Some great advice for job seekers in the internet age (from WorkAwesome):

Resumes and Cover Letters Still Matter

Yes, these two pieces of paper are still important (check out CallMe!’s our previous advice here).  Maybe they’re attachments to your e-mail. But you need to give the hiring managers something to print and read.

While you’re at it, make sure you use proper grammar and spelling. One HR professional says she cuts and pastes all the cover letters she receives into Word so the spell check can tell her who gets it wrong.

Use Social Networks

College students are ignoring Twitter but the people who want to hire them are on it. Get in front of the people who are looking for your talents. Network in their circles.

Don’t Abuse Social Networks

Take a look at your Facebook account. How many times do the words “drunk,” “wasted” and “PARRRR-TAY” appear on pages? That doesn’t cut it with most employers. Sure they did it when they were your age. But not they’re responsible adults who want to hire people who know how to pretend they’re responsible adults.

Don’t put anything in a tweet or update that you wouldn’t say in a job interview.

• Bonus Tip: Change your Facebook privacy settings so that the only photos of you that can be tagged with your name are ones you tag. So all those beer pong photos don’t show on your wall.

Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn can be a valuable tool for finding a job. Make sure your public profile looks as good as your resume.

Clean up Your Email Address

Do you know how many people in your industry want to hire someone with the email address party_girl69 at hotmail.com? Unless it’s more than 90%, you’d better create a new job search email address. Any clean variation of your name will work fine – unless you’re John Smith.

Also, employers are searching social networks for candidates’ e-mail addresses. So give them one that’s not attached to your MySpace page.

Get Creative

Of course creative is a relative term. You don’t want to be seen as avant garde when you’re looking for a job in accounting, insurance or banking. But you want to stand out in a good way and show you know how your industry works.

Consider Alex Brownstein. The copywriter identified five creative directors he admired and started using Google Adwords campaigns for their names. When the directors Googled themselves, they saw this ad at the top of the search page:

“Hey, [creative director's name]: Goooogling [sic] yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too”

You’ll never guess who got his dream job.

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Doing your homework before interviewing is an often overlooked step that can greatly enhance your chance of success.  Gist.com is a powerful tool that can help job seekers create a networking dashboard that can consolidate information into an easy to use format.  Most interesting is the ability to create a 1-page tear sheet of information – great for use prior to a meeting for instance. Check it out:

For additional resources and advice pertaining for job seekers, check out the Resources section of our site.

As we are providers of staffing solutions for call center companies, a large part of our interview process is based upon our phone assessments.  With that in mind, this recent article has some great pointers for making sure you use proper phone etiquette (whether on an interview with CallMe! or any other potential employer).

Some highlights include:

Phone Interview Do’s and Don’ts

Create a checklist. Review the job posting and make a list of how your qualifications match the hiring criteria. Have the list available so you can glance at it during the interview. Also have a copy of your resume in clear view, so you don’t have to remember what you did when.

Research the job and the company. Take some time to research the job and the company. The more prepared you are for the interview, the smoother it will go.

Prepare for phone interview questions. Review answers to typical phone interview questions and think about how you’re going to respond.

Use a land line. Unless your cell phone service is 100% all the time, use a land line instead of a cell phone. That way you won’t have to worry about dropped calls and getting disconnected.

Turn off call waiting. If you have call waiting turn it off. The beep of an incoming call is distracting and can make you lose your focus.

Get rid of the distractions. Interview in a private quiet space. That means securing a babysitter if you have small children at home and kicking the dog, the cat, and the rest of the household members out of your interview space.

Have a glass of water nearby. There isn’t much worse than having a tickle in your throat or a cough starting when you need to talk on the phone. Have a glass of water handy so you can take a quick sip if your mouth gets dry or there’s a catch in your throat.

Take notes. It’s hard to remember what you discussed after the fact, so take brief notes during the interview.

Focus, listen, and enunciate. It’s important to focus on the interview and that can be harder on the phone than in-person. Be sure to listen to the question, ask for clarification if you’re not sure what the interviewer is asking, and speak slowly, carefully, and clearly when you respond. It’s fine to take a few seconds to compose your thoughts before you answer.

