As a hiring manager, it’s easy to get bombarded with too many accounting or financial candidates, which can become cumbersome to manage. To weed out the best candidates from mediocre candidates can be time consuming, especially in the interviewing process. This is because candidates have become wise to the types of general interview questions asked of them, and they often prep in advance with in-depth research of the company. So, it can be difficult to know if a candidate is worth his salt, until weeks on the job.

To better evaluate candidates, along with other forms of checking, be sure to throw a few non-traditional interview questions in for accounting and financial professionals, to see if they can meet the challenge. This can be a great way to ask candidates to think outside of the box, and to demonstrate their true abilities and personality. Here are a few to consider:

What is your favorite book, and why? An excellent ice-breaker, this non-traditional interview question can open up dialogue for any financial candidate. This question invites the candidate to share more insight into their interests, which may be surprising given the type of assignment. The kinds of books people read often indicate their intellectual ability, as well as how well they will fit in with an existing team structure.

How do you choose what to do first when you arrive at work? One of the best non-traditional job interview questions, asking the candidate to provide information about how he or she prioritizes work tasks is critical to being successful on the job. Most candidates will say something about checking their calendar or doing tasks that are assigned to them by their boss, but the best candidates will indicate being self-managed and driven to accomplish multiple tasks first thing in the workday.

If you had a million dollars, how would you use it? Candidates often dream about being wealthy someday, especially those who work in the financial sector. When you ask this non-traditional interview question for financial candidates, the answers you receive can shed a lot of light on each candidate’s personality. Those who say they will spend it all may be careless, while those who say they would invest the money or better their community tend to be more careful with money matters.

Where do you want to be in five years? This has been a very effective non-traditional interview question for candidates, because it asks each person to evaluate where he or she wants to go in life and in career. In terms of a specific finance or accounting job, it means the candidate must relate personal goals to the company itself. Look for answers that indicate a candidate’s willingness to adapt and grow with your organization.

For more help with interviewing candidates for finance and accounting roles, be sure to look to the career experts at Venteon staffing today!

If you’ve been searching for work for any length of time, then you know how frustrating it can become. With all the career portals, resume and job websites, and an ever growing number of unemployed candidates vying for the same few assignments. This is especially true when it comes to industry specialties and careers in growing fields, where the competition is fierce. It’s not easy to find a job today, and so you have to have the right strategy to find the best assignments – they are out there if you know how to find them.

One of the best ways to find a top level assignment is to work with a professional staffing agency or recruiter. Not only do you have the insight and guidance of a qualified employment specialist, but you have the support you need to find a good job faster. Read on to learn more how a recruiter or staffing agency can help you make your career dreams a reality.

• Recruiters know what companies are looking for. Have you ever wondered if you have the skills that area employers are actually looking for, and this may be why you have not found the right job? It’s very possible that you have not been presenting your skills in the best light, or have not been targeting jobs that are worthy of your skills. Stop spinning your wheels and take the time to get a recruiter to evaluate your skill set and get you in front of employers who will offer you the best opportunities to use your talent.
• Staffing agencies have access to unadvertised jobs. It has been said that only about 20% of the actual available jobs out there are advertised, even in this day and age with online career websites. Oftentimes, employers rely on referrals from existing employees, or a trusted staffing agency/recruiter to find suitable candidates for open assignments. Without being registered to work through an agency, you are likely missing out on a huge number of jobs that are never advertised.
• Recruiters can “sell” you to potential employers. A big part of finding a great job is being able to promote yourself in a positive and proactive way. This can seem a little demeaning, especially if you are a seasoned professional and have never had to do this before, But take heart, as it is your recruiter’s job to do this for you in a big way, so you are hyped up to candidates before you even walk in the door for an interview.
• Staffing agencies offer additional career services. Outside of general job placement, did you know that many staffing agencies and recruiters offer additional services to help you be more successful with your job search? Staffing agencies often offer classes on resume writing, personal skills development and even interview preparation. Ask your recruiter at Venteon for more information on how you can best utilize your experience with our agency.
• Recruiters provide helpful feedback. Perhaps one of the most helpful aspects of working with a recruiter or staffing agency is the ability to find out how you are doing in your efforts to find a job. Whether you need to brush up your resume, interview skills or personal appearance, you can count on your recruiter to give you honest and constructive feedback, because he or she wants you to be successful.

Want to be a more successful job hunter? Look to the staffing and recruitment professionals at Venteon today for support with your career search.

If you’ve noticed a higher number of young IT employees leaving your company for others, then you may be experiencing “Millennial turnover”. These are employees in their twenties and early thirties who seem to get bored easily and tend to move on to what is perceived to be better opportunities. While you can’t stop all young IT employees from jumping ship, you can make things more interesting and rewarding. After all, the IT professionals of today have some of the best talent in the industry, so your company can lead the way to a bright future for all by retaining them.

Here are 5 ways to reduce turnover in young IT employee, and keep them productive.

Value young employees’ ideas. Millenials, and other young employees, react positively to having their ideas taken seriously by senior members of the IT team. They are a highly creative bunch who thrives on an environment where their work is valued. Take the time to ask for input on IT projects as often as possible, to keep your younger IT professionals engaged and focused on end results.

Maintain a fun, casual work environment. No employee wants to work in a stale environment all day, so consider the way you have your work teams set up. Freshen things up with a modern, fun office alternative with plenty of team building activities. Loosen up dress codes and allow for casual attire, to cut down the intimidation levels.  This helps keep your younger IT workers inspired and creative so they can flourish, and gives them a reason to come back every day.

