Thousands of students graduate every year from college with zero experience in their chosen field. Then they head out into the job search and have to make someone believe that they’re a good choice for employment. I was one of those people, and I can tell you that it’s very tough.

Who wants to give you a job when you have no experience, and how can you get experience without a job?

GrouperEye to the rescue!

And that’s where GrouperEye comes in. They have developed an online platform that allows employers to meet and engage with their prospective entry level employees and interns. I spoke with Dave Rodriguez, the President of GrouperEye, and he explained the process to me. It works like this:

Company signs up for an account.

Company posts a “case.”

Students submit their answers to the problem.

The company picks a handful of winners.

The company ends up with a small group of qualified prospective employees, and the students have some experience to put on their resumes. It’s a win-win.

Seems pretty easy, right? That’s what I said! There is so much to be gained from this sort of process. In most cases, companies get hundreds of applications to an open position. Why not filter out those who aren’t serious about working for you by requiring them to participate in a Grouper Eye challenge?

And to take it further, Grouper Eye’s employer back-end panel can be used as an ATS for entry level positions and internships. An example of a current case is one by HealthCentral, who is looking for a social media plan to advance its online presence. Some enterprising student can research, build, and submit a presentation on building a social media plan for this company. And even if that student doesn’t win, he/she has an immediate work sample to take to an interview.

I’ve just scratched the surface of the possibilities, but if you’d like to try it out, then give Dave a shout on Twitter or via the contact page on the site. Don’t miss out!

I keep a running log. I’m not great about it, but I can still give you a fairly approximate average of my monthly mileage, and I can even remember some of the more memorable workouts (like the one on New Year’s Eve in 2006 when I ran 7 miles in twenty degree weather while my family prepared for a party). Anyway, that running log helps me in multiple ways, and I think you should have one, too. Even if you’re not a runner, it helps to chart your progress and make note of milestones. What if you used a log at work to keep up with your accomplishments?

Victories

Did you finish a big project at work recently? Write it down and try to capture some of the specifics (dollars saved, process time cut, etc.). You might also want to put that on your resume. Next time you need it for a job search, it will be updated and full of your latest accomplishments. On a more short-term basis, it’s a great way to put together your performance review comments to make sure your work is being recognized.

Trends

Seeing an ongoing issue in your weekly work life? Make a note of that recurring event. You might not have an answer now, but looking back in a few days/weeks/months might help you see the problem from a different angle and provide some valuable insight.

Beware

Some runners can predict injuries/illness before it ever happens. A heavy workout regimen can take its toll in the long run, and work is the same way. If you’re consistently handling tough tasks and seeing signs of too much stress, then you might want to cut back a bit. Sometimes the best way to make progress is to pull back, reset, and leap back in with renewed energy.

Keeping track of your progress for the long-term should reveal a steady upward trend. There will be ups, downs, and lateral moves, but the overall goal should be to increase your performance level. And five years down the road when you look back and see how far you have come in terms of knowledge, skills, and abilities, you will be pleasantly surprised by the results.

This test looks interesting

I took the PHR exam this past January. It was a tough experience, but I also enjoyed knowing that it would solidify my grasp of the basic theoretic principles of HR. I didn’t yet have the requisite two years of exempt level HR experience necessary to take the exam, but I was able to take it under the “Recent Graduate” exemption that HRCI provides. From HRCI:

Students and recent graduates enrolled in a bachelor’s or graduate degree program may take the PHR and GPHR exams at an initial registration rate of US$120. Passing students and recent graduates must pay the balance of the exam fee once they have graduated and documented two years of exempt-level (professional) HR work experience. They have five years from the date of passing the exam to obtain the two years of exempt-level (professional) HR work experience.
Student/recent graduate candidates are not eligible to take the SPHR certification exam. Student/recent graduate  candidates must take the exam no earlier than 12 months before their graduation date and no later than 12 months after graduation from a bachelor’s or graduate degree program.

