Regardless of what sort of Content Management System or Web application framework you might use to develop your Web site, there are some basics you should cover. A sophisticated user interface and rich content is great to have, but before you get to that, you should provide the basic files that users anticipate finding and that tell both humans and machineswhatyour site does.
One of the causes close to my heart is supporting women who start their own businesses. I shall be doing a write-up of the company: Gal-Pal. Started by two wonderful women. The business has since taken off, and have created a series of other successful products.
There are plenty of men who head their own companies. As women we have come a long way, but we still have plenty of ground to cover, especially in the business world. In the spirit of the many great women that have come before us and broken ground, I think that it is important for women to support other women, and especially to curb stereotypes.
In order for a company to be even more of a success, it is important to have a great social media presence. Support women in business and “Like” this page on Facebook:
Well after almost a year of searching, I finally found a job. I start as a Social Media Representative at BEACHBODY! That’s right. I got a position there.
I interviewed for the position after I found out that I did not get the first position I interviewed for.
I start work tomorrow, and have to report to the Santa Monica location at 8:30am. (Which really? Is no big deal considering that I get up at 4:30am every morning to work out)
As for this blog? I’ll most likely be re-naming it. But will still continue posting about my interests.
I have often stated in the past that a poor candidate experience can often hint at larger organisational problems. It is important for a company to always project a favorable image, from the consumer right down to a job candidate.
One of the first articles I did on this blog was an *article about a job candidates poor experience with Tory Burch. This article was then re-posted in Marvelous Girl (http://www.marvelous-girl.com).
After seeing the article, a former customer wrote into Marvelous Girl to talk about her experience with Tory Burch. It’s quite a read, and after hearing about a candidate experience with them, I am not entirely surprised.
After hearing yet another horror story about Tory Burch, I will certainly not be shopping or going anywhere near Tory Burch in the future. The latter pretty much makes my point for me: any consumer has not purchased your product is a potential consumer; therefore, it is important that a company treat their consumers and job candidates well.
Futhermore, posts like these also point out why large businesses need Social Media Managers; it is an important part of reputation management.
Here’s the maths to further elucidate my point: The blog that this was posted on gets over 12,000 views a day, that’s either 12,000 potential new customers that are reading about your poor customer service, and bad hiring techniques; 12,000 potentials per day. 12,000 views per day. Therefore in one week? That’s potentially 84,000 people who’s perception might change after reading such a post. Sure, some of those might be repeat visitors, perhaps about 50-60%? Still, that’s a lot of potential consumers. That, by the way, is not including the views on this blog.
Research has shown that people are more impacted by negative reviews than positive reviews; therefore you are going to have to assume that a certain percentage of those readers each day are making the decision not to buy your products. Furthermore? At least some of those consumers will have a horror story of their own, and will also be encouraged to write into the author of that blog.
In a world where consumers are encouraged to blog about their customer experiences, paying attention to social media can really cost you. Case in point? Yelp has grown leaps and bounds over the year, and has a significant impact on businesses. These days? People are more likely to scour the internet looking for reviews first than simply just ‘try something new’.
This morning I attempted to apply for a position using the FOX Careers website. Alright FOX, I would LOVE to work for you, the position is a great match for my skill set, BUT your job Taleo system is not working effectively.
Unlike other job submission softwares that Taleo has created for other Entertainment companies, the FOX submission website seems like a watered down less effective piece of software. For these reasons:
No pages for filling in a candidate profile. I never thought I’d say this, but at this point it would be helpful because there is…
No “view” for submitting resume’s -For example, when I apply to NBC Universal, it allows you to select which resume you want to send for a specific position. No such luck. There is absolutely no way to review the resume you are sending..which becomes a problem because….
Once you have sent “ten resumes” the system no longer allows you to upload new resumes. Here’s a scenario: you have applied to several positions at FOX. All recruiters tell you to keyword your resume to the position you are applying for, in fact, when you go on LinkedIn into the FOX Careers page? Recruiters will tell you just that. As a result, it will create a situation where one candidate will have multiple resumes, therefore: a) if you have drastically improved your resume and/or gotten a new position? b) Applied for more than 10 positions, each with key worded resumes? You are out of luck, because the “system” will give you an error message telling you just that, but if you want to alert them to the problem, you are also out of luck because there is…
No help desk.
Come on FOX Careers! Software is supposed to help your team to choose good candidates. If you fix these issues? You’ll not just be helping me but you too! I’m sure they get thousands of applications, so perhaps this is low on the priority list, but investing in good software is an investment into your company. Tell Taleo that they need to send you a more functioning piece of software..after all..you’re worth it!
Elle
I have a question about Twitter that drives me nuts, this may be a simple answer since I am new to Twitter, how do you get people that you dont want to follow you to stop it? or how do you block them? I keep getting spam accounts following me and it's getting me into trouble in my marriage, please help me!
Anonymous
Hi Anon,
Well the only option you have is to “Protect Your Tweets” -meaning:
“Only let people whom you approve follow your Tweets. If this is checked, your future Tweets will not be available publicly. Tweets posted previously may still be publicly visible in some places.”
You can do this by going into Settings, scrolling down, and then clicking on: “Protect your tweets”. This also means that when someone wants to follow you, you have to approve the request first.
So this is an update on the original “Dear Hulu” post. Later on that night at around 9pm I received an email from the recruiter in question apologizing for our exchange earlier in the day. He encouraged me to give him a call so that he could apologize more directly.
We had a chat on the phone, and everything is sorted now. All I have to say is? Thank you HULU, I’m really grateful.
Prior to me posting, one of my friends commented that I should not have said anything at all -because I didn’t want to burn any bridges or jeopardize my chances at anything.
What I have found thus far is that, if you are polite about it, some companies are pretty receptive to what you have to say -most are not. I was thankful to have HULU be one of the good ones (and incredibly fortunate)
She was half right -it could have gone either way. So I am very grateful to HULU for having employees that care about their candidate experiences, and pay attention to social media.
Recently I received a confirmation email that stated that I had an interview with HULU this Wednesday. I was terribly excited. Given that I have not had an interview since Beachbody, I was ecstatic that one of the companies I would have loved to work for called me back.
I sent back an email confirming the time, only to receive a message asking if I was another candidate:
“Sorry, is this ____ ________? The response is from a different email address.”
I sent an email back right away stating that no I was not _______ but that I had applied at HULU which was most likely why they had my email I sent a polite email back stating as such, with my resume attached:
Hello,
No this is not. Has notice for this interview reached me in error? I have applied for a position at HULU recently so I am assuming that is how you have my email address? I’ve attached my resume for review. Please advise.
Best,
Elle
This is what I got back:
“Apologies, this was sent to the wrong person.”
That’s all.
There are several things that I would have loved to say back to this HR person Unfortunately, due to the nature of job hunting, I am not able to really say what I want to without burning a bridge.
It’s unfortunate to have so little power -because in all honesty, I think that it’s a horrible thing for someone to do, and very unprofessional. It doesn’t seem like a big mistake to the HR person -after all, you are just another candidate.
What they fail to realize is how having a interview, especially with a company like HULU might affect a person. The excitement, and then the crushing letdown when you realize that they made a mistake. So I have this to say:
HR People: You have a very important job. Right now, many people are looking for jobs; a mistake like this does not just make your company look bad, it also is very disheartening for the job seeker. All I ask is that when you do your job? Do realize that these are people you are dealing with; not candidate numbers. Many of them have been job hunting for months, even years. So have a heart.
Hopefully I shall be able to find a job at a company where they actually care about how they treat their candidates.
Anonymous