Can I Hire Someone Without Industry Experience - Your Career Intel

Can I Hire Someone Without Industry Experience - Your Career IntelThe fiercely competitive dynamics of todays job market have transformed executive recruiting. For some companies, this means a longer and more expensive recruitment process as they compete for top talent in a rapidly shrinking candidate pool. These businesses end up paying above-market rates in order to land the same people their competitors seek.More and more companies are solving these problems by searching outside of their industries for top candidates. On paper, a non-traditional hire can look like a high-risk gamble. Its also one that can pay tremendous dividends for years to come.Take for example, one of our best hires and success stories at Lucas Group. David wasnt your typical recruiter candidate. He was a year or so out of college, had no real sales experience and he didnt have any experience in the industry we recruited in. When we hired Dave, he was a bartender looking for an opportunity to learn and grow wi thin an organization. What he did have was drive, ambition, intelligence and persistence. That combined with his ability to easily develop relationships and gain rapport with potential clients led to his amazing success within the organization. Twelve years after we hired him, hes still here and he now leads one of our branches as a Managing Partner.What is Industry Experience?Industry experience refers to a job candidate having had previous work experience within that particular industry. While industry experience can be valuable, often times it implies that the hiring manager may not be willing to train someone new on the intricacies of their particular industry.Worth the RiskHiring outside your industry is certainly a risk. Without an industry background, your new hire may struggle to master the lingo, connect with clients, and close sales. Hiring a candidate with insider knowledge, however, is no guarantee for success. Safe, predictable hires can also fail. Seeking industry perf ection unnecessarily limits the candidate pool. In an attempt to reduce the risk of a failed hire, you may also reduce the likelihood that your new hire will be able to effectively innovate.Do not assume that prior related experience will automatically translate in desired performance. Industry veterans sometimes rotate through companies at ever-increasing salary levels, regardless of performance. To echo the words of Eric Seibold, The movement of human capital within a closed industry breeds complacency.Reasons to Hire Someone with No Industry ExperienceIndustry-driven hiring based solely on contacts and experience will leave your organization with little understanding of other industries and even less ability to tap those industries for the great ideas that can drive your business forward. Conversely, hiring so-called outsider candidates can bring a much-needed influx of fresh ideas, creativity and innovation into your business. Outside hiring is a natural defense against myopic t hinking it challenges the position quo with fresh perspectives. Dont let risk management limit your options and ultimately delay your ability to constructively solve problems.Access to Millennial TalentToo often, job descriptions continue to mandate a minimum length of experience in specific fields, rather than focusing on essential soft skills, like intellectual curiosity, decision-making confidence, and inclusive, team-oriented leadership.This because weve always done it that way mentality wont fly in todays highly competitive hiring economy. This is old school thinking that ignores rising Millennial talent, which is inherently more flexible, diverse, and broadly experienced than executive leadership teams typically expect.Have you found success hiring from outside your industry? Let us know in the comments below.

How to Add Symbols to Your LinkedIn Profile (and Why You Shouldnt!)