Recently, I learned that HRCI is going to be dropping the Recent Graduate exemption. In fact, the certification requirements are changing in multiple ways by 2011. I still haven’t made up my mind yet about how I feel on the changes, but here is what HRCI says:

Pros

There are several reasons for these changes. The biggest one that I can think of is that they want the exams to be more meaningful. If some “upstart” can take the exam after college and pass without any exempt level HR experience, then that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re as qualified as someone who has years of HR experience before deciding to take  the exam. And if I was one of those experienced pros who decided to get certified, it would probably bother me to know that there’s someone in the next booth with none of my experience taking the same certification exam.

Cons

On the flip side, what about that student/recent grad? If they pay the fee, put in the hours of study time, and complete the exam, then why can’t they be rewarded for those efforts? If they choose (as I did) to try to put themselves into a better position in a promotion or hiring situation, why should they be kept from that opportunity?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the pros and cons of the decision to change the requirements.

Anyway, if you happen to be one of those people with less than two years of experience, then you should seriously consider taking the PHR exam while you still have the opportunity. In fact, if you are in that group and you’d like to shoot me an email, I’ll give you a discount on the Rock the PHR guide to help you get started.

This isn’t going to appeal to everyone, but I’m putting it out there just the same. I get questions often from my many blogging friends. They usually center on finding new ideas to write about and keeping the spark of creativity alive. Even though I’m technically an HR newbie, I pride myself in creativity. I wrote a lot of fiction before I started writing the kind of stuff that I do now, and I’ve always been able to cobble together a story from a single thought fragment. So here are some ideas for you to inspire your own creativity. If you’re a blogger, you’ll be using these ideas for that. If you’re not, then they might help you with something else. Trying to solve a problem at work? #6 has helped me with that dozens of times. I’ve also included these as a free PDF for your downloading pleasure! Put it up by your computer and check it when you’re stuck. 20+ Ideas to Inspire Creativity

1. Take an old post and explore it from a different angle.

2. What do you read? Watch? Listen to? Enjoy? Each is a source of inspiration!

3. Open your RSS reader. Find a post you starred/enjoyed. Write a corollary or a counterpoint.

4. Use Google Alerts to show you news on a given topic.

5. Use Google Trends to find something “hot” to write about.

6. Turn off the radio in the car. You’d be surprised what happens when you don’t have music drowning out your “voice.”

7. Make a funny top 10 list.

8. Find a calendar of holidays and pick one to write about.

9. Find a quote that hits you a particular way and expand it into a paragraph or two.

10. Take a well-known phrase and apply it to your blog’s focus to develop a topic.

11. Review an item that you’ve used recently (book, movie, service, etc.)

12. Take two or more blog posts from other bloggers and tie them together with some of your own thoughts.

13. Predict something. It can be funny or serious, but it should stimulate readers.

14. Take an opposing stance to your normal ideas and try to make it convincing.

15. Force yourself to come up with 25 ideas for something. Anything. Twenty four of them might be horrible, but one could be a gem! 50 is better.

16. Write from a different point of view. Maybe try to demonstrate the POV from the VP level, manager level, and entry level.

17. Find someone to talk with about your blog. It can give you ideas, get you motivated, and help you propel yourself to a new level.

18. Find a new place to write. Even if that means lying in the closet floor with a laptop (Hey, whatever works!).

19. Comment on other blogs and use that as the basis for a new post. Similar to #3, but you give the other blogger a little comment love as well.

20. Go back and pick one of your first dozen posts to update.

21. Save your drafts. Even if it’s not looking like a good post, you never know when inspiration will strike and help you turn that puppy around.

22. Have a conversation in person with someone. Let that stimulate your brain. Quote the person in the post (people love that!).

23. Revisit your blog’s purpose and what you want to accomplish. Just refreshing yourself on that should give you some ideas, especially if you can think back to why you started it in the first place.

This is the recount of a troubling situation relayed to me by a friend earlier this week. I’m using pseudonyms for the sake of all involved.

For his first job fair appearance, I gave my friend Bill some advice that I felt would help him to have meaningful conversations with the recruiters. While he wondered about a tiny resume tweak, the type of paper to print on, and other minor details, I got him to focus on an overall strategy. Instead of walking around and tossing resumes onto the table for the 70+ employers present, I told him to do a bit of research and find 10-15 of the companies that he would enjoy working for. Then, I made him research each of those organizations, at least on the surface level, so that he could speak intelligently with the recruiters that represented each company. That, I told him, would make a much bigger difference than any other little changes he wanted to try.

