The Career Thought Leaders Consortium has published findings from the 2013 Global Career Brainstorming Day. What is "Brain Day"? It is an event where career professionals meet to brainstorm trends and best practices in the now, the new, and the next in careers. Events are held in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and Russia.
This Career Brainfood is the fourth in a series in which we will share highlights from the Brainstorming Day Whitepaper. Here are this edition's insights:
1. Career development programs will be better utilized for attracting and retaining employees. Employers will have to target less experienced candidates, develop them, and try to retain them, rather than compete for scarce talent.
2. Companies continue to hire through referrals, and networking is still the best way for job seekers to find employment. Yet many job seekers do not understand the power of networking and prefer to apply via job boards as it’s an easier process and less intimidating. Plus, it creates the illusion of productivity (e.g., I updated 20 resumes today!) when, in actuality, it is generally not the most productive use of a job seeker’s time.
3. The Chamber of Commerce is a great resource to identify local employers, usually with names and contact details of key personnel. Candidates should research lists of “Top 50” and “Top 100” employers in a city, state, province, region, country, or whatever their geographic parameters.
4. Job seekers should be involved in professional associations. A key strategy is to find out where industry professionals are meeting. Is it at conferences? Meet-ups? Job seekers need to be there too.
5. Candidates should position themselves as subject matter experts (SMEs) by writing articles and engaging in other thought leadership activities. This is a longer-term career strategy that has a high success rate.
