Are you easy to find? Employers and recruiters are using electronic sources to find you, or more information about you before they make contact. If you have sent your resume with or without a covering letter to your next employer or an Executive Recruiter, expect that they will have sought more information about you before they respond.
If you can be found on LinkedIn and also on Zoom info, it will demonstrate that you wish to be found. Adding your photo adds to your visibility and shows a receptive attitude to personal contact.
The social media is so much faster and easier to use than taking the time to make telephone contact, that it is the first place hiring managers and their research staff will look, before proceeding to the interview stage.
If you are not using all the tools available to communicate that you will consider an offer of employment you may never hear anything further after your initial contact.
Business practices continue to evolve; this includes hiring methodology, especially the use of the new tools becoming available.
The best use of the communication tools HAPPEN provides is in your best interest. The revisions on the new website will help your research of other members and track your time usage.
Currently you should be updating your resume every 2 weeks, to keep it at the forefront of the display. Reviewing your accomplishments layout with white spaces and digits will help catch the eye of the employers and recruiters.
Using our in-house newsgroup tool to contact HAPPEN members, including those that are working, can give you an advantage over those who are not yet members.
HAPPENlink has been in operation for 7 years and has served us well. It was never designed as a 'chat' room or for synchronous communication between individual members. We are fortunate to have over 2100 members contributing their expertise and inside job opportunities that come exclusively to HAPPEN members.
Most participants in the newsgroup now receive their messages as a daily digest. This means a response to a message may take over 24 hours to reach the originator. Any message that is directed to an individual should not be sent over HAPPENlink. It means taking the time to change the address instead of just clicking the reply button.
Please do not assume that because you are very busy, the rest of us have more time to read every message header and decide which to delete. We are regularly seeing 25+ messages a day and have seen over 80 in a 24 hour period.
Members wishing to be included in a dialogue should contact the originator directly and asked to be copied. This type of request does not need to be sent to 2100 members.
HAPPENlink is not LinkedIn or twitter or any of the newer communication tools. Please use it wisely, so that it can continue to serve all of us productively. The inside information that will put you ahead of those who are not yet members of HAPPEN.
Jim Geraghty
HAPPEN
