Category: Job Seekers

You’ve heard the benefits of partnering with a staffing agency. And these details have you interested in getting jobs sooner and in finding better positions.

But you still have a major worry: you have specialized skills and you don’t want to settle for a position outside your field. You don’t want to get thrown onto a big pile of candidates, all fighting for the same entry-level positions.

That represents a major myth about staffing firms. People think all recruiters work the same way…that each one is virtually indistinguishable from all the others.

Not true. Rather, there are major differences between individual firms. In practice, each one has its own core competencies, its own area of focus.

Generalists Vs. Specialists

A key split exists between generalists and specialists. Most job seekers assume that every staffing agency acts as a generalist, taking on any client and matching candidates with any type of skill set.

That certainly describes a sizable part of the industry. These companies benefit from a broad scope, both in the clients they sign up and the candidates they look to place. The generalist works best for job seekers who have skills that can be applied in almost any situation.

However, generalists have drawbacks as well. Job ... Read More

Azael Gesesse had trouble jumpstarting his American Dream. Having moved to the U.S. from Ethiopia, Azael looked to make a better life for himself. But the process of entering the workforce proved overwhelming.

His early attempts to find a position led him nowhere. He confronted many of the same challenges anyone faces when they first enter a workforce: a thin resume, a skill set that requires improvement, and an underdeveloped professional network. In this way, he resembled anyone searching for their first job just out of school, or someone returning to the workforce after a long absence.

But in Azael’s case, these shortcomings were magnified by the added difficulties that come with moving to a new country. Together, these factors conspired to make his job search particularly difficult.

And it seemed as if no one could help. Azael attempted to find positions through other agencies, but he found their processes complex and confusing. Ultimately, these other recruiters were unable to place him in any meaningful assignments.

Finally, Azael discovered TriStarr.

TriStarr’s Proven Method for Success

TriStarr immediately applied its proven recruitment process to match Azael with a position perfectly suited to his situation.

“TriStarr believed in me,” Azael says. “They guided me throughout ... Read More

In the broad outlines, it’s clearly a mutually beneficial relationship. But in the day-to-day execution, it’s prone to misunderstandings and misconceptions.

As a job seeker, you get significant benefit from working with a recruiter. They make job searches more efficient, getting you a better opportunity in a shorter period time than you can achieve on your own. Still, a distance sometimes exists between the people looking for work and the professionals trying to place them.

This fact leads to a lot of myths about the services recruiters perform and about where they put their allegiances. It’s a frustrating experience for recruiters, who face skepticism and doubt even as they work tirelessly to place people in situations that will enhance their long-term career prospects.

With that in mind, here are four things recruiters wish candidates would know about their roles:

Recruiters Want to Find the Perfect Match for Both Candidate and Client

People sometimes assume a recruiter cares only about the corporate client. After all, most staffing agencies get paid by the company looking for workers, not by the workers themselves. Therefore, the theory goes, they don’t have any incentive to care about the candidates’ long-term needs.

That’s just not true. Recruiters work hard to create the ... Read More

Recruiters get people jobs. You know this. However, you might assume that finding you a position effectively ends the staffing firm’s involvement. From then on, you’re on your own.

That’s a common myth about staffing firms: They find you a job, and then leave you to take care of yourself. Not true. A recruiter provides support during the transition to your new position and beyond.

It’s time to reset expectations about your staffing partner’s role in your ongoing assignment. Here is how a recruiter will continue to offer outreach and assistance as you start your new position:

When You’re Hired

Your recruiter has found a position for you. You might expect this to consist solely of giving you the name and phone number of your contact at the company; then, the staffing associate will move on to other tasks and forget all about you.

Not so. Securing a placement for you involves more than just blindly sending you to your new gig. Instead, your staffing associate will provide you with key details about the placement and walk you through the process of starting your new assignment.

With the gig economy taking over a larger share of the job market, the contacts and information a recruiter can ... Read More

We often think of our careers as somehow separate from ourselves. As if we leave our true selves at the door when we walk into work.

