What’s Up with Recruiting and Hiring?

March 30, 2021
min
By PRSA-SV Board Member Mar Junge
What’s Up with Recruiting and Hiring?

There’s good news for communications professionals: recruitment and corporate searches are heating up! As the economy recovers, businesses look for ways to retain and motivate great talent. Our March 26 #FridayForum featured KC Partner’s Recruiter Brooke Kruger  and BOCA Communications Founder Kathleen Shanahan. The panelists discussed how recruiting has changed in the last year, the skills that are in high demand and tips to land your dream job. Here are a few:

  • Learn to write well. This applies not only to your resume, but to your emails, too.
  • Work your network. Brooke said employees are incentivized to refer job seekers to their company’s openings, so an internal referral can go a long way. If you don’t know anyone who works at the firm you’re applying to, scour your network for contacts to someone who knows someone who does.
  • Master the video interview. Always be cognizant of your Zoom face. Dress professionally. Follow best practices for sound and lighting. Pay attention to your background. And above all, be yourself. Kathleen said she can tell if someone is right for the job during the first few minutes of an interview.
  • Follow up. Send a note after each interview. A handwritten note really stands out, but you may have to ask for a mailing address since many professionals are still working from home. Kathleen said it’s OK to call your interviewer to ask about the status of the position, but don’t be a pest like the PR job candidate who left her nine voice mails in one morning.
  • Sharpen your tools. Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date. “Go to Indeed or Simply Hired and put in the titles you’re looking for. The searches will come to you,” Brooke said. Board Member Gerry Corbett suggests using  Jobseer, a Chrome extension tool that scans your resume, provides salary and other info on the company and suggests the best language and keywords to use.
  • Broaden your horizons. Thinking about pivoting to do PR for a different industry than you’re working in now? If so, Board Member Ellie Javadi recommends searching for a position at a PR agency that has clients in industries you’d like to know more about.

Are you enjoying our #FridayForums? Clubhouse has definitely broadened our audience. But we understand that not everybody can access that platform. So our #FridayForums will continue to be accessible on our PRSA-SV Facebook page. A big thanks to Board Member Shruti Sharma for streaming this #FridayForum to Facebook and forwarding chat questions to the panel moderators.

Click here to replay “What’s Up with Recruiting and Hiring?”

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