Horizon Point Consulting

Category: Job Search

Beyond Work is our line of resources for people and community leaders looking for something new and innovative, be it a new job, career change, or personal development outside of work. Read this category specifically for Job Search.

  • Throwing compensation structure out the window

    I’m going to contradict myself (again). I seem to do this a lot, outlining a way to be process oriented by designing a traditional talent management program.  We’ve done this over the last couple of weeks by describing how to do job analysis, job descriptions and design a compensation plan. 

    But the key to knowing how to design any talent management program is to know yourself, or rather know your company. For mid to large companies, having job descriptions and a wage structure to define how you compensate people is more than likely completely necessary. It keeps things consistent, fair and easier to administer. 

    However, in a world where jobs are constantly changing and therefore the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary to define jobs are also constantly changing, defining a job based on hard and fast definitions and then trying to recruit and retain employees based on these hard a fasts may be a tremendous challenge.

    Another approach

    Instead of defining a job and recruiting to that description, find the superstars, those who know how to constantly learn and adapt in a fast-paced world, and hire them, then define the job around them. Pay them what they demand (the superstars know how much they are worth) and then temper their demands with a structure that incentivizes results your company needs them to achieve. 

    Notice this doesn’t mean ever defining the job, but it does mean that you may do it after you make the hire. We’re pretty adamant about defining the job through the behaviors you want people to exhibit and the results you want them to achieve in order to measure and reward performance. 

    We’re in the process as a small company of doing this now. A compensation structure is not what we need to recruit and retain people at this time. What we need is a superstar or two that understands the core of what we do (career development and talent management) and has experience in it, reflects our company values, and is motivated by achieving the results we need achieved.

    One day we may need a defined compensation structure, but right now it isn’t what we need, so we aren’t going to try to cram ourselves into a traditional process that may inhibit our ability to recruit and retain talent. Your company, on the other hand, may need to structure in order to recruit and retain talent. Realizing the outcome we all want is great talent that stays doesn’t mean we all get to that end result the same way.  

    What processes (or unprocesses) do you have in place to make sure you get the talent you need?

  • Career Spotlight: Dental Assisting

    Career Spotlight: Dental Assisting

    Have you always known that you wanted to work in Healthcare, change peoples’ lives, and get to know your community better? Do you want to be a wife and mother who has Fridays off and gets to spend her nights at the ball field watching her children play? Do you want to serve others by providing them with a way to look and feel much better about themselves? Do you want the opportunity to [move up] in your professional career?

    If any of the above describe or are desirable to you, then Dental Assisting may be the career path for you!

    Education Required:  High School Diploma or GED

    If you are in high school, always strive to have strong grades and a solid foundation in Science, Math, English (Grammar) and Reading. All subjects will not only prepare you for college, but any kind of post-high school program. As a potential dental assistant, dentists look for someone who can learn quickly and can educate their patients about not just their teeth, but their overall health. The way you articulate and the grammar that you choose speaks volumes of your educational background and will therefore provide you with a greater chance of landing a job.

    Skills and Personal Qualities:  

    Focus on personal service

    Hard worker

    Punctual and dependable

    Strong ethical background

    Critical and quick thinking

    Ability to learn and move quickly

    Good personal hygiene 

    Ability to get along with others, especially other women

    Is the field growing?

    The dental field is always growing. At a growth rate of 22%, the field is growing much faster than average. As our society has become more educated on their oral healthcare, we have increasingly sought out professional dental care. Therefore, there is always a dental office looking for a trained dental assistant. 

    What is the pay like?

    image2

    In our area, the pay is typically $9-14 starting out. There is always an opportunity to advance in the dental field and to receive a much higher pay. Many assistants go on to become dental hygienists, office managers, or in some cases, dentists. 

    If you are interested in learning more about dental assisting, please visit:

    www.ada.org

    Today’s guest post is from Dr. Maggie McKelvey, DMD. Maggie owns North Alabama Dental Assisting. She graduated summa cum laude from The University of Alabama with a degree in Biochemistry and Math.  She cheered for the Crimson Tide during her time there and was a member of Alpha Chi Omega Sorority.  She received her dental education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she graduated within the top of her class. Following graduation, she enhanced her dental experience working in private practice and pediatric clinics in Decatur and surrounding areas.  Dr. McKelvey is a proud member of the American Dental Association, the Alabama Dental Association, and the Academy of General Dentistry. She is passionate about her profession and is so excited to help teach others about a career in the field of Dentistry!

