Revamp your job search in 2015 Experts foresee the job market being more • Be prepared to land the job. Here’s one job competitive than ever in 2015, it is important seeker mistake that’s definitely worth kicking to take a fresh look at your job search stratto the curb this year — the idea of an inegy. Now is the perfect time to develop an terview being just informational. You should effective plan for success. go into every interview prepared to land the job, not just learn more about the organizaHow can you set yourself apart from the comtion. You only get one shot at your first interpetition and position yourself for finding the view, and this mistake will get you caught best next step in your career? looking unprepared and unprofessional. Instead, always come ready for a formal interHere are seven tips to help you refresh and view; you will never regret being prepared. refocus your job search in 2015: • Be strategic with social media. Social media is a vast resource for job seekers. The amount • 1. Don’t be a copycat candidate. Job of content and connections thrown at you searches are a very personal experience every day can become overwhelming and and one-size-fits-all strategies will not help a time-suck if you’re not careful. you stand out among the competition. • Be strategic with how you use social meEven though a certain interview tactic dia to seek out job opportunities. First, know or style was successful for one candidate where recruiters and hiring managers for doesn’t mean it is the best strategy for your desired industry spend most of their you. Take into consideration your persontime. For example, in you’re looking for a al experiences, preferences and career job in finance, LinkedIn might be a more goals and use them to position yourself as valuable social media site to keep updated a unique candidate. as opposed to, say, Twitter. If you are look• Learn to look at job titles differently. Be ing to land a job at a media company, on open-minded about your preconceived the other hand, Twitter is a great resource. notions of job titles. Roles in compliance, Be sure to also connect with the profiles or human resource, or administration, for pages of companies you want to work for example, are often perceived as being to stay up to date on job openings and anboring, career-limiting or otherwise undenouncements. sirable. Such preconceptions, however, • Network with your peers. You should aim to about the scope, strategic importance network with your peers, in addition to your and long-term potential of these positions more senior team members. Find ways to be are not always true in today’s market. In the person that comes to mind when recruitmany cases I’ve seen, these jobs offer exers ask them who they’d recommend for the ceptional opportunity for influential and job. Your peers can also offer off-the-cuff, attractive long-term careers. honest appraisals about your performance • First impressions are everywhere. With 92% and work reputation when referring you for of employers using social media in the a job. These connections have the power hiring process, the content of your social either to open or close doors and your relaprofile forms an employer’s first imprestionships with them will have a direct impact sion before you even sit down with for an on which way the opportunity swings. interview. You should take special con- • Be realistic. Be honest about what you can sideration to job-proof your social media realistically offer to a new employer. It’s profiles. For example, use a picture that tempting to apply for a more challengrepresents you as a professional. Don’t ing and prestigious role, but make sure you rely on privacy settings to keep your perhave both the skills and the commitment to sonal information safe. Your best bet is to be successful. Don’t get me wrong, someassume everything will be seen by a potimes shooting for the stars really does pay tential employer, so clean up your conoff! However, this becomes a risky strategy tent and edit your pictures accordingly. when you promise more than you can reaAsk yourself the age old question, “What sonably deliver. would my grandmother think of this?”
Growing Fast, But Smart Hiring advice for small businesses
If you’re the owner or manager of a small business, the prospect of bringing new employees into the fold can be both exciting and anxiety-inducing. On the one hand, it’s extremely exciting to have the budget and resources to bring new team members into the fold. On the other, your small business is your baby and your livelihood—so you can’t afford hiring mistakes that affect your success and productivity. Consider these six hiring tips as you write job descriptions, conduct interviews, and train your new employees. Let your brand’s personality shine in the job description. If you’re not yet a well-known brand and you’re trying to attract the best talent, you must stand out to potential applicants with a wealth of job opportunities at their fingertips. One way to do this is by crafting a job description that showcases what’s unique and especially exciting about your company. Whether you explain how you’re disrupting an industry or share examples of recent media coverage, your job description has to be memorable for applicants who are scrolling through endless job options. Building a new team from scratch? Consider a group interview. For example, if you’re building a new sales team from the ground up, you’ll want a manager, senior-level salespeople, and junior employees. You may consider bringing in those who’ll need to frequently collaborate for a group interview, gauging how well they work together and relate to each other. Story is continued on page 2.
Continued from front page... Be honest about the role’s challenges in the interview. Small businesses have different challenges and opportunities from a large corporation. Be transparent with potential job candidates (without giving away proprietary details, of course) about the hurdles you believe will impact them most in that role. These challenges could be a small or nonexistent advertising budget if you’re hiring a marketing manager, or the fact that your website and logo need total rebrands if you’re hiring a designer. The best employees—the ones you really want to hire—will welcome challenges and look forward to finding solutions.
