RPS Search Group of NJ, LLC

I have posted this information in the past but a recent e-mail exchange with a hiring manager brought it back to mind. How to attract the best and brightest to your company is a challenge I am hearing from most, if not all of our clients right now. Then, once you find them, hire them, onboard them, motivate them and ultimately retain them become the next challenges. I wish I had a dollar for every client who said they were looking for the ideal candidate. Every hiring manager would like the perfect candidate for their open position. In seeking Mr./Ms. Perfect, many highly qualified candidates are passed over. Perfection is elusive, but almost perfect could be sitting right in front of you. Elongated hiring processes and having multiple interviewers involved in the process simply complicate the hiring process and serve to frustrate candidates with a high degree of patience. I suggest a thorough review of your processes and an evaluation as to why you are having trouble finding...

RESUMES ARE YOUR PERSONAL ADVERTISEMENTS--PART 3 It is a “small world”.  After 45 plus years in and around the recruiting industry, I have gotten to know a great many people and I have been asked all too many times, “Do I have to include all of my jobs on my resume even if I was only there for a few months?” or “How far back should I go with my resume?”. Basically, you do not have to include anything on your resume. What you include on your resume is up to you.  However, the advice that I give is to ask the person if he or she wants to start a relationship with resume omissions or incorrect dates of employment.  I feel that a candidate must set the example and everything that is on a resume should be true and factual.  Over the past few years, gaps in employment are commonplace and easily explained. Be prepared to explain the gap itself by pointing to an activity that filled it, such as volunteer work, caring for an ill family memb...

Resumes are personal advertisements. People need to know how to present themselves. Part 2 I cannot tell you the numbers of times that I have heard from a candidate who sent in a one page resume and upon questioning learned that anywhere from 5 to 15 years were left off the resume! We've all been told at one time or another to keep our resume to one page, but this old standard no longer holds true. If you have enough experience and accomplishments to highlight on two pages, go for it.   Of course, if you're new to the workforce, one page should suffice. Now that resumes are often entered into an applicant-tracking system, it's more important than ever to include keywords that help the system match you to the appropriate position.   You might need more space to do that.   This is even more essential for loss prevention professionals who have evolved into more technical or analytical roles.   If you are an experi...

Resumes are your personal Advertisement I decided to repeat the next 4 articles as things have not changed since I first published them 5 years ago After thirty-one years as an executive recruiter, I have lost track of the number of resume formats that I have received. I have received resumes from candidates who paid hundreds of dollars to have a resume professionally prepared, and I have received resumes prepared by the candidate. The major similarity that I saw in all of those resumes is that the preparer did not list the accomplishments but did list duties and responsibilities. Hiring managers and human resource professionals know what a loss prevention professional does in an LPM, DLPM, RLPM or higher level loss prevention role. That being the case, why would you want to dedicate so much space on the resume with job duties and responsibilities when it is the bottom line accomplishments that relate how well you have done your job. I recently received a resume...

PREPARATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS Over my soon to be 31 years as a recruiter I have planned my work and then worked my plan on a daily basis. That being said, there are always the emergencies and last minute changes to deal with; but I always have a plan to go back to! Much has been written about how to ace an interview and get the job and part of my daily plan, when needed, is to set aside time to discuss interview preparation with candidates going out on interviews and preparing the client to meet the candidate. I cannot tell you how many times a client did not want to take the time to hear about a candidate, and ever more surprising was how many times I heard from a candidate that they had never blown an interview and did not need to have any information from me. Needless to say, in both of these situations the interviews did not go well and Both the clients and candidates were looking to me for answers. My response was and is that preparation is the ke...

The Top-10 Things Candidates Hate ( these are provided by an unknown source) Having no clue whom they are meeting with for an interview, how long they will interview for, and arriving somewhere on time in order to wait alone in a lobby, room, or restaurant (and feeling very conspicuous when they don't need a job!) while looking at their watch (every five seconds) for the late interviewer. Taking a personal day off on one, two, or three occasions to interview at XYZ Company, only to fall into the Black Hole of No Feedback and never to be spoken to again. Add that their wife continues to harp on the fact that they missed Johnny's recital by taking personal days to go interview for a new job when "You have a perfectly acceptable one right now." This is when your picture goes up on the dart board in their rec room. Learning after the fact that someone on the interview team thought that their resume showed ...

Why we do and do not Ask Questions John Miller author of QBQ put togethet a list of why we do and donot ask questions.  I found this list to be an eye opener so here you are. Asking questions is a skill required by people in all roles, job functions, and professions. Why exactly do we ask questions? Well, here are 15 reasons to do so! 1.   To acquire knowledge 2.   To eliminate confusion 3.   To cause someone else to feel special/important 4.   To guide a conversation in the direction we want it to go 5.   To demonstrate humility to another 6.   To enable a person to discover answers for themselves 7.               To gain empathy through better understanding another's view 8.               To influence/alter someone else's opinion/view 9.         ...

10 Common Mistakes People Make at Job Interviews compliled by Dave Johnson CBS Money Watch You can never be too prepared for a job interview -- you never know what minor element of your personality or presentation can make or break your chances. But while you may be polished to a luster for the usual interview questions and your resume is gleaming, what about some of the other intangibles involved in getting hired? After all, for better or for worse about a third of hiring managers assess candidates and make a hiring decision within the first 90 seconds. Fair? Of course not. But it does mean that its critical to control those elements that aren't just about your previous job performance. Recently, education research firm Classes and Careers published an interesting infographic that rolls up a slew of less obvious things that influence the hiring process. For starters, there are a number of nonverbal cues that hiring managers consider mistakes that can cost you the...

Self Discipline If I had a dollar for every time someone has told me they don’t know how I work at home with “all those distractions”,  Of course, we all know that working remotely with success takes  real discipline. The kind of discipline that keeps you at your desk when no one will know if you’re not. The kind of discipline that keeps the television off, and your brain switched on. I’ve heard people say we’re born disciplined, or we’re not, but I don’t believe it. Anyone can learn to be disciplined in their work--even when working from home.  If you’re looking to be more disciplined, here are some tactics that can help. Note:  These are not original ideas and I do not have the source to give credit. 1. Plan your day. If you don’t know what you need to do, or what’s coming up, it can be difficult to maintain your discipline, since there’s no pressure.  A first step to being more disciplined is to set aside time in your calendar for every task you need ...

5 QUESTIONS TO ASK ON AN INTERVIEW   When prepping candidates for an interview I am asked what are 5 good questions that I can ask on  an interview.  Well--Here they are.   1. “How do you define success for this job?” This question helps you get a clear understanding of what the job entails and the expectations the company will have for you in it, says John Crossman, president of real estate management firm Crossman & Company. For example, if you’re applying for a sales position, an answer to this question might be that you acquire 10 new clients in the next 90 days. It may also be that you upsell current customers by 25 percent over 90 days. As a candidate, you’ll want to know whether you’ll be cold-calling prospects or focusing on existing customers before you make your decision. 2. Something specific about the organization It’s always a great idea to ask a question that shows you did your research before the interview says ...