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Working With a Recruiter – What You Should Ask

Working with a recruiting firm can be a great way to explore new career opportunities. Good recruiting firms will have established relationships with a number of companies and can help you get past the HR “gatekeepers.”

As with any industry, some recruiting companies are more successful at their jobs than others, and some take ethical considerations more seriously than others. Here are some tips to help you determine if you are working with an effective, reputable recruiting firm.

A good recruiting firm should:

Have a real knowledge of your industry. They will understand your expertise and how it fits into the marketplace. If you ask an industry-specific question and hear an answer that doesn’t sound right, or they don’t have an answer at all, you may want to politely terminate the conversation.

Have real relationships with their client companies. They will know the company, the corporate culture, and the decision makers. They will also spend time getting to know you, both professionally and personally, to determine which positions and clients would be the best fit for you.

Not be “promiscuous” with your resume. You don’t want a recruiter to present your resume for every open position they are working, regardless of whether it’s a good fit for your background and skills. A good recruiting firm will have a more targeted approach that will not waste your time or their clients’ time on positions that are clearly not a good fit. And, they will respect you and your confidentiality by not submitting your resume to a company without your prior knowledge and consent.

You may or may not decide to work with a recruiter during your job search. If you are approached by a recruiter, ask a few questions and make an informed decision:
Do you specialize in my industry?
What is your relationship with the employer?
What kind of relationship do you have with the decision maker(s)?
Will you submit my resume to any employer without first notifying me?
What can I expect as far as communication?
Will you prepare me for my interview?
Will you let me know the result, even if it’s no?

Rescue Your Resume from the Black Hole

“I’ve sent my resume to a dozen companies weeks ago and I haven’t heard from one.”

If you’ve been in the job market or know anyone in the job market, you’ve heard this statement. Your resume has been sucked into the infamous HR “Black Hole”. Today we’ll explore how the black hole is created, and some ways you can rescue your resume from the abyss and get it in front of the hiring manager.

Big companies can get hundreds of resumes for a position. If the company has several open positions at one time, multiply that number. Simple math will tell you that the handful of recruiters in a typical HR department simply can’t process thousands of resumes each month. That’s why most companies use an applicant tracking system (ATS), which automatically parses incoming resumes and converts them into database records.

When searching for candidates, corporate recruiters will plug in keywords related to the particular job opening, and resumes containing those keywords will turn up in the search. If your resume turns up toward the top of the list, it has a chance of being viewed.

How can you increase your chances of turning up in that search, or perhaps bypass the black hole completely?

Keywords are key
The ATS will return results that contain the keywords the HR person has entered. Be sure your resume contains plenty of words that relate to the particular job you’re seeking. Think like an HR person – if you were searching for candidates for this job, what terms would you use? Also, try to include variants of those keywords. For example, if you are applying for a copywriter job, include copywriter, copywriting, writer and writing.

One caveat – be sure the words you use make sense in the context of your resume. If you include a block of text at the top that reads “analyst analyst analyst analyst analyst”, you may show up at the top of the results for an analyst search, but it’s going to look ridiculous to the HR person when they actually open your resume.

Format is important
Always submit your resume in Word, plain text (.txt) or rich text (.rtf) format. DON’T submit a PDF. A PDF is basically a snapshot of your text document. It’s visible to the human eye, but an ATS, which is designed to parse text, won’t recognize any information on a PDF document. It will most likely attach your resume to a blank database record, which doesn’t do you any good.

Also, keep your resume formatting simple. An ATS will look for certain patterns when parsing your resume. It will assume that the first block of text is your contact information, and then it will look for common headings like “education”, “experience”, and “skills.” If you have a complicated format with graphics or pull quotes, there’s a good chance your information will either go into the wrong database fields or not be imported at all. The best format for an ATS is a simple, straightforward, chronological resume.

So remember, don’t let your resume get trapped in the black hole! Remember you are writing for a computer AND Human Resources.

Employers: They Know What They Want

There are countless surveys out there that have determined the top characteristics employers look for in an employee. Most managers have created their own list of characteristics to look for. Often times, even with the enumerable resources out there, many people fail to see the importance of adopting these characteristics when interviewing. We have sifted through many surveys to find the top 5 most desired qualities that employers look for. While this list may seem to be more geared towards those seeking employment, it is a good resource for managers as well to compare their own lists to. We have also added keywords or traits that fit in with these characteristics.

