Thursday 27 August 2009

Talent Emporium website coming soon!


The Talent Emporium website http://www.talentemporium.com/ will be with us early September, but in the mean time I wanted to provide a sneak preview of the initial design.

Talent Emporium provides low cost, flat fee recruitment that provides greater results than direct advertising while our expertise utilising online recruitment and social media enables our flat fee recruitment solution to offer the full range of services of a traditional recruitment agency at a fraction of the cost.

Talent Emporium’s flat fee recruitment solution offers companies the opportunity to hire multiple candidates from a 4 week recruitment campaign for a one off fixed fee. Our Bronze, Silver and Gold flat fee recruitment offerings ensure each vacancy will gain maximum online exposure across our network of 700+ job boards and each requirement is individually tailored to ensure optimised searchability by the major search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo by incorporating keyword technology, Google Adwords and SEO techniques. We promise to further enhance each job advertisement online through the use of our social media and networks such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Talent Emporium’s flat fee recruitment offerings provide companies with a low cost, efficient recruitment solution. We provide flat fee recruitment across the UK what ever the position our industry sector. We provide flat fee recruitment solutions for Admin & Secretarial, Banking & Finance, Construction & Engineering, Energy & Utilities, HR & Recruitment, IT & Communications, Logistics & Transport, Media, Oil & Gas, Production & Operations, Public Sector, Sales & Marketing, and Warehouse & Distribution.

To find out how Talent Emporium can reduce your annual recruitment spend by £1000s email us info@talentemporium.com

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Social Networking-Employment screening, You’re hired! You’re fired!

Talent Emporium’s low cost, flat fee recruitment offering is heavily influenced by the use of web 2.0 and social networking sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Our previous blog postings have highlighted the importance of social media and social networking for positive brand promotion to help finding employment and improving your future career prospects.

However, whether you tweet a few lines or scribble on the Facebook wall, your social media use could decide your job prospects and even whether you have a job to return to after your latest social media posting. Research from the US has shown employers are ramping up their use of social media and social networking sites to carry out candidate research before putting pen to paper and sending out an offer of employment.

45% of employers surveyed by CareerBuilder said that they use social networking sites to research job seekers and candidates attending interview, a massive increase from 22% when surveyed last year. About 11% of the companies surveyed highlighted they are planning to implement a candidate screening process using social networking mediums.

Also, the last 12 months have seen the emergence of social networking sites playing a pivotal role in the dismissal of staff from both small and high profile companies including:

A 16 year old girl from Essex for describing her job as boring on Facebook http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/7914415.stm

A Swiss woman has lost her job after her employers spotted she was using the Facebook website when she had claimed to be too ill to use a computer
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8018329.stm

And a Waitrose employee has been sacked for insulting the supermarket chain on Facebook
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/3357689/Waitrose-worker-fired-for-Facebook-slur.html

Therefore when embarking on creating your own unique brand on the multitude of social networking mediums available keep the following in mind:

1. Everything is public. Act as though it is going to be on the front page tomorrows news papers

2. Welcome pages are easily searchable and can be viewed without being a signed up member. The information is highly public and hard to erase from search engines memory

3. Don’t do it during work time unless you have permission to do so. Better yet, don’t use it at work unless you think it will get you a raise.

4. Don’t post anything that you wouldn’t feel comfortable posting or discussing in the lunchroom at work

5. Remove comments posted by others that can get you into trouble

6. Raise your privacy settings.

7. Do not ever admit to anything even remotely resembling a crime.

8. Don’t disclose personal information that you are not comfortable having out there.

9. Be considerate of others when you are posting things.

10. Don’t discuss confidential stuff online

11. Be careful if you mix your personal and business online

Social media and networking is an essential part of our success in being able to provide a low cost, flat fee recruitment solution ensuring we are successful in bringing together progressive employers and talented individuals. If you have any questions on how your company can employ successful social media practices to attract talented individuals or if you are a job seeker looking to empower you job search using social media either leave us a post on our blog our email info@talentemporium.com with any questions.

