Often when you have a job interview, you have to meet with HR first. As a former staffing manager for a Fortune 500 company, and a career and job coach, I have seven insights to share about what HR is thinking as they interview you. Knowing these will help make your interview with HR count.

1. How prepared are you? We hope you did not only check our website.
The last thing that Human Resources wants to hear is you asking us how many employees we have or what states we are in, since you can easily find that information online. Before you go to an interview, learn something about us – our products, our history and our challenges, and apply that knowledge to formulate thoughtful questions or ideas. Asking for information that can be easily found on our website will ensure you will sink to the bottom of our list and may not even make it to the next step. (more…)

Consulting, Temporary, Freelance, or Contract Work—these terms can mean different things to different people. While each word can conjure an impression of a different level of employee with various employment arrangements (Contract/Consulting work can imply higher skill level and longer term assignments; Temporary work can mean seasonal, short-term, lower skill level jobs; and Freelance work brings about the image of a free spirit creative soul floating from one inventive endeavor to another), these terms meant the same thing to me when I was a recruiter:  the work was interim and the employee was not a direct hire employee of the firm.  For the sake of this article, these four terms will be used interchangeably, but I acknowledge each can be defined differently by various organizations and people.

So why should job seekers consider this type of work?  The main reason is because employers of all types are employing this way of hiring talent as part of their year-round staffing strategy.  The chances are the job function you perform is now being classified as a consulting or temporary job within that organization.  If you don’t consider positions in this classification, you may miss out on a number of great opportunities.

Why would an employer make a previously direct hire position now a contract job? Here are some of the benefits experienced by an employer when they hire a contract employee. By knowing these reasons, you can devise a strategy as to how and why a company should hire your skills set as a contractor increasing your chances of being hired: (more…)

Your resume and job search has to now contend with iPads, iPhones, Android phones, Blackberries and every other type of old and new tech device in between. The job search and the recruitment model is going mobile like the rest of business and every other industry—if they are smart and want to stay ahead of the competition. So how can job seekers be ready for these technological adjustments and what should they expect? (more…)

Ideally, let’s not make mistakes on an interview. However, job seekers are human. Humans make mistakes. So mistakes will happen. I think an interview mistake can be an opportunity to turn a negative into a positive.

When I recruited for my team and for the clients for whom I found talent as a search firm recruiter, I would actually welcome the mistakes made by candidates. I did not automatically weed out those candidates that made errors and I did not immediately move on those that interviewed without a misstep. How candidates handled the mistake, the type of mistake they made and the level of perfection achieved on the interview by candidates factored into my decision to advance a candidate to the next round of interviews. What should you do if it happens to you? (more…)

New Year. New Job. New Opportunities. “But I have been looking for a job, Lisa, so searching for a job is not new for me. I need to recharge my efforts to get results…where do I start?” If this is you, I empathize. For some, this is a new year that brings new perspective. For others, it is just another day in a life that has been focused on looking for a new position. If you need to pump some new mojo and energy into your search to get results that you want and land that next job faster, here are the six things you can do today…or even this week: (more…)

Job boards don’t suck…however, how most job seekers use job boards to find a job does suck, to be blunt. I think job boards are a treasure trove of information that is consistently undiscovered and underutilized. Job boards receive a bad rap from most job seekers, since most job seekers are using them improperly. To be clear, there are five kinds of job listings, each listed with a few examples, and five ways are using job boards more effectively: (more…)

This time of year brings about that need to take inventory of what you did and where you want to go in the next year. Notice I did not say we need to take note of what we did not do. Focus on the positive. Focus on what you did accomplish in your career.

Be grateful and content. It is in the contentment and acceptance of where we are that allows us to have a foundation to build the dreams of where we want to go in the next year.

Use this time to REFLECT and not REGRET.

Then DESIGN your plan to ADVANCE your career.

Let’s close out 2011 and get revved up for 2012. Join me in doing this exercise: (more…)

Read this U.S. News & World Report article where I am interviewed by Careers Expert Miriam Salpeter in her On Careers Column on 10/23/2011.

When you’re looking for a job, it’s easy to fall into the trap of applying and waiting to hear from an employer to see if you won a chance to interview. What’s the problem with this “apply only” strategy (also known as “spray and pray”)? It puts too much power into other people’s hands. Job seekers who seize control of their searches have a much better chance of landing opportunities than those who spend all of their time looking for open opportunities and applying. Lisa Rangel is managing director of Chameleon Resumes, contributor to Michelle A. Riklan and David Riklan’s, 101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career, and author of the ebook, The Do-It-Yourself Branded Resume Kit.

As a search firm recruitment leader for over 13 years who partnered with Fortune 500 and boutique firms to source top talent, she sat on the proverbial “other side of the desk,” hiring people to fill clients’ positions. She advises job seekers to take steps to ensure it’s easy to find them for the jobs they want. “Posting an ad to recruit for an open position is one of the last tactics a recruiter wants to use,” Rangel says. Once a position is available online, many recruiters receive a plethora of ill-qualified applicants. [See The 50 Best Careers for 2011.]

Rangel advises candidates to distinguish themselves from the rest of the applicant pool using these techniques: (more…)

I attended the Career Directors International Summit led by Laura DeCarlo (@careerhero) this past week held in the colorful Savannah, Georgia. What a week it was! The general theme validated for me was that having a self-made or professionally done resume is not the sole magic elixir to landing your next job. It is a component, not the only step needed to be taken.

So what else is needed, you ask?  Job seekers today need to approach their search with the hiring manager’s mind set in hand. It is no mistake that this year’s conference featured Martin Yates, the author of the highly successful Knock ‘Em Dead career books and former recruiter, and Shally Steckerl, the sourcing and recruiting industry rockstar. These two gentleman punctuated job seekers need to think creatively when approaching and being discovered by hiring decision makers.  Here are a few ways how:  (more…)

Mike Michalowicz and Lisa Rangel

In July 2011 I attended the B.I.G. Summer Summit, where Mike Michalowicz, author, entrepreneur & marketing expert, was the engaging keynote speaker. He graciously gave the attendees a copy of his book, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur: the-tell-it-like-it-is guide to cleaning up in business, even if you are at the end of your roll, under the premise that we all pay it forward investing the cost of the book with someone or an entity that needs it. I was already intrigued.

While I already donated my $20 to a worthy cause, I am eager to continue the good karma put forth by Mike by telling you how this book can help the job seeker.  (Hey Mike—I am feeling the birth of the Toilet Paper Job Seeker Book initiative—as least I think that is what I am feeling).

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