1. Team player – This characteristic was the prevailing trait on every survey we looked through. If you don’t play well with others, don’t expect to get a call back. If this is something you have a hard time with, practice in everyday life, outside of the job. Talk to people and get to know them. They aren’t so bad.
Traits: positive, collaborator, open

2. Eager to Learn – There is always a new way of doing something, news that is relevant to an industry, and polishing to do on your own skills. A person who is aware that he or she is not all knowing, but is always working towards being the most knowledgeable, is going to be a valuable employee.
Traits: researcher, learner, humble

3. Customer Focused – What is the most important aspect of business? The customer! Without an ever-growing population of customers coming to their businesses, managers will lose their company. An employee who can find the balance between accomplishing company goals and pleasing the customer will be indispensable.
Traits: enthusiastic, smart, empathetic

4. Motivating self and others – Being motivated to accomplish tasks and fulfill goals is a very important aspect of being employed. No manager has the time or the patience to “babysit” an employee who needs to be constantly told what to do. It also never goes unnoticed when an employee can put his or her own concerns aside and encourage co-workers. This shows an outward focus, rather than a self-focus.
Traits: positive, encourager, driven, interpersonal skills

5. Contribute and add value to organization – What is the root reason you are being hired? Managers hire new employees to add value to their company. If you are capable of making the company a better business, whether it is enhancing the work environment, bumping up the bottom line, or solving an issue, the manager will find the hire worth it.
Traits: innovative, big picture focused, hard worker

These are not absolutes, nor do they apply to every manager. We at The Wilson Group work hard to find the perfect employer/employee match, considering the needs, wants, and goals of both sides. Call us today and share your goals with us. We are sure to find your match. 361.883.3535.

Developing Your Career Path

Whether you’re a new graduate looking for your first job, a seasoned pro settled in with your current employer, or an entrepreneur launching your own business, you should have a solid strategy for where your career will go in the next year, five years, and decade. In today’s economy, it’s easy to focus on nothing more than supporting yourself now, and to worry less about your overall career path. That’s completely understandable, but if you can spend a couple of hours a week developing your career strategy, setting goals and attaining them, you will find yourself light years ahead of a lot of the job seeker competition!

Here are some things that you can spend a bit of time on that will net major results in the long run:

Set Goals
Setting goals is absolutely vital to developing a strategy for you career— or pretty much anything, for that matter. Goals should be specific and attainable, but keep in mind your goals will certainly change as your life changes. Having an idea of what kind of job you want or what kind of company you want to work for will give you a starting point for what kinds of skills and contacts you need to cultivate.

If you’re not sure where to begin, try either or both of these: think about your current situation and what you want to change (flexible hours, a higher salary), or think about your ideal situation (working at your favorite company or in your favorite city).

Learn Skills
Whether you’re a high school, community college, or university graduate, you should expect to continue learning all throughout your life. The more you learn, the more your career can move forward! If you have the time and funds, look into the next level of school, whatever that may be for you. For those with smaller budgets, you don’t have to go out and get an MBA (though they’re great if youc an); there is a great deal of educational material available online— check out this article on “Where to Get the Best Free Education” from Lifehacker!

You can also find classes at your local community or recreation center or library that may be within your budget. Books can be a great way to learn as well, and definitely check and see if any of your friends would like to give you a crash course in a skill (in exchange for you teaching or helping them, naturally)!

Network, Network, Network!
It’s not necessarily “all about who you know,” but knowing people certainly helps. A few tips: first, just look for friends, and be more interested in helping them than in how they can help you. You’ll be surprised to find relatively few deadbeats, and establishing a mutually beneficial relationship will keep your contacts stronger and keep them around longer!

You can find a lot of networking events in your area, sometimes even in specific industries and fields. Check out Event Brite and Meetup to find some in your neighborhood. If you’re a Corpus Christi local, the Caller-Times usually has local business event information!

If you’re still stumped on developing your career strategy, call us at (361)883.3535 or contact us here. We’ll be able to get you on the fast track!