Monday 24 August 2009

Fake employment references

Back in July we posted an article titled “Bogus Employment References Don’t Do It!” since then we have spoken to a number of employers who have highlighted the problem of fake and bogus references and how their use seems to be on the increase during the current recession. With the rise of the internet it has made it easier than ever for job hunters to find the services of unscrupulous companies, looking to make a quick buck by offering to provide fake employment references, fake CV’s and resumes and either provide fake employment alibis. High profile cases have appeared in the UK news throughout 2009 examples including a Scottish physics teacher banned from teaching in June 2009 for using bogus references so we wanted to make employers aware of some of the companies and the services they are supplying.

Companies such as www.alibienetwork.com, www.alibihq.com and www.fakeresume.com in the US has lead the way for UK companies such as www.fakealibi.co.uk to provide similar services www.fakealibi.co.uk offers virtual employment which they provide their subscribers with a confirmation letter of employment, virtual telephone numbers, and offer proof of employment while there is a host of content on the US sites explaining how reference checks are carried out by employers the loop holes within the employment law and the employment referencing procedure as well as links to obtaining fake degrees and qualifications recognised in the UK.

Talent Emporium offers a low cost, flat fee recruitment solution enabling companies to make multiple hires from a 4-week recruitment campaign, from £500, 750 and £1250. Our low cost flat fee recruitment solution encompasses over 700 online advertising channels, web 2.0 and social networking such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and old fashioned networking enabling to deliver staffing solutions for any job across any industry. We are so confident in our ability to deliver we offer a 100% money back guarantee if we are not successful.

To find out how our low cost, flat fee recruitment solution can save you £1000’s on your annual recruitment spend email us info@talentemporium.com for more information.

Thursday 20 August 2009

Twitter-Enhance your career with TweetDeck

Since our last blog post “Twitter-Enhance your career” we have been contacted by numerous job seekers who decided to follow our advice on using Twitter as a powerful job search tool. However, many have come back to us highlighting the difficulty they are having keep abreast of tweets that contain job postings as well as following recruiters and companies hiring directly.

The solution is simple and should have been mentioned in our initial post, sign up for TweetDeck www.tweetdeck.com. TweetDeck is a simple and fast way to experience Twitter, it enables its user to efficiently organise twitter information by filtering people you are following into groups, and with a click on the mouse you can interact with other Twitter users by retweeting and DMing contacts.

TweetDeck also enables its user to run real-time searches using Boolean technology, a great way to ensure you do not miss any job opportunities that may be of interest.

Talent Emporium is a flat fee recruitment provider that employs the latest web 2.0, social media, online advertising and good old fashioned networking to provide a low fee, flat fee recruitment solution. We are so confident in our ability to deliver talented individuals to your company we offer a 100% refund if we can not fill you vacancy.

To see how our flat fee recruitment solution starting at £500 could save your company £1000s contact us info@talentemporium.com

Thursday 13 August 2009

Twitter- Enhance your career

Twitter is a high powered tool which can aid your career prospects and provide employment success.

Twitter is an excellent tool to tap into diverse networks of people you would not normally have access to and can help accelerate your job search.

How can Twitter work for you?
  1. Offers access to industry leaders and professionals, providing up to date information for you to leverage for your job search
  2. Network with leaders and peers in your industry to promote credibility and build professional and personal relationships
  3. Network with a diverse cross section of individuals, from MD’s, hiring managers and recruiters, a real hot bed for networking activity
  4. Use of 140 characters or less ensures you think before you tweet, forcing you to think & clarify your proposition
What to do next:
  1. Create an account www.twitter.com
  2. Create a professional Twitter handle
  3. Spend time creating a professional profile which will attract your target audience, linking it to other social mediums such as LinkedIn or your website
  4. Start to Tweet about your industry, latest industry news, major projects, interesting articles, the list goes on
  5. Start to follow leaders and peers in your industry, if you are tweets are of interest you will soon start to mass a following
  6. Build your network using TwitterSearch and Find People tool
  7. Remember don’t over do self promotion, give and they shall receive!

If you can think of any other points to add, please respond to the post! Also, feel free to add any details on how Twitter has played a positive or negative affect on your career to date!

