Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:04 — 17.7MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career, I’m Marty and here we are in week 2 of a new decade and part 2 of our New Year New Career series. Last week we talked about how much work it is to be looking for work. It can be frustrating and time consuming. A few of us put some thought into what we really wanted to be doing, where wanted to work, like geographically or what part of town we wanted to commute too, and what type of industry we wanted to be in. I heard from a few that we’re looking strictly based on pay rates, I don’t really advise that but, hey, we’re putting a plan together so it’ll work. After we’ve identified those things now we’re ready to start getting serious about presenting ourselves to companies, we know our value to them & we’re going to get them to feel the same way.
OK, let’s get started, we’re going to find us a job! I’m an administrator on two sites and I moderate on 3 other sites. I’m dealing with three states so I’m familiar with the different cultures between them all. I think this is something to mention really quick too. Job boards are different from state to state. Some states I notice we’ll find company’s and agencies post jobs and applicants respond off of those ads. In other states job seekers or applicants post what there seeking, pay rates and areas or zip codes their looking for and recruiters reach out to them. And there’s a lot, a whole lot of scams and mlm or multi-level marketing, work from home type stuff out there clogging up everything too. I laugh every day at the ad for Amazon needs work from home employees, must work 7p.m. to 3 a.m. for $25 an hour. When you look at the posters profile, they have 1 friend and live out of the country. But they’ll have 200 people reply with the word interested and the poster will send them a link. We all know its fake but I think people are desperately seeking easy work for outrageous pay so they reply. Anyway, so here are my thoughts.
- We’re looking for work. Clean up our profile. Right or wrong, recruiters are going to go check us out. Every recruiter I’ve ever spoken with says social media is their first stop. Not that decisions are going to be made solely on our feeds content but let’s be honest. Our feeds are worded like they are to project our personalities like we want them too. It may not be the real us but it’s what we want to project. When we’re looking for work make it look like that, at least until we have the job.
- Read the advertisement, if it has listed a phone number and address of where to apply don’t reply interested. My suggestion is to call the number, introduce yourself and tell them you’re interested. If they’ve listed a link to an on-line application, fill it out and call them. Tell the hiring agent we’ve completed the application and ask what the next step is. If we’re lucky enough to have an address to apply, let’s get dressed to impress and go there. Odds are we’ll get an interview right there on the spot. Oh, and when I say dress to impress, I mean dress to the position. I don’t feel we need to show up in a suit for an order selector position necessary. But a nice pair of jeans and a presentable tee shirt will be fine but wear your steel toe shoes or boots. We know the job requires safety foot wear so wear them. I know one recruiter that’ll quit listening to any equipment operator if their wearing flip flops. Following the directions within the ad is kind of our first test.
- Don’t engage with any trolls, nothing good ever comes from it. They’ll push us into saying something we shouldn’t and any prospective hiring agent will just dismiss us. And please, please do not ask about drug test and background requirements through reply’s. Most of the time we know that equipment operators are going to have a pre employment drug screening, no reason to throw that out there to a recruiter. And in my experience backgrounds can be worked with. We need to get to the interview first and then explain it to the hiring agent. You’ll be surprised how hard they’ll work for us once they know our skills and previous accomplishments. Remember, they get paid by putting us to work. After we’ve shown them, we’re the perfect candidate they’ll be a bit more incentive to work with our background. But if we’ve thrown it out there in a social media reply they have no reason to speak with us, make sense? I know it’s easier to say I don’t want to waste my time, my gas etc if they’re going to run my background or I’m going to have to take a drug test but if we want a job, we’ll need to go speak with them.
Remember, they may have a hundred applicants for every posting or job. With a clean social media feed and properly using those social media feeds we can get to that application or phone interview. That’s what we’re after!
Next let’s talk about our resume for a minute. We need one. In my opinion it doesn’t have to be a $150 formal listing of our worth. Of course, the more professional position we’re seeking the more professional it’ll need to be but for most all non-management warehouse positions keeping it simple is perfectly fine. There are 354 free templates in the Microsoft office and most all libraries have 8 or 10 free fill in the blank ones that’ll work just fine. I was speaking with 3 or 4 different resume writers about coming on today’s episode but, well, I figured why have them hawk their wares to us. Seriously, don’t stress over your resume but do have one. If you’re stuck, email us. I’ll get you help putting something together. Our work history is just not enough these days. Sometimes our resume may be seen by 3 or 4 individuals within the company before a hiring decision is made!
Ok, now let’s talk about what I feel we dread the most sometimes. That phone interview and the face to face with that hiring agent. Were fortunate to have two recruiters here with us today and they’re going to share some tips & secrets of what they’re looking for and how we can help them help us!
I’m excited to welcome a first-time guest onto the show Today! Yesenia is a regional recruiter for a large sourcing company covering the states of Nevada and Arizona. I’ve known Yesenia about 4 or 5 years now and, gosh, I couldn’t count the number of hires she’s made. She maintains a staff of about 200 spread between the states. Yesenia, thanks for visiting with us here at WAOC, how ya been doing?
We’ve talked a little today about cleaning up our social media feeds and how important a resume is, even if it’s a bit plain. Is that good or bad advice?
Yesenia, we’re nervous when we answer the phone and it’s a recruiter on the other end. What can we do, or how do you like us to act, how can we help you help us?
Those are some great tips Yesenia, I want to thank you again for taking a few minutes with our group here at WAOC today, we appreciate your time! Any parting words of wisdom you’d like to share with us?
And you may remember John G, he’s been on several shows with us. I don’t know of a more talented individual in our op’s world. John’s ran small and large warehouse crews, overseen safety processes and done more recruiting than most people I know. He’s presently recruiting for an entirely different field, working in the hospitality and hotel arena and I thought he’d bring a lot to the table for us today. John, how’ve you been Sir, I miss hearing from you all the time!
John – Two questions, well, two to start with. How can we help you help us with the phone interview and then the face to face sit down Sir?
How important is our social media john? Does it need to be cleaned up?
Resume or no resume?
In the spirit of the new year and a new decade, I saw two quotes this week, the first one stated, whatever you are not changing you are choosing, and where’s the other one, oh, yes, it’s going to be hard but it’s going to be worth it. I’m going to carry both of those with me all year!
Well, I hope you enjoyed todays episode and I’d love to seek out answers to any questions you may have. Ask away at host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com, you know we love getting mail around here! We’ve added an Instagram feed, its Waoc podcast. Check us out there as well as our Facebook and Twitter feeds. Either as you know we can be found using @whseandops.
Until next week, be safe in all you do and best wishes to your new job and career search!