​Marc Belaiche, President and Owner of Torontojobs.ca shared these five tips with the Ontario Association of Career Management members and guests at last weeks dinner meeting.

1. Prepare, prepare and prepare for interviews. Interviewers are getting more savvy in their interviewing techniques. It can cost a company at least the equivalent of one years salary to hire for a new position so being able to tell a hiring manager what you are going to do for them is more important than anything else you can tell a potential employer.
   
   
2. Avoid doing things recruiters don’t like. Show up on time, know your resume inside out and backwards, know your salary expectation and indicate whether you are relocatable. Dress for the position or one level above, know your SAR stories and give quantitative results where possible.
   
   
3. Show up. Even if you have decided the position isn’t for you, go for the practice or minimally, call to cancel.
   
   
4. Know what jobs are in demand and who has the leverage. Thinking that you could do the job isn’t the same as having done the job, apply for jobs that you have experience in. Before you attend an interview, ask who will be doing the interview, their names and titles and how long the interview will be.
   
   
5. Learn how to search for jobs online; use social media to find job opportunities. Did you know that Kijiji and Craig’s List have job postings? Have a highly professional LinkedIn profile and learn how to use LinkedIn to uncover job postings.
   
   

Marc also shared that reference checks are not as prevalent today as credit and criminal checks. Know your credit rating, it is yours for the asking.

You may not be asked how much you earned in your last job, which is irrelevant to any new position, but what you are looking to earn. Be sure to know the industry standard for your qualifications, education level, experience, skills and potential.
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At the end of the day, interviewers want their candidates to be: courteous, prepared and responsive. Evaluate yourself in these three areas to ensure you are a 10 out of 10 in each category.

The world of work and of job search has shifted and redefined itself substantially in the last ten years. These are issues that employers face in finding and keeping an inspired, productive employee base in these ever changing times.

1. Truth be told, it is getting more and more difficult to find the best candidates for many jobs in varied sectors of business. This is the #1 issue for recruiters right now.
   
   
2. There has been an increase in multiple and counter offers. For highly employable individuals often in newly created positions and with high traffic, people are receiving two or three offers at a time.
   
   
3. Employers are moving more quickly to the interview stage to find the right candidate. You snooze you lose, so set the interview, make a decision and get the best candidate.
   
   
4. HR professionals and hiring managers are paying attention to resumes they might have disregarded in the past. There are less applicants per posted position so there are less resumes in piles B & C and more being considered in pile A.
   
   
5. The trend is to make it easier to apply to positions on line. 50% of candidates drop out from applying to a position if there are too many steps in the application process.
   
   
6. Social media is still not being used to recruit by many organizations. It is still important to have a stellar LinkedIn profile, but don’t count on that as your only means of visibility.
   
   
7. Employers are using varied means of recruiting technology including:
   • Video interviewing
   • Xref Reference Checking
   • AI, Artificial Intelligence. Robot Vera is a Russian computerized interviewer who can interview up to 1500 people a day. 200 companies in England and Russia are using AI for interviewing for repetitive jobs -  and she records the answers.
   • Facial recognition technology. By reading your facial muscle movement this technology registers how interested you are in the job being interviewed for.
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8. 85% of job applicants lie on their resume. This astounded me. There are seven types of checks a recruiter can use to validate a candidate’s resume so don’t take applicants at face value, do your due diligence and check out all potential new hires.
   
   
9. Give people their 10 out of 10 jobs. In that only 13% of employees are passionate about their job, it is so important to try a rate a candidate’s opinion on how they measure or value their job.
   
   
10. Consider alternatives to filling empty positions. Such as: internal promotions, transfers and reallocating work.
    
    
11. Don’t fear Gen Z and Millennials. There are 8.4M Gen Z’s in Canada, people under 24, and they are entering the workforce as you read this. (more on Gen Z’s in another article)
    
    
12. The “Ghosting” Phenomenon: Why Candidates Don’t Show Up for Interviews or Start the Jobs They Are Offered. Employers are combatting this trend by:
    • Arranging to speak live on Skype or Facetime
    • Listening to them tone of voice for how interested the candidate is in the position
    • Asking if they have other offers
    • Asking for their word to show up for the interview, “Do you promise?”
    • Reminding them they have signed a legally binding contract
    
    
13. Employees don’t really care about cool office perks, what really matters is that 44% of professionals said benefits like health coverage and paid time off will likely keep them at their current company for 5+ years. More than half of professionals are most proud of the work life balance and flexibility at their company. 70% of employees will not work at an organization with a bad culture.

Shared by guest speaker, Marc Belaiche, President and Owner of Torontojobs.ca, delivered on February 21, 2019 at the event: Tales from the Recruiter.