Job Boards Versus LinkedIn Which One Gets You Employed Quicker

Always when I first speak to a new job seeker, they are set on action that they think will result in them getting employed quickly. Most often their first action - after dusting off an old CV - is to upload it to a jobs board. Often they have heard of a friend who got employed quickly by just uploading their CV to a jobs board, so they think: why don't I do the same, but to more jobs boards?

As a recruiter and CV Writer, I just want to give you an insight as to why you just lengthened your job search, and how by using free available tools - including your own professional society and LinkedIn - that you can get employed quicker.

Job Boards are a business

Jobs boards as I have written before seem like the modern day panacea to the job seeker. Simply you upload your CV in the morning, and by that afternoon you have a new job. Oh, I wish it were that simple! The average job application via a job board stands between an 8% and 12% success ratio. Further, once you have uploaded your CV/resume, the job boards owner make it very difficult for your to remove. The reason for this is that simply you have upload an asset for them that they can sell to the recruiters.

On average, when a jobs boards comes up for sale, the jobs board as a business is worth about half its turnover as a sell-on price, while additionally each CV/resume in the database is worth at least £1/$1 up to to £10/$15, depending o the age of the database and the market that the jobs board addressed.

Secondly, the job board owners uses upload CV/resume numbers as a way to sell the need for employers and recruiters to place their adverts on that jobs board. While we have 10,000 CV/resume was the mid-market, that's now small when even the local systems in the UK brag of a million candidate CV databases.

The Recruiting business

When I ask job seekers how they think that the recruiting and head hunting business works, most do not have a clue. When you consider still that at least a third to possibly a half of all jobs are dealt with via recruiters, that's not going to speed your job search success.

Recruiters from the mid-market and below, only make money when they make a placement. The employer customer may well pay up to a one third fee retainer to a head hunter, but most recruiters work via a no win (placement)/no fee contract arrangement. That means that each six to eight week brief is in effect a gamble: can you find the right candidate quicker than your competitors, which include the internal HR team. Secondly, although you may find that right candidate, what guarantee's that only you find that job seeker? If another recruiter or the internal HR team have that CV on their existing database, then your fee could be halved at best.

If you knew that your ability to earn was defined by quickly sourcing the right candidate quickly, would you go to the well where everyone else drinks, or go some where quiet? In theory, around one third of the work force is presently looking for a job, one third would move if the right job offer came along, and one third are happy where they are. Hence why would buy into a jobs board where you know that the many desperate job seekers have already listed their CV's on that database - and probably every other jobs board that they could find; or would you go somewhere else?

Why recruiters and employers like LinkedIn

The problem with Jobs Boards is that they only list the same job seekers that as an employer or a recruiter you have probably seen at least twice or more already. For an employer, if you have rejected them already, why bother paying to see them again? For a recruiter, why go where your competition is going? Plus there's always the "registered with three recruiters = rejected" rule, which rejects anyone who looks like a desperate job seeker.

Head hunters and retained recruiters hence often use contacts and systems of the professional societies, knowing that they give them access to the whole of the work force in that sector. The problem in gaining access to such databases is that rightly they are well protected legally and ethically, and hence only the top five percent of candidates are likely to be found that way, through their demonstrated expertise in writing articles and guidance in the publicly accessible professional publications.

Using social media sites, and particularly sites like LinkedIn and Doostang, means that you access not only active job seekers, but also the other two thirds of the work force, who could have better skills and not be listed everywhere your competition is looking. While Doostang is not accessible to Google, the use of boolean search strings in the past few years now allow recruiters to whittle down 100million business person database of LinkedIn to just a few suitable job applicants. Even using LinkedIn's own search facility allows the best optimised LinkedIn profiles to dominate the subsequent search results.

LinkedIn also comes with an added bonus: demonstration of skills. Although you may be found through you profile, the fact that you have demonstratable recommendations from your piers and have answered professional questions through Answers shows a greater depth of capability that someone who just uploaded a CV/resume to a jobs board, and whom you now have to find such demonstration of capability elsewhere.

If you understand the basics of how the jobs board business works, and how recruiters earn their money, then it is easy to understand why improving your profile at LinkedIn will get you employed quicker than uploading your CV/resume to even one jobs board. While the job seeking phase of any job search is about activity, never since the invention of the village notice board has it been more important where your post your CV/resume, and how your demonstrate your proven value, in relationship to how quickly you are employed in the age of the internet.

German Female Executives Stretch For Glass Ceiling

While women in western countries worry about hitting a business 'glass ceiling,' German female executives find the glass out of reach. Given the sacrifice, social disdain, and hard work, few women approach the German glass ceiling.

Upon joining a German company, the atmosphere was warm and gracious. At the first major management team meeting, I noticed only three of the thirty of more of us were women. Within a couple of years only one remained.

German businessmen struggle to imagine a woman beyond the traditional family head of household. 'Kinder, Küche, Kirche' - children, kitchen, church is the time-honored female role. That philosophy remains on the minds of some key German leaders. When asked if Germany should establish quotas for women on business boards, Deutsche Bank CEO, Joseph Ackerman, admitted no women sat on the DB Board, but added, "But I hope that it will one day be more colorful - and prettier, too." Of the 30 major companies that comprise the German stock exchange, DAX, only three women sit on their boards.