But that’s not the way it works. You can’t separate personal development from career development. Becoming a better person helps drive career success. Meanwhile, your professional advancement should come paired with inner growth as well. That’s true work-life balance: the two feeding into each other.

Successful people realize this fact instinctually. They don’t see the work-life relationship like a teeter-totter, constantly swinging in and out of balance. Instead, they see it as an intertwined thing, like a rope, made stronger by the way the two twist together.

So, improving your career involves improving yourself. With that in mind, here are four life lessons successful people have learned to achieve both personal and professional growth.

Build Relationships

Every business book advises its readers to concentrate on networking. Getting a job and moving up through the corporate ranks are tasks that rely heavily on personal connections. Ultimately, careers are made by people, not by impressive diplomas or by world-changing ideas.

Early in your career, find mentors who can help you navigate your chosen industry (and maybe show you some life lessons along ... Read More

Working with a staffing firm brings significant benefits. A recruiter can shorten the length of time needed to find an opportunity. They can help you sharpen your ability to land better positions and they will help you prepare for a placement, so you feel confident from day one.

Still, many people remain misinformed about how staffing firms work. They worry about how an agency’s business model will impact the way it treats the candidates it’s looking to place.

No one wants to be treated like an anonymous product. However, recruiters are incentivized to care about their candidates. It’s not just the right thing to do; it’s good business as well.

Here are some of the top myths about working with a staffing agency, as well as the truth about what you should expect:

Myth: A Recruiter Will Throw You Into Any Open Position

A recruiter won’t just cycle you through open positions until you find one that sticks. Clients get annoyed when a staffing firm sends a candidate that doesn’t fit the situation.

If a person shows up with the wrong skills, or if they leave before the end of the placement because they are dissatisfied with the situation, it reflects badly on the recruiter.

Therefore, it’s ... Read More

Everyone thinks they know the most forward-looking industries. Web development, marketing, biotech, even media – all sectors people see as dedicated to constant, rapid change; sectors where executives live with unrelenting, extreme FOMO. They can’t miss out on the next big thing and survive.

Accounting, meanwhile, seems comparably stable. To an outsider, the industry looks relatively stable – the pleasant Victorian mansion set among the city’s steel-and-glass skyscrapers.

You know that’s not really the case. With your view from inside the industry, you understand the world of accounting is constantly changing. You need to be as attuned to changing market conditions as anyone in the technology or drug development fields.

With that in mind, here are five trends to watch out for in the accounting industry going into the 2020s:

Customization

You’re used to getting exactly what you want every time you walk into a store or log in to your favorite retailer. That expectation has overwhelmed the accounting world as well.

Your clients demand customized service. They want micro-targeting and increased communication, allowing them to achieve a result more well suited to their particular concerns and long-term development.

This means you’ll need skills beyond vanilla accounting acumen. Expect a role with a lot of slashes in ... Read More

While some friction in the workplace is to be expected, too much is harmful to everyone involved, particularly if left unresolved. Conflicts between employees disrupt their work and that of colleagues who share the work environment. Ongoing disagreements can affect job performance and even the company’s productivity and bottom line.

While most U.S. workers report involvement in workplace strife at times, more than a third say they deal with it often or always. In a typical week, employees spend, on average, about three hours handling conflict at work. That’s just 7 percent of the work week, but in terms of productivity, the costs are staggering, resulting in an estimated $360 billion in paid hours.^*

So, what’s causing all this workplace friction? Employees say mainly personality conflicts and warring egos, as well as stress and workloads. These may lead to angry outbursts and insults; nasty, behind-the-back comments; poor communications; procrastination on projects; and more.

Other than avoiding people who rub us the wrong way—which doesn’t solve and often intensifies the problem—what can we do to resolve conflict at work?

Try taking these steps to manage conflict with co-workers

1. Ask yourself why the person bothers you. Be aware of what is setting you off. If dealing with ... Read More