Reasons why you are not getting an interview

Online mediums-Multiple Job Boards

Solely relying upon online mediums to land a job just isn’t going to work! There are numerous online job boards and even more people using them, so how are you going to stand out from the crowd? If you think you can post your CV across a number of job boards, sit back and wait for the phone to ring to land an interview you will certainly come unstuck. Posting your CV across numerous online channels doesn’t increase your chances of an interview it actually has the opposite effect. We all know that people always want what they can’t have and recruiters and hiring managers are no different. Recruiters especially, always like to think they are working with a unique commodity i.e. you the candidate something that is so unique it will open doors to new clients and for you a new job. If your CV is on every job site under the sun, you are no longer unique and the chances are recruiters will pay less interest in you and will not work as hard to find you’re your next position. We suggest market your CV on one or two job boards which you believe targets your industry sector and bin the others!


CV-Your calling card and unique identity

As mentioned in previous blog posts, your CV or resume is your unique calling card and the most important document you can use to get you foot in the door and make a lasting impression at interview. Your CV is your one opportunity to market your personal brand and captivate your audience; this is a real opportunity to demonstrate your background and your ability to deliver. Make your CV a compelling read, ensure it is clear and concise with examples of successful projects, career highlights and defined results this will certainly encapsulate the audience and ensure they invite you for an interview to find out more! And always ensure there are no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.


Apply for roles that fit your skills

All too often we see fork lift drivers applying for C# development roles! Wise up, it is never going to happen, recruiters and hiring managers are looking for people with the skills to fill a specific role within an organisation. Therefore you’re CV and background has to demonstrate the core competencies required for the role on offer, your CV needs to tick the right boxes. Without effectively demonstrating your ability to do so, then I am sorry, no interview.

Networking

We keep banging on about networking, but networking on and off line is a must in today’s saturated employment market. Networking ensures you are continually engaging with friends, family and peers within your chosen industry and has several positive effects:

You are keep up to date with your industry
You here of upcoming projects
You know which companies to target
You do not become retracted from society

You can keep up to date with today’s employment news by following us on Twitter www.twitter.com/talentemporium

Talent emporium provides a flat fee recruitment solution that enables companies to hire multiple candidates from a 4-week recruitment campaign from £500, for more information on how we could help your organisation slash £1000’s from your recruitment spend contact info@talentemporium.com

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Talent Management-steroid powered job search

Fed up with recruiters who try and pump you for information on where you are interviewing and who your line manager is? Like to know which companies local to you need your skills? Then our Talent Management offering may be what you are looking for!

Talent Emporium is looking to change the world of recruitment by offering a flat fee recruitment solution to clients and an individually tailored Talent Management offering to job seekers across the UK and Ireland.

Our Talent Management offering is a STEROID powered job search which will cut out the middleman (i.e. the recruiter) and decrease the time of hire ensuring you find your next role, quicker with the minimum of fuss. Our Talent Management offering provides:

CV clinic to ensure maximum impact when it lands in the clients inbox


Articles of improving your job search, networking and interview techniques


Individually tailored list of companies hiring in your area


Individually tailored shortlist of hiring managers within your specific industry


CV proactively marketed to an individually derived list of employers


Talent Emporium’s Talent Management offering is guaranteed to save weeks from you finding your next job and thousands of pounds if you are out of work.

For more information on our Talent Management offering contact us info@talentemporium.com

Illegal Interview Questions

As the recession bites and competition for jobs is on the increase you may find yourself having to answer more probing questions from your future employer which may not always be on the right side of the law. This was the experience of one of our candidates who had recently been on interview.

During interview it is important for both employer and candidate to gain as much information as possible of either party to ensure the correct decision is made and the right candidate is hired for the job. However, during the process it is important that the correct questions take place, questions that probe applicants qualifications, education, experience, past times and availability. But, all too often in an employers attempt to get to know the applicant they begin to probe areas which are off limits!

Questions relating to family, marital status and children seem relatively harmless on the surface but are definitely a non no! And this type of questioning seems to be more pertinent to female applicants.

How do you deal with questions outside the law?

More often than not candidates are unaware of employment law and even if there were they may put themselves at risk of loosing the job they are interviewing for they are not prepared to answer the questions at hand.

An approach would be to determine if there is any bad intention on the part of the employer, if you believe there is none, and then provide a direct answer to the question at hand. However, if you believe there is bad intention then focus on the relevance of the question to the job qualifications and role on offer and look to switch attention to you qualifications, experience and your suitability for the role.

