Employment Solutions’ Career Center offers educational, interactive Webinars with Q&A time at the end. I learn a lot just from the questions other job seekers ask.

The next two Webinars are:

—Learn What Hiring Authorities Really Think
—What Should Be On Your Daily Plan?

Sign up for the weekly newsletter to get the Webinar schedule. It has cool search tips and it functions kind of like a motivating job. What I love about it is at the bottom of every one is the web site URL plus my Username—no more trying to remember! Click and go!

Sign up and you’ll find all sorts of free help: Salary Search Tools to learn what the job should really pay, How to Book 50% More Interviews, Company Research Tools, Checklists, and Resume and Interview Coaching—elements to enliven your job search spirit.

See what the ES Career Center is all about: Click and Go!

If you were fired from a recent job, you’re probably dreading being asked about it in an interview. Is there any way to tell the truth without killing your chances of getting the job? Fortunately, yes. There are five keys to handling this well:

1. First, before you can formulate a good answer for why you were fired, you need to be honest with yourself about what really happened. Try to detach your ego from the firing and ask yourself what really went wrong. Don’t feel defensive or ashamed; try to see it objectively. Do you understand why your boss let you go? Were you even partially at fault?
If you haven’t already, now is the time to take responsibility for what your role was in what happened–even if your employer was also at fault. You need to get genuinely comfortable with this because when you’re comfortable with what happened, you’ll give an answer that will make your interviewer more comfortable, too.

2. Formulate an answer that speaks to how you ended up in that situation, what you’ve learned from it, and what you do differently now as a result.

3. Make sure your answer is brief and to the point. Most interviewers will only be looking for a couple of sentences and won’t expect you to present a detailed account. Definitely no rambling or defensive diatribes.

4. Practice your answer over and over out loud until you can say it calmly. What the interviewer is going to be paying a lot of attention to–almost more than the substance of your answer–is how you talk about it: Do you seem bitter and angry about it? Have you learned from the experience? How has it changed the way you conduct business? You want to really pay attention to how you deliver it.

5. Don’t lie. If the employer uncovers the truth, it’ll destroy your credibility. You’ll show much more integrity by owning up to it.

Here are some examples of what your answer might sound like:
“Actually, I was let go. The workload was very high, and I didn’t speak up about that soon enough. I just tried to keep my head down and get it all done. This wasn’t a realistic strategy, and I ended up making some mistakes because of the volume. It taught me a really valuable lesson about the need to communicate better when the workload is a problem and to figure out ways to make sure we’re on the same page about priorities if we’re in a triage mode. Since then, I’ve put a real premium on keeping lines of communication open so that that never happens again.”

“You know, it was a bad fit. The role really required expertise in software design, which is definitely not my strength, and ultimately we agreed that it didn’t make sense for me.”

“I was fired, actually. The job had a big sales component and I had pretty bad sales numbers. I realized from that experience that I just hate selling and I’m not good at it. They made the right decision, and I realized pretty quickly how relieved I was by it.”

Remember that many, many people have been fired, and they’ve moved past it. Prepare in advance, follow the tips above, and you should be able to put this to rest.

(www.hbr.org)

Check out this stat:

90% of recruiters and hiring managers use social media to screen candidates

Ninety percent! I regularly bring up this topic to friends and associates, especially those I know who are job searching. No one is ever surprised by this; in fact they already know it.

But I still see Facebook pages that mention “sitting at work so bored can’t wait for this day to end” or “at goodtime charlies drinking beer with Mike” “stayed out too late last night.” (I cut and pasted those from actual pages.)

Well, everyone drinks beer, why should that matter? Because not everyone does drink beer. Everyone you know does. But the conservative-Christian-mom-of-three who happens to be the recruiter holding your resume right now doesn’t and no one she knows ever goes in to a bar. Do you think she’s going to take the time to reason, “Well, everyone drinks beer…he probably doesn’t drink every weekend…just because he mentions beer doesn’t mean he gets drunk…”

You really think she’s going to give you that kind of time? Nope, with 500 other resumes to tap into–you’re out.

I know what you’re thinking. You’ve read all of this before, it’s old news, everyone knows these 10 things. The point is, even though “everyone” knows this, most candidates do only a few of them in an interview.

Here is Ms. Pinsky’s post:
~~~~~~

Showing Interest

Recruiters and hiring managers seek candidates who are excited about working for their companies. Here are 10 ways to exude enthusiasm and interest during the hiring process:

–Research the company. Understand their greatest needs.
–Target your resume and cover letter.
–Prepare for the interview.
–Be on time and dress for success.
–Express interest and gratitude for the chance to interview.
–Listen carefully and respond to the questions you are asked.
–Ask questions.
–Smile and look your interviewer in the eye.
–Send a thank you note.
–Follow up.

It all seems pretty basic. Trust me. Most candidates only do a few of these things. Do all 10 and you will set yourself apart from the competition.
~~~~~~

In 15 years of recruiting, I’ve seen perhaps 10% of candidates do most of these in an interview. In many of those cases, I’ve overlooked the fact they had only 3 of the 6 skills desired; I figured if they are this prepared for the interview, that would translate to their on-the-job performance.

