
* Email Candidate: You can email a candidate from here directly and the activity is recorded to the activities section.
* Schedule an Appointment: You can schedule an appointment for this candidate It will automatically update in both your calendar and the candidate calendar.
* Delete Candidate: You can delete a candidate to remove from your database.
* Notes: You can add notes to this candidate. If you mark it private, it will not be shared with candidate but will be shared between recruiters who have been assigned to. It will be easy to track the notes when someone new person is assigned to this resume.
* Candidate Rating: You can rate this candidate based on his resume or conversation with him.
* Cover Letter: This is the cover letter from candidate which was captured while the application was submitted. This data is captured at submission, we cannot edit this information.
* Resume: This is the resume from candidate which was captured while the application was submitted. This data is captured at submission, we cannot edit this information.
* Job Description: This is the job description that was posted for this job.
* History: History will automatically log all the activities (Application Status, Contact Status, Assign to, Email Candidate, Schedule an Appointment, Notes and rating) from the time candidate is sourced.
Ten Tips to prepare the Perfect Resume
Author: admin1. Keywords Keywords: If your resume does not repeat the right keywords (or search terms) numerous times searchers are unlikely to find it. It’s a sad fact but resumes are ranked based on how many times they repeat the right keywords.
2. Critical Keywords: Job Titles/Job Descriptions: When recruiters and hiring managers search for candidates they use the major definitive elements of the job. Keywords are not cross-functional multi-tasking interpersonal skills or other nice-to-include descriptive jargon. Those are good to have somewhere (if relevant) but only once or twice at most.
Instead your resume should repeat basic core search terms. Job titles – creative director business analyst CFO. Job descriptions – creative direction business process analysis corporate finance. These should be repeated in your resume s headline opening section every job description – wherever you can fit them.
3. Synonyms : You don t know exactly which keywords your dream employer uses. So to cover all the bases you also need synonyms: comparable titles and parallel job descriptions.
Here s a good keyword-loaded job description opener: Promoted from Software Developer to Senior Software Developer to serve as lead programmer / analyst for major software development / software engineering projects.
4. Qualifications Summaries: Another way to up your keyword count: opening summaries. These enable your resume to highlight your most relevant strengths immediately – and also offer another opportunity to reiterate keywords.
5. Resume Keyword Lists: Finally list specific terms. It s a perfect way to showcase your diverse skills and add even more keywords. You don t have to name it a nerdy Keywords. Label your table Strengths or Expertise listing 3-4 keywords per line in a professional organized appearance.
6. Readability and attractiveness: Make it very presentable use the fonts and sizes which are popular and professional.
7. Certifications: List the Related Certifications this goes long way.
8. Hobbies: Avoid personal hobbies on the resume.
9. Personalization: Customize the resume for the requirement (Highlight the points which suit the requirement).
10. Contact Details: List the best email address where you can respond quick and phone numbers (two are good).