How to Add Symbols to Your LinkedIn Profile (and Why You Shouldnt)Posted on September 21, 2017January 25, 2019 by Jon Shields LinkedIn breathed some life into its stale interface with a recent Facebook-esque redesign. While some users have taken this as a cue to flood your feed with tired memes, LinkedIn has retained its reputation as the straight-laced, corporate social network.Thats leidlage a bad thing. LinkedIn is the place for professionals. For the same reasons wed beg you not to use a whacky font on your resume, were glad LinkedIn has held onto its minimalist approach when it comes to profile content.LinkedIns profile editor is no frills. You can enter unformatted text, add line breaks, and thats about it for most users.For years, there has been a contingent of LinkedIn users emblazoning their profiles with special Unicode characters, unusual symbols, and even emoji.How do you get noticed among half a billion LinkedIn users? Bedazzling your profile like this will certainly tur n a few heads. Whether it is attracting the right kind of attention depends on your goals.? How to insert symbols into your LinkedIn profile?The letters, numbers, and punctuation you use every day are parte of the Unicode character set, a standard used to properly render characters across most browsers, websites, and applications. There are many characters included that you dont see everyday. The letterR is part of the set alongside? or?. Emoji have also been integrated into the Unicode character set?. LinkedIns text editor is basic, but it knows how to render these symbols if you know how to type them in.The easiest way to insert special characters and symbols into your LinkedIn profile is to copy and paste from another webpage. You can search for the symbol you want on the Unicode Character Table or seek out an article that has a curated list of symbols. This deutsche bundespost from Brynne Tillman features many symbols frequently used on LinkedIn profiles. When you find the symbo l you want, highlight it, copy it, and paste it into your LinkedIn profile editor.You can also add LinkedIn symbols by using the emoji keyboard on Mac or PC.?Why you SHOULDNT overuse special charactersFor some, a profile loaded with flashy symbols serves a purpose. If youre using LinkedIn to sell a product or service, special characters can draw attention and drum up some business. For strategic networkers and job seekers, this technique can do more harm than good.Frankly, its tackySimple bullet points ? can help you succinctly list top skills and accomplishments, but going overboard with other wingdings and emoji can weaken your professional image. The last thing you want is for your profile to remind someone of a14-year-olds bedazzled cell phone.Unicode symbols can breakIts not just a matter of taste. Unicode standardization is meant to solve compatibility issues yet symbols and special characters frequently corrupt code, cause errors, or display incorrectly.Some users will see th em differently and some wont see them at allSymbols might not look right for everyone. Due to someones web browser, device, and/or settings, the sharp black symbol you pasted into your profile might render as a bubbly, colorful emoji on another device. Or worse, it might not display at all, replaced by a generic box?.For instance, even in Cathy Yerges article on the topic, some of her example symbols are showing up incorrectly as boxes (for us, anyway).Screenshot from Cathy Yerges article.This could happen on your LinkedIn profile.They can mess up your job applicationUsing these characters on your resume is known to cause parsing errors in some applicant tracking systems.The same thing can happen with your LinkedIn profile content withinLinkedIns Easy Apply system. In a job hunt, you cant afford to lose data or have your application rejected due to an avoidable parsing error.Your messages might land in the junkmail folderWhen you send a message or InMail to another LinkedIn user, th ey receive an emaille notification. For non-habitual LinkedIn users, this is the only way they know to look for a message. Any special characters placed in your name fields will go into the subject line of the email.Emoji and special characters can trigger an email to go into the spam folder. According toTracy Sestili at SparkPost, Not all email clients accept the use of emojis in email subject lines and sometimes emojis can trigger spam filters or worse, look like ?this.Get attention on LinkedIn without gimmicksAdd links to your projectsThere are better ways to show your creativity than with clunky pictographs. Use the Media section under Experience to link projects that that show off your ingenuity. Add your personal or portfolio website to your Contact and Personal Info section.Become a thought leaderDrum up interest in your LinkedIn profile is by embracing the social aspects of the platform. Put yourself out there.Post thoughtful status updates about your industry or companyWrit e articles and post videosShare links your connections will want to seeComment on other peoples postsParticipate in groupsOptimize your profile for LinkedIns searchEnsuring that your profile shows up at the top of someones LinkedIn searchis our preferred way to stand out. Jobscans LinkedIn Optimization tool provides customized tips and tricks to push your profile up the rankings. Thats how you prove youre a LinkedIn expert not with ? whatever ?these ? are.Facebook Commentswpdevar_comment_1 span,wpdevar_comment_1 iframewidth100% important

Cultural Fit The Benefits and How to Include It In Your Hiring Process - Spark Hire

Cultural Fit The Benefits and How to Include It In Your Hiring Process - Spark HireHave you ever worked somewhere that didnt feel right? Perhaps the culture was mora relaxed than you were used to, or maybe the environment had more of a hands-off feel than you preferred. If you have been in a work environment that didnt mesh well with the way you prefer to work, then you understand how important it is for a company to consider cultural fit when hiring.ERE.net stresses the importance of good cultural fit and how it is connected with a more positive work environment and happier employees. When you have employees who fit in and enjoy their job, you will have a more successful business. This makes hiring for cultural fit of key importance and all businesses should consider how to incorporate this into their hiring process.When understanding the importance of cultural fit, you should take the time to consider 3 important items before hiring.1.Identify your culture and what you are looking forBefore you can ever determine if someone is a cultural fit, you need to first determine the culture of your business. Is your culture relaxed or more formal? Is it team oriented where employees are constantly interacting, or is it the type of environment where employees are working independently more often? These are all key questions to consider when identifying your company culture.Once you have determined your culture, you will then need to consider the type of employee that will be most successful in your environment. If your culture is very team oriented then you will want an employee who enjoys working with others in order to get the job done. On the other hand, if your culture is more independent with little interaction between employees, you will want to hire someone who enjoys working alone.2.Ask the right questionsAfter you have determined your culture and the type of candidate who will be most successful in your culture, you will then need to establish the right questi ons to ask during the einstellungsgesprch process. This is a key factor in hiring for cultural fit. When you ask the right questions, you can ensure that the candidate you hire will fit in and enjoy working on your team.Ask questions such asWhat type of management style do you prefer?What kind of environment did you work in previously and what did you like / dislike about it?How do you communicate with your coworkers?What does teamwork mean to you?Listen carefully to the candidates responses to determine if they are being truthful and sincere. Watch out for candidates who try to answer vaguely, without telling you their likes or dislikes when it comes to previous environments they have worked in. I guarantee the candidate has a preference when it comes to the type of culture they work in and you want to get a good feel for that.3.Check referencesAfter you have interviewed the candidate and you feel that she will fit in, NEVER skip checking references. When you are checking reference s, be sure to ask questions surrounding the type of work environment the candidate has worked in and the type of culture she works best in.Checking references can help you to clarify the responses you received from the candidate during the interview process, as well as give you piece of mind when it comes to cultural fit.How have you modified your interview process to ensure the right cultural fit? Please share your comments below.Image pressmaster/BigStock.com