I spoke about women in German management with two of my female colleagues. Becoming a German female executive requires a clear choice between family and career. Both were single. Those that attempt to work and raise a family become Rabbenmutter, or raven mothers. German society does not support women who sacrifice a child's well-being for a career.

Those that forsake motherhood must work harder than their male colleagues must. The German business culture believes overtime is a sign of inefficiency. Both of my colleagues worked late into the night in an attempt to outperform male counterparts.

There long hours and successes did not necessarily enrich them. A 2009 survey by the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW) found women managers made 25% less than males in comparable jobs. While my German female colleagues accepted the gap, women executives in our American division demanded and received comparable pay.

The environment is slowly changing for German female executives. Angela Merkel became Germany's first female executive. Deutsche Telekom is the first company to apply quotas with a goal of 30% of management positions to going to women, worldwide, by 2015. Germany, a rules and law culture, is implementing stronger sexual harassment in the workplace laws. Perhaps both the environment and opportunities for women managers in Germany is about to transform.

I spoke with the surviving female executive at my former German company. She is the Chief Marketing Officer. One of her key lieutenants is a woman. As young women look-up and see a few German female executives touching that high glass ceiling, perhaps more will stretch.

4 Critical Steps to Employment

In this article I will outline four steps you should take if you are looking to re-enter the employment market. Rather than focus on what you have done in your career, start thinking about where you have added value and does your communication plan clearly demonstrate this?

Read and understand the following line very carefully. It will raise your awareness of what you need to do.

Think of Yourself as a Product or Service.

Like a company trying to get a product or service to market, what techniques will work?

1. Product / Service Definition (Understand what you are)

If you don't know what the product or service can offer, how can you explain it let alone sell it? Would you buy something if you didn't know what it did or how it would add value to your life? A buyer (employer) will hardly "buy" your offering if you don't demonstrate what the product or service can do for them to improve their organisation.

2. Value Add (Understand where you can add value to the role and company)

How can your product or service add value to the buyer compared to other products or services in a crowded market? Understand what the buyer is looking for and ensure they are aware of your ability to fill that need better than the next product or service they are meeting with.

3. Communication Plan (Utilise the information you have researched about the company and opportunity)

Use multiple sources to gain information, both online & offline research. If there is no information on the internet about the company locally, use alternative methods of getting information. It is up to you to find out as much as you can before your meeting. Not conducting company research demonstrates a lack of creativity, resourcefulness and leaves room for other products or services to get inside you.

4. Go-To-Market Plan (Identify the person making the decision and advise them where and how you can add value to their organisation, quickly!)

Have a consistent message for everyone you interact with so there is consistency with your offering through your CV, informal meetings, recruitment consultant meetings and interviews. Being consistent, concise and clear demonstrates confidence and offers reassurance. You may need to interact with several people before meeting the key decision maker.

The key messages to take from this article are, offer value, demonstrate your research capability, present well and create a positive response with those you interact with throughout the entire process electronically and in person. If you follow these steps you will be well on the way getting yourself back into employment.

German Female Executives Stretch For Glass Ceiling

While women in western countries worry about hitting a business 'glass ceiling,' German female executives find the glass out of reach. Given the sacrifice, social disdain, and hard work, few women approach the German glass ceiling.

Upon joining a German company, the atmosphere was warm and gracious. At the first major management team meeting, I noticed only three of the thirty of more of us were women. Within a couple of years only one remained.

German businessmen struggle to imagine a woman beyond the traditional family head of household. 'Kinder, Küche, Kirche' - children, kitchen, church is the time-honored female role. That philosophy remains on the minds of some key German leaders. When asked if Germany should establish quotas for women on business boards, Deutsche Bank CEO, Joseph Ackerman, admitted no women sat on the DB Board, but added, "But I hope that it will one day be more colorful - and prettier, too." Of the 30 major companies that comprise the German stock exchange, DAX, only three women sit on their boards.

I spoke about women in German management with two of my female colleagues. Becoming a German female executive requires a clear choice between family and career. Both were single. Those that attempt to work and raise a family become Rabbenmutter, or raven mothers. German society does not support women who sacrifice a child's well-being for a career.

Those that forsake motherhood must work harder than their male colleagues must. The German business culture believes overtime is a sign of inefficiency. Both of my colleagues worked late into the night in an attempt to outperform male counterparts.

There long hours and successes did not necessarily enrich them. A 2009 survey by the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW) found women managers made 25% less than males in comparable jobs. While my German female colleagues accepted the gap, women executives in our American division demanded and received comparable pay.

The environment is slowly changing for German female executives. Angela Merkel became Germany's first female executive. Deutsche Telekom is the first company to apply quotas with a goal of 30% of management positions to going to women, worldwide, by 2015. Germany, a rules and law culture, is implementing stronger sexual harassment in the workplace laws. Perhaps both the environment and opportunities for women managers in Germany is about to transform.

I spoke with the surviving female executive at my former German company. She is the Chief Marketing Officer. One of her key lieutenants is a woman. As young women look-up and see a few German female executives touching that high glass ceiling, perhaps more will stretch.