Resume Design Matters! Tips and Tricks

Many sites will answer the question “how do I write a resume,” but not as many address the question of “how do I design a resume.” Don’t worry: no one expects a fancy infographic-style resume (unless, perhaps, when hiring a graphic designer). But you still need to make sure that a first glance at your resume won’t turn off a hiring manager— and ideally that it will intrigue them. You may not be a graphic designer, but don’t worry! You can still have a great-looking resume if you follow these tips:

1. Start with a Template
Templates are a great way to get a head start on designing a solid resume, and you can find them for pretty much any word processor out there! Here are links to templates for some of the major processors:
– Microsoft Word
– Apple Pages
– Google Docs
– Open Office

But don’t think that plugging your info into a template is enough! These are easy to find, so you can bet a lot of job seekers use them— maybe even ones applying to the same jobs as you! Do your best to tweak the design’s colors and look.

2. Use Caution While Handling Fonts
It may be tempting to use grand, sweeping fonts throughout your resume. Or maybe you prefer the chipper, cheerful look of Comic Sans. In either case, be careful what fonts you choose, and stick to about two: one for headlines, and one for the rest of your resume’s text (such as your job history and objective). Traditionally, designers recommend a “serif” font (one with little ticks at the ends of each letter, such as Times New Roman or Helvetica) for the main body of text and a “sans serif” font (one without the ticks, like Arial and Calibri) for headlines.

3. Consider Printing When You Design
Many employers (and perhaps you yourself) will want to print your resume, so avoid using colored backgrounds or large, detailed images. These suck up ink and don’t always look very good on a standard printer, so save yourself time and money and stick to a traditional white background.

4. Separate Headlines from Body Text
Your resume should be broken up into several sections, such as your objective, education, job history, skills, achievements, references, memberships, etc. Each section should have its own headline that clearly separates it from the section’s text. If you’re not sure how to start, simply bold the headline text and perhaps increase its font by a point or two. Don’t go too crazy- you don’t want your headlines to take up the whole page!

5. Leave Some White Space
While you don’t necessarily have to keep your resume down to one page, many people do for simplicity’s sake, and that’s great! However, some of them attempt to cram that one page too full of text to really be readable, much less enticing. Stick to standard margins, and make smart use of bullet-point lists where appropriate such as in your skills and job history, so that a straight paragraph in a couple of sections makes sense. However, you don’t want every section to be a list either: it’s all about balance!

Still need help? No problem! Contact us and we can arrange to meet with you and go over your resume and other aspects of your job search.

The Value of Honesty in the Job Search

In a tough job market, the temptation to stretch the truth in your application materials can be enormous. This temptation has hit headlines in the form of Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson’s computer science degree from Stonehill College, who confirmed that Thompson only earned an accounting degree during his time there.

It’s true that busy human resources staffers and even busier business owners may not have time to fact-check your resume and chit-chat with your every reference. However, you never know when one might take the time or which piece of information they will check, and that alone is enough reason for most people to stay honest in their resume and professional profiles online.

There is another good reason not to lie on your resume, and that is simply that you may wind up in a situation where you suddenly need to have knowledge that you don’t have. There are wild tales of people who faked being doctors or pilots for years (or both, in the case of con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr.), but these stories are few because most people get caught.

And finally, the best reason to be honest in your job search: a lie may get you in for the short run, but people appreciate honesty in the long run. Rather than pretending to have skills which you don’t have, turn yourself into an eager learner. Many companies would rather have an employee who can and wants to learn five skills than an employee who sticks stubbornly to one.

Honesty, integrity, and reliability are golden values in an employee. Get in touch with us if you’d like to learn how to project these values in your job search!

Networking in the Insurance Industry

It’s not true that everything is about who you know, but knowing people who can vouch for you certainly helps in the world of job searching. Networking isn’t always easy, however, and since we’ve been talking about jobs in the insurance industry we thought we’d spotlight some opportunities to network within that industry. We’re based in Corpus Christi, Texas, so these resources are either local to that area, or based online.

– Insurance Professionals group on LinkedIn
With over 63,000 members, you’re sure to find people who can help you on your way to a job in insurance in this group! LinkedIn designates it “Very Active” so be wary about sending auto-updates to your inbox— but there will almost always be someone around to chat with.

– Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce
Business owners and workers of all type attend the various events at the Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce. Be sure to bring your business cards!

– Insurance Networking News
In addition to blogs that you can comment on to meet and discuss with others, this site offers information on a variety of online and offline seminars and meetups.