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Networking has come to our attention quite a lot recently.  Networking during the job search is an absolutely critical element to finding the right job.  Today, the Wall Street Journal ran a very good article detailing some steps you can take to increase the effectiveness of your networking during the job search.

Some of the advice:

1) Develop a stronger online identity by revamping your résumé.

2) Make better use of LinkedIn, a professional networking Web site.

3) Create a more visible personal brand.

4) Get a bigger payoff from industry events.

As for some additional steps you can take, we recommend taking industry specific training classes to boost your resume, working temporary jobs to fill in work experience and joining professional or trade groups for networking.

Of course, the key to any job search is persistence and just getting yourself out there!

Related articles that may be of interest:

• Revamping your job-search strategy (msnbc.msn.com)
• Keep Your Resume Out of the Recycling Bin (halliecrawford.typepad.com)
• Be Equipped (jobsearchingblog.com)
• Polishing Your Résumé Part I (halliecrawford.typepad.com)
• The Search: Writing a Résumé That Shouts ‘Hire Me’ (nytimes.com)
• 9 Insider Secrets to Getting Hired (usnews.com)
• Start Searching For Your Next Job Before You Need It (thatonecaveman.com)

Great post from Call Center Cafe: 7 essential steps for effective employee training.

From the post – Top 7: Focus on Individual Staff Needs, Create a “Desire to Learn”, Make Learning “Fun”, Develop an Evaluation Plan, Help Employees Apply Learning to the Job, Choose the “Right” Training Method, Follow up and Evaluation.

We would add, as stated in our previous post, that making sure the agent understands their mission is also a critical part of effective training.  Effectively communicating the expectations of the job can go a long way to ensuring the work product of the workforce.

To that end, CallMe! utilizes online training that helps give call center agents the basic tool box for succeeding in their job.  Industry specific training and testing is available via our online testing and assessment process. Also, our HR staff is available to help our clients implement effective on-site training tools and programs.

For more advice on hiring and training employees, check out our online resources.

Related articles that may be of interest:

• Leadership Training Everywhere – But Not a Drop to Drink (i2i-align.com)
• 8 Ways to Develop Your Employees (ismckenzie.com)
• Paving the Way to Success in Business Using Online Training (marketingonlineinternet.com)
• How To Benefit From A Learning Service (slideshare.net)

Article today in the New York Times about the government crackdown on proper classification of employees. Why would an employer purposely classify an employee as a contractor, or what would be the possible benefits? The Times says:

Companies that pass off employees as independent contractors avoid paying Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance taxes for those workers. Companies do not withhold income taxes from contractors’ paychecks, and several studies have indicated that, on average, misclassified independent workers do not report 30 percent of their income.

These short term benefits can be tempting, but the penalties can be stiff,

California’s attorney general, Jerry Brown, is seeking $4.3 million from a construction firm he accused of misclassifying employees. Last April, he won a $13 million judgment when a court ruled that two companies had misclassified 300 janitors, cheated the state out of payroll taxes and not paid minimum wage and overtime.

And, the Obama administration has decided to aggressively pursue this issue,

The Obama administration plans to expand investigations by hiring 100 more enforcement personnel. The I.R.S. has begun auditing 6,000 companies to see whether they are in compliance with the law.

Call center employees, working in a call center, at a desk, making calls, under supervision are almost surely employees and not independant contractors.  That being said, certain situations may be more difficult to determine.  The IRS has a 20-question test to determine classification that is worth reviewing if there are any questions.

Bottom line, make sure you consult with a knowledgeable employment lawyer or HR professional in order to mitigate risk for the company and give the employees the benefits of employment they deserve.

Related articles that may be of interest

• U.S. Cracks Down on ‘Contractors’ as a Tax Dodge (nytimes.com)
• IRS, states crack down on independent worker abuse (sfgate.com)
• IRS, states crack down on independent worker abuse (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• IRS, States Crack Down on Independent Worker Abuse (abcnews.go.com)