See how easy it is to set yourself apart?

Last month I wrote a case study about Deloitte and their successful social media strategy to attract talent in Holland.

And what struck me was the human side that Deloitte is trying to put into the recruitment process.

Each recruiter has an individual profile with qualities/defaults and hobbies and some of these bios are quite funny and entertaining.

You can even have a chat with these recruiters if they are online at the time you are on the website (not sure if this feature works properly).

And at least, you can contact them directly as the website displays individual email addresses. Everything is tailored to give you a human touch and show the real face of the people involved in the recruitment process!

Are we heading towards a more humanized recruitment process?

Recruiters on LinkedIn
We can see the faces and names of recruiters on LinkedIn or other social networks. We know them better and we can even gather data about who they are. That is one of the consequences of Social Media…

But are social networks giving us the ability to be more human in the recruitment process?

Signs of Humanity
•Now you can check the recruiters profiles everywhere…the balance of power candidates/employers is shifting gradually towards candidates

•With social networks and the easiness to communicate their anger, companies are really aware of the power and nuisance of frustrated candidates (on Facebook walls, Twitter…) and they try to reply to each comment on these platforms. Which means basically that if you are a candidate, and you did not receive any reply to your application, if you leave a message on a Facebook wall, you are more likely to get a reply than anywhere else.

Is giving a human touch a marketing move, or a real move towards something different?

Recruitment may take a more human side…but we are still a long way from this. Agencies don’t have time to be more human, companies don’t have resources, but there is some hope.

I really think that what Deloitte did is an example of using Social Media to create a real human feeling. That when applying for a job it is not “The Company’s reply” but “John’s reply.”

Your Turn
Do you have your own examples of receiving a human touch from a company you applied to? Please share—we could all use a little hope!

I sometimes think we are training people to do sloppy work. When we pile unrealistic workloads on our employees, it soon becomes quite acceptable for them to do a mediocre job. What choice do they have? In the long run, organizations suffer when they push employees to work in a stressful, hurried manner on an ongoing basis.

If you are an employee who is working in a chronic state of stress you will likely end up with a physical or mental health issue. Study after study shows this to be true. Human beings can only work under intense stress for so long before we begin to fall apart.

What if business leaders were more realistic about employee output? What if employees were not afraid to speak up if/when the workload gets to be unmanageable? What if we were expected to do exceptional work and the goal was to focus on one thing at a time? What if? I just wonder.

Every good quality or trait, if over-used, soon becomes a detriment. Look at your efforts at being ultra-efficient to see if you have reached the point at which it is becoming a detriment to your health, wellbeing, and the quality of your work. If so, give yourself permission to slow down.

I know this is an interview, because I scheduled the appointment and I am a recruiter. But nothing tells me you know this is an interview. All of this, I see at a glance: you’re wearing a T-shirt and jeans. You brought your wife with you (I saw her waiting in the lobby). You’re slouching and not smiling. Your handshake was weak and you’ve yet to make solid eye contact. Without knowing anything about your skills or work experience, I reject you at a glance.

You’ve been motoring along in your job search now for what, three months? Six months? Or, if you’re like a lot of people, maybe longer.  If nothing has gone horribly wrong then you might think nothing needs fixing. So maybe your job search just needs is a little tune-up. Try these ideas to jump start your job search:

• Stop looking on job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder
• Make your own Top 10 List. Pick 10 companies you would love to work for and follow them on Twitter or ‘Like’ them on Facebook. Learn all you can about these companies. Check their job page daily.
• Call your local staffing agency and ask if they work with any of your Top 10, they could be your foot in the door. [Employment Solutions (877) 880-4473]
• Talk to strangers. Make small talk everywhere you go (who doesn’t like to talk about the weather?). The next person you talk to might know who’s hiring. Heck, they might even be the one who’s hiring.
• Get energized. Go for a run, bike, drink coffee, down Red Bull, get moving.
• Know that you will not find a job by submitting your resume online and waiting for a response.
• Google “6 tips to a proper handshake”

Do you have better ideas on how to jump start a job search? Post your ideas so others can benefit.

Asking an employee to write a self-appraisal using the company’s appraisal form is a common performance management practice. It’s a deceptively attractive technique. An employee’s self-appraisal and rating should give the manager valuable data on the quality of an individual’s performance. It previews what to expect when the two sit down to discuss the manager’s performance appraisal. A lazy manager might even get some good phrases (or even paragraphs) he can cut and paste into the official appraisal form. It looks like an all-around good idea. It’s not. It’s a bad idea and needs to be stomped out.

To read how the “Unskilled and Unaware of It” employees complicate the review process:Click Here