Anyway, Bill attended the event, and I called him afterward to check in. Here’s the paraphrase of  the  first half of our conversation.

I met a great guy at the XZY Corporation table. He was friendly and helpful, and we spent a few minutes chatting about the organization and what it does. Although I’m not as knowledgeable about the company as I should be, it made me feel great when he took the time to talk to me in a private conversation beyond the normal “spiel.” By the time the conversation was over, I was excited about the opportunity to work for his organization.

Wow. That recruiter nailed it. He took a minor interest and turned his company into one of Bill’s top three choices! Plus, he’s raving about the company already. And what did it take? About 180 seconds of the recruiter’s time.

The second half of our conversation was less positive, but it still needs to be recapped. People are doing this, and it needs to stop.

Then I went to the ABC Organization table. The recruiter looked at me like he was bored, so I started the conversation. But it didn’t take. The guy was like a brick wall. I gave him my resume, hoping that might spark some interest. He criticized it almost immediately. Then he gave it back to me. And that was pretty much the whole exchange. He told me to apply online. Not happening.

Wow (again). That recruiter sucks. In an inverse of the previous example, he took Bill’s minor interest and turned his company into the last possible choice. And he gave the resume back, supposedly because he could just apply online after the event.

I haven’t had a lot of experience on the recruiting side of a job fair, but I know that some of you have. Is this kind of thing acceptable? If you or one of your fellow recruiters was acting like the guy from the 2nd example, would you be okay with that? I say it’s a failure, because as a job seeker, I would hate to run into that kind of attitude.

Photo by clar@bell.

I bet you have a process at your company to reprimand employees. You probably cover everything from verbal and written reprimands all the way to suspensions. I’m quite certain that every organization has a way to notify employees when they are performing poorly.

With that said, does your organization have a way to commend employees for a job well done? Aside from a short and sweet “attaboy” or “attagirl,” do you have a way to show your appreciation in a written format?

I’ve seen hundreds (thousands?) of reprimands. I’ve seen a single commendation. That leads me to two possibilities. One, there really aren’t any other staff members who deserve being commended for performing well (not likely). Or two, there aren’t any supervisors willing to commend someone for doing well (quite likely).

Or maybe it’s more benign, and the supervisors really don’t know the power of a short note letting someone know that he/she knocked it out of the park.

Whatever the cause, it’s a problem that needs to be addressed. I’m willing to bet that many of you work in companies that are similar. Check out your ratio. I don’t think you should be praising your employees daily for every little action, but when someone really takes up the slack and goes above and beyond, then it really wouldn’t hurt to show some appreciation.

Photo by Sidelong

Social media is growing, and there’s no end in sight. Recently, Kris Dunn came and spoke to my local SHRM chapter about social media and its uses for HR professionals.  It’s interesting that he was slated to come in August, because I had proposed a chapter blog shortly before then. I envisioned something like the work that Stephen has done with HR Gumbo, but probably not as awesome. Anyway, a few weeks of frenzied work behind the scenes led to the current site.

One potential issue was that we weren’t sure how the blog would play out in the long run. What if I moved away? What if I suddenly hated blogging? To smooth that wrinkle, I promised updates every week on Monday, since most of the people reading wouldn’t be able to keep up with more than that. After a year, we will reassess and see if we can draw in more writers, because I would like to do more with the chapter in a hands-on capacity whenever possible.

And RocketHR was born.

I’m hoping that it can be used as social media “training wheels” for the members of the chapter (and anyone else out there who’s delving into SM for the first time). The first posts are directed toward those fresh faces, so make sure and point people in that direction if you think they can learn something useful!

• Have someone you’re trying to convert to social media? The post on the social web might be helpful as a primer.
• Need to explain Google Reader to someone? Keep the Google Reader tutorial close at hand.
• Know something that might be useful to someone new to the social media space? Leave a comment!
• Are you new to this stuff? If so, then please let me know what you’d like to learn!

And as always, any assistance in promoting this new blog would help greatly in proving its worth as a tool for my local chapter. Thanks!

And the snazzy logo was created by my good friend Allen Robinson (@logicwriter).