Where are all the Jobs?: blog

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Saturday, September 3, 2011

blogging4jobs

Posted: 02 Sep 2011 11:48 AM PDT

wordpress hack, timthumb exploit, hr blogger, human resources blogger, blogging, tim thumb, timthumb, woo themes

I’ve been hacked but not on this blog. (and no, this is not an invite.) Three of my own blogs have had some suspicious activity this week alone. I’m an HR and leadership blogger. That’s human resources not a coder, designer, or developer. The cause of the hack after several very long phone calls and internet research seems to be a photo resizer feature in several of the blog themes I use. This resizer is an easy in for hackers to spread malware and phishing attacks.
It’s called the TimThumb Exploit and it sucks. It really sucks. I was made aware of the problem late this week after finding out that one of my blogs contained Malware and was being attacked. Not being a programmer I did a Google search to get started on creating a solution to these malicious blogging attacks.

Sucuri Website Scanner. (affiliate link) To keep this from happening again, Sucuri is now monitoring my websites and blogs for me. They will now alert me via email, Twitter, or even RSS to any suspicious activity and will fix the errors. It’s worth the cost and my piece of mind.

DIY Solution. While I’m not a programmer or a coder, here’s a good how to for those do it yourselfers who want to remove the malware, phishing, and close the exploit from Smackdown.

Patch for Tim Thumb via Woo Themes. This is where I purchase many of my off the shelf themes. These themes also use a photo resizer. I would have preferred an email from Woo Themes alerting me to the problem back in the beginning of August when the problem was first discovered.

It’s funny because I’ve been blogging as a human resources and HR for a while and on WordPress to boot. I have never had any issues like this. GoDaddy was surprisingly helpful. The email I received connected them directly to their Abuse department where I spoke to an actual live person on the phone. They can’t fix the problems for me, but they gave me some helpful information and direction to get started on correcting the issues. As for one of my sites, it looks like I’ll be starting at square one, and that could actually be a good thing. The other two are likely to be saved.
Hackers. Evil Asses. Be Done With You.

Photo Credit Telegraph & Contentious.

6 Tips to Increase Your Chances of Getting an Interview

Posted: 02 Sep 2011 04:33 AM PDT

In a previous post, I addressed how character and integrity should be king when hiring or retaining talent. I am often disgusted by the stories I hear and those of which I have been a part that prove, sadly, unethical behaviour is alive and well. In my own case, the deplorable practices were performed by those senior to me, those who should have known better or didn’t really care. Therefore, as reason might dictate, most individuals must look within themselves and/or follow leaders with a proven track record and either pattern yourself after them or build your own ethical blueprint – one that becomes clearly evident by your own actions, by the reputation your build over time, and by the questions you ask and those you answer truthfully, and by your past/experiences and how your represent them.
Ethics and proving character can be a difficult hurdle when it comes to securing an interview, let alone a new job. I have been a recruiter for years and have worked for many organizations that put character first. I have never invited any jobseeker in for an onsite interview until I determined some semblance of “character” during a phone interview or as a result of a personal referral. If a candidate, initially, doesn’t fit in with the culture of the company during this early stage of the hiring process, they never will. And if it can be ascertained that the applicant is even the slightest bit sycophantic, they will never pass an interview with the hiring manager or a direct supervisor.

I have put together a list of tips to aid jobseekers in showing their best face, letting the light of their character shine through loud and clear. It is my hope that with this modest list, a general understanding of how a recruiter thinks will result.
1. Whenever possible, indicate on your resume that you hold three vitally important characters: Intelligence, Energy and Integrity. Employers seek theses in every applicant, Every. Single. One. These three qualities show hire-ability. Simply add an instance that demonstrate these under your most recent job or project (this could even be a school-based project.)
2. Include a letter of recommendation with your cover letter from a previous colleague or supervisor that simply attests to your possession of these three qualities. If a previous employer indicates they would hire you again, if given the opportunity? All the better.
3. If you are invited in for an on-site, face-to-face interview, prove your intelligence and interest with a strong understanding of the position and the company, itself. Do the online research necessary, make some calls to contacts or past employees who may have valuable insight or could directly refer you.
4. PLEASE have your resume reviewed by a recruiter and several friends who will give you the critical feedback you need– maybe there is something key missing or misrepresented that you are just too close to see.
5. THIS you SHOULD KNOW: A good recruiter will be able to ascertain within 10-15 seconds of opening your resume or application whether or not you will even get a call or second look. Make something stand out at the top of the resume or within the first paragraph of your cover letter.
And the last tip for today:
6. Be very careful of the use of the cliche buzz words of the day - thought leader, expert, guru, etc. – these are an instant turn-off to most recruiters and most recruiters will stop reading and immediately dismiss your application / resume.

Enjoy your weekend, the rest of my list will appear in my next post!