Provide timely feedback. Younger employees thrive on continual feedback, both positive and negative. Take the time to review projects and processes with your younger IT employees on a regular basis, with guidance on how to become better. Match younger IT employees with more seasoned employees to provide ongoing mentoring and feedback opportunities, and you will likely see greater retention for the long term.

Create attractive incentives. There is a huge demand for quality IT employees today, and younger candidates know this. Therefore, they generally focus on companies that can give them the best incentives as well as experiences in this industry. Take a look at your company’s current offerings to see if there are additional incentives needed to attract and retain young IT professionals.

Keep the workplace healthy. One of the things that many younger IT workers enjoy is an active social lives. However, many spend too much time partying and then come to work feeling ill. To keep your younger IT workers productive and on board, encourage healthy lifestyles and attitudes both on and off the job. In this way, you can retain your best IT staff, and help them find a happier balance.

Want more ideas to make your workplace more appealing, and productive to reduce turn-over in young IT employees? Consult with the career and staffing experts at Venteon today!

Photo Credit: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

There is a rising concern among many companies that there may be declining numbers of engineering students and engineering talent due to a general lack of interest in this field in the USA. This wasn’t helped recently by a statement made by Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel and an active member of President Obama’s “Council on Jobs and Competitiveness”, in which he said, ““A chronic shortage of engineering students threatens America’s role as the world’s leading innovator and continues to impede our nation’s fragile economic recovery.” Meanwhile, the President himself advised in his American Jobs Act speech that long term job creation is expected to come from the engineering sector. This has sent many universities into overdrive, as they work to promote engineering programs to educate the next generation of engineer greats.

But is there really a shortage of engineering candidates and engineering students in America? If so, how is this impacting the engineering workforce? The answers are somewhat confusing.

A Fox News report recently advised that technical colleges, like North Carolina’s A&T State University, are trying to get more engineering students to enroll and learn about the promises of a career in engineering. By getting students excited about the benefits of working in engineering, they hope to be the catalyst for creating millions more job in the engineering and manufacturing sector—industries that had suffered the most during the recent recession. Engineers benefit all industries across the board, so it only makes sense that we need to promote this as a viable career option in order to improve our nation’s economy.

Georgia Tech’s Dean, Gary S. May, wrote in a recent article that the US is lacking in the push to get students to learn critical topic areas, science, technology, engineering and math education (STEM), which puts us behind other nations like China and India who place emphasis on these engineering basics. This fact alone puts us at a serious disadvantage, and reduces the numbers of American engineers who will be ready to face the challenges of developing the next generation of technological advances. He further went on to state that, “If we want to train 10,000 engineers per year, we need high standards, smart role models, and excellent teachers and resources for success.”

Others say that there aren’t actually shortages in engineers in the USA, such as a 2005 Duke University study that revealed China and India may not be outputting more engineers than the USA after all. Current statistics say that because of China and India’s emphasis on STEM subjects and government funded engineering programs, that these nations are producing 350,000 (India) and 600,000 (China) engineers annually, while the US is producing 70,000 per year. While this is hard to prove, due to the number of engineers outsourced to other countries, it is clear that engineering is going to continue to be a career field that is increasingly in need of quality engineering candidates.

For companies faced with shortages of eligible engineering candidates there are some long term and shot term solutions. One is actively supporting local technical colleges to educate the next generation of engineering talent, then providing incentive-rich, recruitment efforts for new grads. Two, is reaching out to engineering staffing companies, like Venteon, to bring on quality engineers who are experienced in specific areas. Engineering and the quest for great engineering talent will continue to be the focus as the USA recovers, so it’s a good strategy to come up with a recruitment plan now.

Photo Credit: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Venteon would like to wish all of our clients and associates a warm Holiday Season! It has been a great year, with many new companies that have decided to allow us the privilege of placing high quality candidates into brand new part time, full time and contract assignments. This has created hundreds of new jobs for deserving candidates. We could not do this without all of you!

We know that at this time of year, many folks are making plans to spend time with friends and family, while some are using this time to conduct a job search. This is also a great time for hiring managers to start making plans to bring on new people in 2012. For these reasons, we decided we wanted to take a moment to give candidates some tips for a successful job search during the holiday break.

Re-vamp your resume. While everyone else is enjoying fruit cake and singing Christmas carols, why not take the time in quiet moments to carefully update your resume? Look for things that may be missing since the last time you reviewed it, give it a new format, and freshen up your accomplishments so that it will stand out as you start distributing it to employment opportunities.

Get yourself out there. Oftentimes at this time of year, people tend to withdraw from the world, especially those who are down about being unemployed. Don’t let the holiday blues get you in a funk – instead get yourself out there and start networking with as many people as possible. You never know who may know someone who is hiring for the New Year, so put yourself in the best possible position to be in the right place at the right time.

Consider part time. There may not be as many full time jobs right now, but during the holidays there are plenty of part time assignments. This is because companies need temps to fill in for full timers who take time off, or to replace workers who have decided to move onto to new jobs for the upcoming season. There are also more jobs in retail and customer service this time of year than at any other time of the year. Part time often leads to full time.

Choose contract work. Another great option for boosting your job search during the holiday season is to get registered to work on exciting assignments with a staffing agency like Venteon. There are many ways to fill in for people who are on vacation, or to supplement staff at upcoming assignments with companies ready to hire.

Take advantage of this time of year and get signed up for great part time, full time, temporary and contract assignments with Venteon!