Welcome to Eastern Ontario Careers
Save the best training knowledge for next time. Make your life easier and the next round of training faster: save training materials. This can include tax documents to sign, an introductory slide deck about your company’s history, templates that all new employees need on their computers, job descriptions, and beyond, all saved on a USB drive or a single “new hire” folder. A few months after your new employees have settled in, ask them what information helped prepare them most, and build on that for your next round of hiring.
For employers we also offer more firstly we offer registered employers the ability to search post resumes to help with your candidate search. You will be able to view resumes that relate directly to the position that you are trying to fill.
Think long and hard about the culture you want to cultivate. Especially at a small business, every employee has a huge impact on culture. One person’s creativity, negative attitude, efficiency, or indifference can ripple across the organization. Even though you may be in a time-crunch to get offer letters signed quickly and crush 2015 goals, do take time to truly ponder the type of workplace you want to manage and the values most important to you. Prioritize those qualities in the people you hire. Small business owners have enough on their plates without regretting an offer letter. Remember to listen to both your gut and your logic when hiring a new employee—and always choose employees with whom you’ll genuinely enjoy working.
Welcome to Eastern Ontario Careers, we officially launched on February 3, 2015 but have been in the planning and development stages for the past 12 months. We decided to launch Eastern Ontario Careers because we felt that there had to be a better alternative for employers and job searchers to use in Eastern Ontario. Eastern Ontario Careers offers more to job searchers in the ability to post your resumes for employers to search as well as to receive alerts whenever new jobs are posted. We also post regular articles to help job searchers improve their job search.
We also promote your job listing on the most followed Facebook page in Eastern Ontario. Our parent company Know Media also owns and operate KnowBrockville a popular monthly newspaper in Brockville, Ontario. KnowBrockville’s Facebook page has over 20,400 followers and every job posting will be promoted there. Our Facebook posts are read by an average 150,000 people weekly and clicked on by over 140,000 people weekly! You cannot get this much social media promotion for your position anywhere else in Eastern Ontario! We also provide each job posting with a 1/8th page print ad in this newspaper. This newspaper has a monthly distribution of 10,000 copies and will be distributed through various outlets including colleges, universities, libraries, job banks and career service organizations throughout Eastern Ontario. At Eastern Ontario Careers we are not only here to list your position on our website, we are here to insure your listing has maximum exposure and to get the position filled. Sure you can post your listing on a higher priced service but you will be spending more money in time waiting to fill the position that you needed filled yesterday! Advertising all of your job listings with Eastern Ontario Careers is not expensive, it is an investment, an investment to find the ideal candidate that will compliment your already established team of employees. Tim Sharpe President Eastern Ontario Careers
Ontario Economy Adds 1,300 Jobs in January Province Continues to Strengthen Economy to Support Jobs and Opportunities Employment in Ontario increased by 1,300 in January. Ontario’s youth employment (ages 15-24) rose by 4,500. This brings the total number of employment added since the recessionary low in June 2009 to 508,700. Here’s a look at Ontario’s job market by the numbers: • 508,700 — Employment gain since the depths of the recession in June 2009. • 347,500 — Private sector employment gain since June 2009. • 6.9% — Unemployment rate in Jan. 2015, down from a recessionary high of 9.6 per cent in June 2009. • 15.3% — Youth unemployment rate in Jan. 2015, down 0.6 percentage points from Dec. • 3.6 % — Percentage that employment is above the October 2008 pre-recession peak Creating jobs and opportunities is part of the government’s economic plan for Ontario. The four-part plan is building Ontario up by investing in people’s talents and skills, building new public infrastructure like roads and transit, creating a dynamic, supportive environment where business thrives and building a secure savings plan so everyone can afford to retire. Quick Facts Ontario’s 10-year, $2.5 billion Jobs and Prosperity Fund is part of a comprehensive plan for creating jobs and growing the economy. The Southwestern and Eastern Ontario Development Funds have attracted more than $1.25 billion in investment and have helped to create and retain more than 29,000 jobs in Ontario communities. Since its launch in September 2013, the Youth Employment Fund, a key program of the Youth Jobs Strategy, has helped 26, 582 youth access job opportunities, develop skills and gain valuable work experience.
“Our government is working hard to build on the strengths we’ve gained since the global recession, but there is still more work to do. By investing in our people and partnering with businesses, we are helping to create an inviting investment climate to continue growing our economy and increase our global competitiveness.” Brad Duguid Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure