Last night in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston we brought together candidates, clients, Talener employees, and guests to join for our very first Talener “After Hours” event! Here at our NYC Headquarters the evening was fairly laid back, allowing guests to mingle and discuss their plans for 2014 before a short presentation by our Web and Mobile Team Manager Justin Cottrell on what our team has seen in the market lately and the best ways to get ahead of the flood of New Year’s Resolution job seekers.
The Chicago team and friends out at El Hefe for our 1st Talener “After Hours” event.
A huge thanks to everyone who came out! Stay tuned for more info on our next event on the evening of Wednesday, December 12! In New York we will be hosting an informative evening session centered on DevOps. More specifics of the program will be announced soon along with other events in LA, San Fran, Boston and Chicago.
Check out our Slideshare presentation below for a recap of some of our tips from last night!
It’s all too easy to write off the holiday season as a bust for securing your next job. The excuses are familiar and plenty: employees are absent off on holiday vacations, people are “too busy” with seasonal prepping, the weather’s too nasty to trek around to interviews… We’ve heard all the lines, but urge everyone to take a second thought at the false notion that this is the wrong time of year for hiring. Here’s why as the weather gets colder, the job market actually warms up:
Pressure’s On: Companies need to fill open roles before budgets expire at year’s end. After January, hiring managers are more likely to “window shop” for their next hire.
It’s The Most Busy Time of the Year: Many of the industries where we have the most placement success have dire needs for extra technical help: e-commerce sites boom during the frantic period of present-buying, entertainment conglomerates push out seasonal programming for home-bound viewers, travel companies win with last minute trip planners, and more.
Stand Out: Don’t get thrown in with the New Year’s Resolution crowd. Less candidates are on the market right now, which will give you an instant leg up.
Ready to Roll for 2014: Companies want to be ready to go with a full staff for when January 2nd rolls around and everyone is back in the office. By hiring early they can be prepped to hit the ground running immediately as the calendar flips to 2014.
Our first Talener After Hours event on the evening of December 11th will focus on the best ways to kick-off your quest for a new job in 2014, while it’s still 2013. To check out more info about the event in your local city and to RSVP, click here! We hope to see you there for a productive evening of discussion and networking!
According to an ERE.net report from earlier this year, even if you do everything right – be perfectly qualified, submit a flawless resume, and write a clear, concise cover letter – reality is that your chance of securing the open job you just applied for is still less than 1%. This stat is particularly apt (and scary) for open technical jobs where qualified candidates are held up by keyword-scanning applicant tracking systems, HR reps who may not fully grasp tech requirements, and members of unrelated departments who may only have a few buzzwords to go by.
This is why it’s more important than ever to have a referral for the specific job you’re applying for. Whether an internal or agency referral, this is the only way to get on the express track to the hiring manager. The good news is that it’s never been easier to find who in your network has connections at the company you are targeting. LinkedIn’s entire network is built on this “degree connection” formula, giving you a platform to connect directly with professionals who are just one or two “degrees” away from your own contacts. Even beyond LinkedIn, the go-to professional networking site, job seekers can employ a full of range of social networks to uncover connections they may have not known they had. But even though it’s easier than ever to reveal these possible contacts, you still may not have a direct link to your dream organization. Here’s where Talener can help.
Just like being referred directly by a family or friend, partnering with Talener gives you a direct line of access to the decision-making hiring managers in our network of connections in the media, publishing, advertising, entertainment, technology and startup industries. It’s quite a different experience from dumping a resume into a black hole of endless applications submitted through online job postings. And frankly, from both a time management and productivity point of view, it’s truly the only method that makes sense for securing your next job!
The key to hiring is a simple and orderly interview process. Here is our approach to the perfect interview process:
1. The First-Round: Conduct 6, back-to-back 20-minute interviews of our pre-screened candidates in our office. By doing so, you can quickly compare and contrast the candidates’ backgrounds, personalities and skill levels at a similar price. Repeat this process until you get 2 or 3 candidates that you feel could be a good fit for your team. This eliminates any phone or video interviews and by getting you out of your office, away from all of the distractions, you can focus 100% of your attention on the candidates you are meeting.
2. The Second-Round: Before leaving our office, schedule the top 2 or 3 candidates for an immediate onsite interview. Try to schedule everyone for the next day. Hopefully these interviews can also be back-to-back, so your team can devote time to interviewing, get an immediate comparison and then get back to their daily routines. The first onsite interview meetings should go as follows:
a. Manager: Expectations and information about the role (45 minutes) b. Staff Members: Technical screens, a day in the life at company, and their own career stories (45 minutes with each teammate) c. Get immediate, detailed feedback on candidates.
3. The Final Interview: Select the top 1 or 2 for a second onsite and final interview. During this final session:
a. Manager: Answer any additional questions about the role and company. (45 minutes) b. Manager’s Boss: Confirm how well the candidate understands the job and why they want to work in your organization. (45 minutes) c. Human Resources: Assess the personality and cultural fit, assess reasons for leaving former positions, and confirm references. (45 minutes) d. Get immediate, detailed feedback on candidates. If you don’t believe that there is a viable candidate, then repeat the process again.
4. Decision Time: Make an offer, contingent upon the successful completion of the background and reference checks.
We are happy to present another roundup of December and early January tech events, conferences and meetups around our offices that the Talener team will be attending in the coming weeks – including our own Talener After Hours! As always, let us know if you’ll also be at any of these events or if you have any additions for the list. We hope to see you out and about!