  • 4 easy steps to know which keywords to include in your resume

    With all kinds of tools out there these days for a computer instead of a person to initially screen a resume, we get lots of questions about keywords.  What keywords am I supposed to include seems to be the critical question.

    What keywords should I include?

    You will know what keywords to include because they are in the job posting.  Tagcrowd.com  is the quickest and coolest way we’ve found to identify keywords by the frequency they appear in the posting.

    What you do:

    1. Find a posting
    2. Copy and paste the posting into Tagcrowd.com
    3. View the word graphic it displays
    4. Make sure the biggest words are incorporated into your resume

    Here’s an example:  On Indeed.com we did a simple search for “IT” positions.

    Picking this one:

    ITJobPosting

    We pasted it into tagcrowd, and this is the result:

    tagcrowd copy

    If you were applying for this position, the key is to make sure you emphasize the marketing experience you have in social and content marketing.  Development software, writing, research, and Mircosoft product experience are going to be needed.  You’ll also need to emphasize ways you’ve collaborated and engaged others.   And see “bachelor” up there in the top right corner? You’re going to need a bachelors degree.

    If you are wanting to develop a resume for a variety of openings, then search for openings in the area in which you are pursuing, copy and paste several of them into tagcrowd and look for consistencies.  The words that come up the biggest and most frequently need to be included in your resume.

  • Chart Out your Cover Letter to Stand Out

    Chart Out your Cover Letter to Stand Out

    To include a cover letter or not to include one? Some say no if it’s not asked for, citing it’s a waste of time. Why would you think a hiring manager or recruiter would look at a cover letter if they only spend six seconds on average looking at a resume?

    However, having a cover letter that actually makes it easy for a recruiter to see if you meet the qualifications for the position could help you stand out in a way that gets you an interview. The key is:

    1. Do you meet all the qualifications for the position?
    2. If you do, then chart it out for them.

    For example, let’s just take the requirements from a posting that came up when we did a search for “Registered Nurse” on Indeed:

    Education:

    • Graduate of an accredited School of Nursing.
    • Current appropriate state licensure
    • Must meet the practice requirements in the state in which he of she is employed.

    Experience and Required Skills:

    • Minimum of one-year medical-surgical nursing experience preferred.
    • Hemodialysis experience preferred.
    • ICU experience prefferred.
    • Successfully complete a training course in the theory and practice of hemodialysis.
    • Successfully complete CPR Certicication.
    • Employees have to meet the necessary requirements of Ishihara’s Color Blindness test as a
    • condition of employment.
    • Provide coverage at any or all area facilities as required by management.
    • Icd-9 Training.
    • Nurses Technical Training
    • Must meet appropriate state requirements(if any)

     

    A cover letter should have a chart that looks like this:

    Your Requirements

    My Qualifications
    Graduate of an accredited School of Nursing BSN of Nursing from University X, 2000

     
    Current appropriate state licensure Alabama State License number XXXXX
    Minimum of on-year medical-surgical nursing experience preferred Three years experience as a medical surgical nurse at XYZ hospital
    Hemodialysis experience preferred 2 years experience at XYZ hospital performing hemodialysis
    You get the picture- keep filling the chart in…. You get the picture- keep filling the chart in….

    This only works if you meet the requirements for the opening. So just like on a resume , experience matters, whether we like it or not.

    Beyond_Ready_Cover-smaller

    Our Beyond Work™Workbook is chalked full of practical tools on resume writing, interviewing, networking and social media branding to help you seize the career you want. Order yours today for $19.99!

  • You Get 6 Seconds: Think Like a Recruiter when drafting your resume.

    You Get 6 Seconds: Think Like a Recruiter when drafting your resume.

    Count to six. What do you think you could get accomplished in this amount of time? Not much, but a recruiter has already reviewed your resume and moved on to the next one by the time you can get to seven.

    The Honest Truth.

    Hiring managers and recruiters, at least when it comes to making decisions based on a resume, don’t care about anything but your experience and your education if it’s required for the job.

    Someone may tell you having phrases like “highly motivated”,   “self-starter”, “strong interpersonal skills”, etc. need to be on your resume, but you can’t prove that you are these things simply by putting them down on paper.

    The cold hard facts that can be put on paper, and therefore, as the video shows, where recruiters focus their time:

    1. Where you’ve worked and for how long
    2. What education you’ve obtained

    And that is what the powers that be look at. You may be able to prove to them in an interview that you are, in fact, a “self-starter”, but stick to the concrete stuff on a resume. Where you’ve worked and for how long matters- whether we like it or not.