Job Seekers

The New Job Search for Executive Professionals

by Dave Nerz

OK, so you have been employed for the last 10 or more years. Just now you are beginning to search for what is next. Maybe your career is in flux because you experienced a reduction in force, or perhaps your company is moving and you are not, or you just need to do something new for someone else. There are new rules that will impact your job search methods. Some things really have not changed about job search, and others are all new.

Job hunting for executives has changed over the years and these ideas may help you improve the speed and results of your job hunt: Read the rest of this entry »


Top Recruitment Blogs of 2019

by Veronica Blatt

top recruitment blogsIt’s a holiday week in both Canada and the USA, so we’re only posting once and giving you a chance to catch up on your reading if you are among the many people away from the office. In case you missed them the first time around, here are our top recruitment blogs of the year to date:

Three Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Interviews: How to Create an ATS-Friendly Resume Automation has made it more difficult for job seekers’ resumes to be seen by the proper hiring authorities. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) “read” resumes looking for keywords. If your resume doesn’t include the right words and the right formatting for machine-reading, it’s very possible you’ll be overlooked. This post includes tips for how to create a resume that will be “seen” and hopefully lead to more interviews! Read the rest of this entry »


Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

by Veronica Blatt

image of job interviewToday’s guest blogger is Paulette Steele with Real Resumes located in Queensland, Australia. Real Resumes is educating people from beginning to end on getting a job.  Short videos cover all aspects including: where to look for a job, writing effective resumes, researching and preparing for the interview, and most importantly, mastering the interview itself. Paulette has 15 years of recruitment experience and a vast career in various industries.

We hear the words Location, Location, Location when it comes to finding good real estate. Well, it’s Prepare, Prepare, Prepare when it comes to finding a job and particularly when getting ready for a job interview.

There is a lot of emphasis put on resumes and sure they are important to get your foot in the door, so to speak. However, if you are going to nail that interview and turn it into a job offer, you need to do a lot of preparation for the interview. The more you prepare, the more confident you will be in the actual interview. You can be thrown any question and be comfortable with answering it. Read the rest of this entry »


What Happens if You Receive a Counteroffer?

by Veronica Blatt

Changing jobs can be a huge source of stress, even when you *know* it’s the right decision. It’s common to feel sad or anxious, or even a little bit guilty even if you are excited about the new opportunity. On top of all those emotions, you have to actually resign – you know, tell your boss you’re leaving. And that’s when they hit you with the counteroffer. Maybe you didn’t see it coming, or maybe you should have, but either way it’s on the table and now you have to deal with it.

If you’re working with a recruiter, you have likely had the “counteroffer talk” multiple times throughout the hiring process. While that might make it less of a surprise, it can still feel like you’ve been caught off guard. It can still be difficult. Read the rest of this entry »


Tips for a Great Webcam Interview

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s guest blogger is Anthony McCormack, founding consultant, managing director and entrepreneur behind Macstaff with offices in Bristol and Abergavenny, United Kingdom. Macstaff is a high impact recruitment consultancy majoring on right-fit permanent placements in construction, property, manufacturing and engineering sectors in UK & Internationally. Macstaff joined NPAworldwide in 2019. Anthony offers tips for a successful webcam interview in the post below, which originally appeared here.

Being interviewed on a webcam or video conference may save you traveling costs but there are still plenty of things that you need to get right to give yourself the very best chance of being successful on the day.

So you have secured an interview, presumably for a company and job role you find attractive.

Then you discover the interview is going to be in a video conference or webcam format. Read the rest of this entry »


Three Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Interviews: How to Create an ATS-Friendly Resume

by Veronica Blatt

ats-friendly resumeToday’s guest blogger is Keith Grafman, Founder and Principal of Creative Content Consulting. CCC positions digital identity for your Career, Dating, and Business, with a consistent presence across your digital footprint. For more information, visit: www.CreativeContentConsulting.com

While software automation has simplified the recruitment process for recruiters, staffing specialists, human resources professionals and employers, it has made the hiring process much more challenging for job seekers, applicants and candidates. Nowadays, Application Tracking Systems (ATS) are becoming continuously more sophisticated each day, and as a consequence, a resume won’t get selected to move forward and be reviewed by a human unless it satisfies a custom-programed, specific set of keywords and criteria for a particular position. The ATS-selection process can include, but is not necessarily limited to: experience, expertise, skills, competencies, awards, certifications, training, education, accomplishments, personality, demeanor and ambition(s). To further complicate this process, the ATS’ keywords(s) and criteria requirements can range from specific to very specific. For example, your resume’s usage of keywords, grammar, punctuation, etc. may potentially not be recognized by the ATS due to wording variation, such as either including or not including a word such as “specialist,” or even hyphenation of a phrase or terminology. Read the rest of this entry »


Don’t Marry the First Person You Date

by Veronica Blatt

Our guest blogger is Jason Elias of Elias Recruitment in Sydney, Australia. Elias Recruitment is a specialist legal recruitment consultancy, finding lawyers for law firms, not-for-profits and corporates, across Australia. Jason is the Secretary/Treasurer of the NPAworldwide Board of Directors and received our Chairman’s Award in 2014. Jason is also a Fellow of the peak recruitment industry body in Australasia  the RCSA (Recruitment & Consulting Services Association).

Whilst I am sure “love at first sight” does exist and my wife swears she knew we were going to get married the day we met- I would not advise anyone to marry the first person they dated.

Likewise, it is imperative when you counsel your candidates to take the best job offer, not the first one (especially when the first offer is not yours). There is no secret that the job market for candidates across many industries is the best it has been for a long time. Read the rest of this entry »


Have You Tested Your Job Seeker UX?

by Veronica Blatt

“Candidate experience” gets a lot of attention in the blogosphere, HR and talent communities, and other places around the web. Candidate experience can be broadly defined as how job seekers interact with a company’s hiring processes – from recruiting to interviewing and onboarding. Before a job seeker becomes a candidate, though, they’re interacting with – and evaluating – organizations differently. That often begins with your website, which can deliver a good … or not-so-good … user experience (UX). When is the last time you tested the job seeker UX of your site? This means evaluating every aspect of your website as though you are a job seeker. Read the rest of this entry »


The Number 1 Thing to Do in an Interview

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s guest blogger is Paulette Steele with Real Resumes located in Queensland, Australia. Real Resumes is educating people from beginning to end on getting a job.  Short videos cover all aspects including: where to look for a job, writing effective resumes, researching and preparing for the interview, and most importantly, mastering the interview itself. Paulette has 15 years of recruitment experience and a vast career in various industries.

What’s the number one thing to do in an interview? It’s so simple and effective! Read the rest of this entry »


Is the Cover Letter Dead?

by Liz Carey

On our recruitment network forum, one recruiter asked recently asked: “Do you read the Resume or Cover Letter first?”

The overwhelming response was, with all the applications recruiters receive, most do not have time to read a cover letter at all. So, does that mean a candidates shouldn’t write one at all? Not at all.

While many recruiters don’t read them, many do expect to get one because most employers and hiring managers still expect one. Crafting a cover letter also shows that you have put some time and effort into applying to this specific job, rather than just sending out your resume to the masses.

Here are some tips if you want your cover letter to be read: Read the rest of this entry »


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