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology. She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs. Connect with her on LinkedIn.

blogging4jobs

Otaku. I Like Cows & My Favorite Color is Purple.

Posted: 01 Sep 2011 09:21 AM PDT

purple cow, otaku, hr service provider, human resources service provider, client engagement, client relationships, human resources industry, talent management industry, purple cow of hr

Be remarkable. Transform your business by finding your “purple cow.”
That’s the underlying message of Seth Godin’s Purple Cow. As a long time reader of Seth’s blog, I’m familiar with his simple casual style and messaging. It’s honest, forthright and to the point. Something that many businesses, marketers, and individuals are not. That’s what makes Seth and his messages so refreshing.
Earlier this year I read Seth’s book, Linchpin and felt like in many ways it was written for me. I just wish I had discovered his book two years ago when I left the corporate world after trying to position myself as the company lynchpin. It didn’t work out how I had hoped, and I instead made the decision to do something bigger and better by working to become an industry linchpin. This role is much more fulfilling than I ever imagined, but it’s not easy. It’s more than a full time job.
My favorite color happens to be purple although that’s not the only reason this book resonated with me. His book discusses the changing world in which we live where traditional marketing and business tactics are no as longer effective. Brands and businesses grew at unparalleled levels due to a simple marketing formula — television. But then the television market became over-saturated. We tuned out, DVRed, and fast forwarded through commercials, but marketers haven’t adapted and are still operating using their old-school winning and product marketing formulas.
Sound familiar?

When it comes to the human resources, talent, and recruitment industries, I feel the same way. Human resource vendors are taking old approaches flooding practitioner’s email accounts with thousands of messages and leaving voicemail upon voicemail. As a service provider myself, I am seeing the other and sometimes ugly side of the HR industry. For a mere $10,000 I can purchase 1,000 leads of human resource and industry practitioners. A well-respected online community that offers this marketing solution to its vendors happens to be the largest HR community online, HR.com. As a former HR practitioner, I had no idea this practice even existed, and if I did, I would have promptly deleted my account. As a business owner and professional, it’s not something that I think I could ever bring myself to do.
Godin calls purple cow’s companies who possess otaku, a Japanese term that references people and business who are obsessive about their passions. These otaku show themselves in different ways — an amazing culture like Zappos, great coffee like Starbucks, or perhaps a passionate HR and talent blog like Blogging4Jobs.
In the fast-moving marketing and technology world, Purple Cow was written a lifetime ago, in 2002 and is more relevant today in the changing social media and influence space than it ever was before. Perhaps HR.com and other vendors either inside or outside our space can take a page from Godin and his book. Being a Purple Cow takes work, but I can say it’s worth all the effort.
Photo Credit Maurilio Amorim.

Your Life-Long Metamorphosis

Posted: 01 Sep 2011 04:33 AM PDT

When we are young, we have big dreams for the future. We are optimistic of our talents and know that skills will come our way that will bring us fame or fortune or both. At least, that was how it was for me. After two boys, I was the first girl. My mother raised me to be strong, cautious, hard-working and to never give up. My dad taught me to be a dreamer and a lover of humanity and to embrace curiosity. From all that, I somehow thought I would be a movie star. Ukulele lessons resulted in guitar lessons. Makeshift church fashion shows turned into modeling classes. And endless theater activity was backed by voice lessons and acting classes.
But as I became an adult, reality set in that very few talented people end up making it. That many, many extremely talented people never make it out of community theater or out of karaoke halls. And though it was hard to let go of that quest, the dreamer in me has kept my foot in a theater door for over forty years and the cautious, hard-worker fought through eleven years to get a business degree and land the perfect job that continually pushes me develop and learn – good thing I have that innate curiosity thing going on.
Hopefully, we enter adulthood with a passion for a chosen field and we work hard to land there. But the bumps and trials of life sometimes cause detours here and there. What we may miss though is that those dreaded detours may be exactly what we need to put us on a different, but right, track. I worked retail before I went to school to become a dental assistant. After so many years in the dental field, I decided to try the corporate world and walked blindly – oh so blindly – into the recruitment industry. And as a result, business school called me and my life forever changed. And it isn’t done changing.
A life-long metamorphosis awaits each of us. Don’t limit yourself to the ukulele when a beautiful guitar sits in the corner. You can change your life, your career, and “you” numerous times. I think I am on my third or fourth incarnation – and I doubt I am finished. Challenges are necessary for growth. I thought school was hard – it was nothing compared to the real thing. But each time I conquer a new project or develop a new game plan, I have won. And my skillset has expanded. I know more, I must do more…
What do you have left to do? What mountains are left to climb? Did your timer go off, are you done? Or are they still a few tricks up your sleeve and surprises left in your horizon? Is there code left to write and blogs wanting to be posted? With forty-eight knocking very loudly on my door, I am not even close to being done. Challenge shouldn’t scare you, stagnation should.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology. She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs. Connect with her on LinkedIn.