Career Poll: Quality vs. Quantity of Social Networking Connections?

Despite the many marvels of social networking websites, these tools have raised a whole new type of interpersonal challenge to the forefront that we haven’t really had to deal with in the past.  When using tools like LinkedIn and Facebook, should people be “promiscuous” and agree to connect with just about anyone who asks, or should people be much more guarded and only connect with a small handful of friends and acquaintances whom they know well?

I get asked this question all the time from my clients — and certainly have my own personal opinions about it — but before I share my own thoughts via an upcoming blog posting, I wanted to take a quick pulse-check and see what all you out there thought  about the issue.  So cast your vote and weigh in using the poll below!

Career Poll: Will Employers Regret Bad Behavior?

As a follow-up post to my article yesterday, I thought I’d throw a poll question out there and ask whether you feel companies need to be highly conscious of how they treat job applicants — lest word get around that a company is a “bad apple” or an unfavorable place to work — or whether they’ll likely get away with rude behavior and not suffer any consequences it, down the road, when the market picks up.

This question falls into the realm known as “employment branding” and there are many consultants out there who stress the importance of companies building and maintaining a good reputation, in every aspect of their business operations, so that they’ll continue to be able to hire the best, brightest, and most talented workers.  In other words, if you jerk one person around, they’re likely to tell their friends, who will tell their friends, who will post about it on Facebook, and before you know it nobody will want to come work for you!

I’m not 100% convinced that this threat is as real as some people make it sound, however.  Americans, in my opinion, tend to have very short memories — and as long as there are plenty of job hunters out there looking for work, I have a hard time imagining a company (unless it does something SHOCKINGLY unethical – like Enron) truly needing to worry about this issue, as much as I wish they would.  Your vote?

Career Poll: Job Application Statistics – Curse or Blessing?

There’s no question about it — both candidates, as well as companies, are frustrated by the quirks, inefficiencies, and challenges embodied by the current version of the “hiring game” that exists in the job market.  Candidates, of course, are fed up with the massive depersonalization of the process and the difficulty of getting any type of meaningful feedback or communication from the companies to which they’ve applied.  And on the flip side, companies are finding their HR departments (if they even have one) horribly bogged down by the number of inbound resumes, phone calls, and other time-eating activities that crop up, even when trying to fill a single, low-level position.

So at one level, everybody is hoping that somebody will invent a new mousetrap that solves all these pesky issues.  Despite several websites purporting to achieve this, however, and to have “revolutionized” the entire hiring approach, the process is still largely the same as it’s always been.  Companies run ads.  Hundreds of candidates send in their resumes.  And then all bets are off in terms of how the employer handles things from that point forward — and the level of communication they engage in with both the qualified parties they’re interested in interviewing, as well as those folks whose qualifications didn’t make the cut.

Unfortunately, I don’t see any massive paradigm shifts on the horizon that lead me to think this process is going to get substantially smoother or less problematic for all involved.  Every now and then, however, I do come across something a little new under the sun — and a slight adaptation in terms of how employers are managing things.  In the particular case prompting this blog, I was alerted by a client recently that certain government agencies (or at least the City of Bellevue) are now providing FULL TRANSPARENCY in terms of reporting back, via their website, how many applications they’ve received for a particular position and where in the actual process (e.g. application date, 1st Interview, 2nd Interview, Hired…) each candidate stands.  I haven’t seen this kind of functionality before on a website, so I’m betting most of you haven’t, either.

At any rate, here’s a screenshot from the City of Bellevue’s hiring portal that shows you the type of information that would show up if somebody were to throw their hat in the ring for a random Maintenance Worker Aide position I pulled up…

Interesting, eh?  At any rate, with so many people complaining about the “black hole” effect and wondering where they stand in terms of their submission for various leads, along comes an automated reporting tool that actually tells you these things, point blank, as a candidate.  So this got me to thinking whether most job hunters would embrace this idea with open arms — and value this kind of feedback from EVERY company, if it were available — or whether they’d find it frustrating, intimidating, or depressing to see how many competitors have sent their resumes in for various opportunities.

Care to vote on the issue?  If so, here’s a little insta-poll that will allow you to do so…

Career Poll: How Handle Age Discrimination?

Just for kicks, I wanted to conduct another quick survey among all you readers out there, this time around the issue of how to best handle the issue of age discrimination as part of the hiring process.  If you have a moment, please weigh in with your vote and let me know your thoughts…

Career Poll: Interview Follow-Up Method?

While I certainly have my own personal preferences in terms of interview follow-up activities, there’s been a growing amount of discussion lately about the type of follow up that is most appropriate in today’s frenetic, fast-paced Internet age.  So I thought I’d put the matter to a vote, just to see how my opinions stack up to the views the rest of you out there hold on the issue!  Recruiters?  HR professionals?  Hiring managers?  What say you on this topic?

Poll: First name reference in cover letter?

Interestingly, at least to me, I was completely outnumbered in a recent workshop on the subject of whether job hunters should address hiring managers on a first name basis when writing a cover letter — or stick with the more traditional form of address such as “Dear Mr. Smith” or “Dear Ms. Jones.”

My personal opinion is that when you’re writing to a complete stranger whom you’re hoping will hire you,  you should play it safe and stick with the more respectful “Mr.” or “Ms.” salutation.  My workshop attendees, however, felt that we’d outgrown this convention and that most people would rather have you address them by their first name, instead.  And just to clarify, we both agreed that many employers might not care, either way, but that you still had to pick one approach or the other when composing your letter…

Let’s put it to a vote.  What do you all think?