– Insurance Campus
This basic social network allows insurance industry professionals to connect easily online. Check it out!

And remember, you can always count on The Wilson Group to keep you in touch with the insurance industry as well. Check out our job listings or contact us directly today!

There’s More to Insurance than Sales

When people think of the insurance industry they often think of insurance sales and claims adjusters. Both of these are important positions, but there’s a great deal more to the insurance industry than these two positions! Here are some examples:

Administration
Like most industries, insurance relies heavily on administrative staff to keep their businesses running smoothly. This can include everything from answering phones to data entry and more. Administrative experience is helpful, especially if it’s an industry that is relevant to the insurance company such as healthcare, auto, etc.

Account Management
Some insurance companies work primarily with consumers, such as auto, homeowners, and some health insurance firms. However, the bulk of insurance companies work with other businesses: employers, law firms, etc. In these cases an account manager serves as the primary contact between their insurance company and a particular client, processing enrollments and generally facilitating communication between the two companies. This position generally requires an undergraduate degree and/or relevant experience.

Underwriter
An underwriter determines risk and reward for each insurance holder. That is to say, they determine how much coverage the holder should receive, and how much they should pay for it. Like account management, an underwriter usually has a bachelor’s degree or significant relevant experience. To advance in the insurance industry ranks, an underwriter will generally acquire a Direct Endorsement (DE) or other certification.

Are you interested in working in the insurance industry? Be sure to contact us today!

Breaking In to the Oil and Gas Industry

The oil and gas industry is seeing a major boom in the United States, and if you’re looking for a new career, you shouldn’t overlook the possibility of breaking into it! With the boom come some very large paychecks, as well as great experience in a career that you can grow in.

There are a lot of jobs out there, and many of them are entry level or can be entered from another field! Here are a few to consider:

Field Workers
If you like getting out and working with your hands, this is the way to go for you. No college degree is required, though it helps to be certified in CPR and industry-related skills such as driving an ATV, confined space entry, drilling, team management, and other abilities. An understanding of heavy equipment is also helpful, so if you’ve worked in construction or other labor-intensive jobs, this might be a great fit for you.

Operators
These jobs involve managing the various equipment involved in oil and gas acquisition. They form the backbone of oil drilling and there are more of these jobs than any other in the industry! As such there are a wide variety of opportunities which you can acquire with or without a college degree (if you’re still picking your major, go with chemical or mechanical engineering). This position may fit someone who’s worked with high-tech machinery before, such as operators from manufacturing fields.

Admin/Clerical
Every business needs administrative staff to help keep things running, and oil is no exception! If you have administrative or clerical experience from another field, consider making a move into this industry for a pay bump. If you’d like to hop above some of your competitor candidates, consider getting certified in skills related to administrator or the petroleum industry specifically.

While many of these jobs don’t require a post-secondary education, it never hurts! If you’re not sure about these careers or want career coaching to evaluate your ability to get into the industry, please come visit us in Corpus Christi, Texas!

Meet the Match-Maker: We Are The Wilson Group

Hiring in the oil and gas industries is complex. There are many fine staffing agencies out there, but if they don’t have experience in the industry, they have a much harder time finding the best candidate for each position. As a result, they may push forward the wrong candidate, or be unwilling to wait for the right one.

At The Wilson Group, we have many years of experience staffing in this particular industry, and we are experts who hire up and down the ladder from executives to engineers to administrative assistants. This is just one of the many advantages that we offer as a company to both candidates interested in oil and gas, and to the employers working in that industry. Here are some of the others:

Our motto is “the perfect match every time,” and we mean it. We are tenacious, award-winning staffing and recruiting professionals who take our work seriously to ensure that our client companies are happy with their candidates and vice-versa, and not just in the short run but in the long term. Our success stories are full of people who found not just a job but a happy employer-employee relationship thanks to our efforts. We don’t take those kinds of relationships lightly!

We know the oil and gas industries. We have been working with them for years and are based right in the heart of Corpus Christi, where the Eagle Ford Shale continues to bring funds and strong, secure jobs. We are an active part of our community as well, both because we love and care about our home here and to ensure that we always know who’s around in town and needs a new job or employee!

If you have an opening, or may have one soon, please contact us at 361.883.3535 or via our website. We can help you build your business with a strong, devoted, and happy workforce. And remember: we provide you the perfect match…every time!