Talent Emporium provide SME’s and Blue Chip organisation with a flat fee online recruitment solution. We enable companies to make multiples hires from a 4-week recruitment campaign starting at just £500, helping companies save £1000’s on their recruitment spend.

For more information on our £500, £750 or £1250 flat fee recruitment solutions please email info@talentemporium.com for more information

Monday 3 August 2009

Networking Tips for Job Seekers


1. Focus on networking with your warmest contacts and peers

2. Set clear objectives of what you are looking to gain from networking

3. Give More and take less! Generosity is Key share ideas, resources, and contacts

4. Be yourself

5. Ask lots of open questions - who? what? how? when?

6. Network with a wide range of contacts outside your immediate connections

7. Ensure you have a consistent online presence and are using social media platforms to establish an online brand (Eg LinkedIn.com, Twitter, Facebook)

8. Take a genuine interest in other people, their challenges and their goals (and not just your own needs)

9. You have two years and 1 mouth, listen twice as much as you talk

10. Focus on the quality of relationships rather than the number of contacts you've got

11. Keep asking "How can I help you?" rather than "How can you help me?

12. Share and help others without expecting anything back

13. Limit the time you spend on social media platforms. They can easily distract you from the main goal of finding a job.

14. Think long term relationships rather than short term gain

Saturday 1 August 2009

Dealing with redundancy



The old adage of a job is for life certainly looks as if it has gone out of the window as companies are now in a constant state of flux as they are shaped by a multitude of external factors and are continually having to evolve to maintain competitive edge and stay afloat which often results in down sizing, staff cuts and redundancies.

If you are one of many who find their job is now redundant, DO NOT take it personally and try to take keep the following in mind:

Grieve
Loosing your jobs is certainly a traumatic experience as most of us spend more time in work during the week than any other activity. So if you are in the unfortunate position of loosing your job this may impact on your mental and physical wellbeing in a similar way to the passing of a family member. Remember it is not your fault, give yourself time to put events into perspective and then begin to construct a work plan to get back into the work place as soon as possible.

Work Pan
Studies show that high proportions of us actually dislike our job so redundancy can provide the impetuous, to re-invent yourself and look to explore new industries and career paths. Redundancy may provide the ideal opportunity to re-skill or cross-train in order to follow that new career you have been thinking about for some time!Work on your USPTake time to work out your Unique Selling Point, what makes you stand out as an individual and more importantly why an employer will hire you over another candidate in the market. Once you have established your USP, your strengths, core values and what you can offer, look to consistently market your personal brand and USP both on and offline. There are a wealth of social media and networking tools for you to market your USP and personal brand to the widest possible audience, ensure you are conveying a consistent message and your profiles contain as much up to date information as possible.CV/Resume creationI have read numerous online articles about the death of the CV or Resume as people create online video content for employers to view, but do not under estimate the power of a well crafted CV or Resume. A well crafted CV is an opportunity to create a powerful marketing document that highlights professional expertise and experience through your success and achievements. Your CV or Resume is your opportunity to build on your USP and personal brand to make an overwhelming first impression, opening the door to an interview.

Market Knowledge
As they say “knowledge is key!” and that is so true when you are embarking on your job search. Treat your job search as a full time job, take time each day to research the specific industry you are targeting, keep abreast of major industry news and study key players within your chosen industry. In our previous article we discussed the importance of networking, both on and offline put these principles into practice to ensure you are a knock out candidate when you are called for an interview.

Company Research
When you get that call for an interview be prepared! Find out as much as possible about the company you are interviewing with firstly to establish if they are the correct fit for you and secondly so you can demonstrate your company knowledge as well as being able to construct a set of well crafted questions to ask the interviewing panel.

Interviewers like a candidate who has done their research and a set of well crafted relevant questions about the company, competitors, up coming projects etc is a sure way to demonstrate you are on the top of your game and an excellent way to demonstrate your ability to perform.


Talent Emporium is a leader in providing flat fee online recruitment solutions enabling companies to hire multiple candidates from a 4 week individually tailored recruitment campaign with offerings at £500, £750 and £1250.

Talent Emporium also has a unique candidate offering, our Talent Management service provides a CV clinic, targeted CV marketing campaign, industry and location specific employment news. To find out more about either our client our Talent Management offerings please contact us at info@talentemporium.com