The Power of a Positive Attitude

“Our beliefs about what we are and what we can be precisely determine what we can be.” ― Anthony Robbins

“Cultivate an optimistic mind, use your imagination, always consider alternatives, and dare to believe that you can make possible what others think is impossible.” ― Rodolfo Costa

Throughout my many years as a certified professional resume writer, I have discovered that the most successful candidates are those that embrace a positive attitude throughout their career campaigns. Multiple sources of stress abound and anxiety is high in the midst of a career transition, however harnessing an optimistic approach always garners lucrative and auspicious results in a job search. Candidates that exude positivity also convey confidence and self-assurance to an employer, which are always attractive traits. No one wants to work with someone who exudes negativity. By demonstrating a positive attitude, you give yourself a competitive edge and you will instill confidence in hiring managers that you have unique value to bring to any new enterprise.

Throughout a job search, there is little that you have control over. There are no guarantees that you will impress a future employer or even make it past a phone interview. However, the one thing you do have control over in your job search is your attitude. Throughout my professional experience, I have observed that negative attitudes are most often based on fear, lack of confidence, or past defeats. With a negative attitude, you are fighting yourself as well as thousands of other applicants for the same job. However, choosing a positive approach even in the midst of adversity will instill the tenacity and intrepid resilience needed to persist in the face of constant competition and possible rejection.

Job seekers must also become keenly aware of how attitude affects everyone in immeasurable ways.  Take several moments to reflect on your own attitude – regarding work, salary, career history, and your ideal future job. Consider how does one’s expectations influence attitude? How does one’s attitude alter expectations? How are positive attitudes displayed? How would an individual giving an interview know if the applicant sitting across the desk had a positive attitude or a negative attitude? What signs are given? What nonverbal cues are broadcast to others either consciously or unconsciously? Why would attitudes be taken into consideration in the work place? After all, an employee is there to work, not necessarily to make friends.

A positive attitude is a soft skill that inspires others. Anything less can and will affect the group. Consider examples of your favorite or least favorite managers and how they have displayed an attitude and what, if any, effect occurred as a result. Are people more apt to follow someone displaying a certain attitude or not? Positivity is also a trait found in strong and stalwart leaders.

Consider the following tips to follow throughout your job search in order to maintain a positive attitude:

1. Goal-Setting

Establishing a positive attitude is enabled by goal-setting. It begins with a strong belief system that anything is possible if you have the courage, commitment, and perseverance to achieve your aspirations. Develop a 5- year plan. Awaken each morning and review your goals in order to stay motivated throughout the day during your job search.

2. Take Charge

Be accountable for your own actions by taking responsibility for everything you do. You are in control of your destiny. Don’t let a challenging day or rejection send your search in the wrong direction. Take initiative in doing everything possible to prepare and position yourself for your ideal future job.

3. Don’t Take Things Personally

It’s all too easy to take your struggles within the job search process a little too personally. While it’s important to learn from your experiences, consider them as constructive criticism and grow accordingly.

4. Maintain A Schedule

Creating a schedule that you maintain can often send your job search in a new direction. Focus your attention on your daily tasks to prevent yourself from feeling frustrated.

5. Continue Enhancing and Diversifying Your Skill Set

A negative attitude might result from boredom and feeling stagnant. Work to ensure that your skills are staying fresh and cutting-edge during your search. Pursue a continuing education class, attend conferences and webinars, or even volunteer at a local nonprofit in order to strengthen your skills.

6. Take It One Day at a Time

Your attitude may suffer when you are continually spending your time worrying about the future. Take your job search one day at a time and understand that small steps get the job done just as well as larger ones. Remember, the only way to eat an elephant is one piece at a time.

7. Establish Rewards For Yourself

Make time in your job search for rewards. Even the smallest success is something worth patting yourself on the back for. By rewarding yourself for the various victories along the way, you become your own champion which will inevitably instill confidence and fortify your positive attitude.

By making a commitment to demonstrating a positive attitude throughout your career campaign, you will both make the process less painful and you will generate successful results. A hiring manager will be 100 times more likely to invite you back for a second interview if you demonstrate the exuberance and confidence that a positive attitude instills.

Guest author, Victoria Andrew, CPRW and Owner/Director of Words Prevail, LLC  www.wordsprevail.com 

Victoria Andrew offers resume writing solutions and will be happy to help position new grads for career campaign success with her diverse portfolio of services.

Kavaliro Employment Agency has offices in Tampa, Fla., Charlotte, N.C., Orlando, Fla.  and Washington, D.C. and can make sure you find the right people for this important role. We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.

Can Recruiters Survive Changes in Technology

When it comes to technology in the field of talent management, our options come closer to limitless every year, innovations to make our lives run faster, more efficiently and effectively. A fear in any industry or field as these advances happen is that enough strides will be made that certain areas will become obsolete, victims of the insatiable need to automate, automate, automate. Will Human Resources or more specifically, Recruitment, dwindle due to the electronic relationship-building that now encompasses sourcing and selecting your next hire? Will mobile applications, busy schedules, informal attitudes, and sites like LinkedIn eliminate the need for experienced recruiters?

Lior Shamir thinks this to be true, no matter how much a majority of the recruitment industry might beg to disagree. In Recruiters: Your Days Are Numbered, Shamir ever-so delicately summarizes his logic, “Recruiting can be boiled down to three critical ingredients that make up the mix: sourcing, screening, and verifying. A traditionally manual function of HR, process automation is snatching the reins from bloated HR divisions and outside recruiters.”

What Mr. Shamir fails to consider is that “sourcing” candidates is not simply done by the click of a mouse. In order to find quality candidates, the gems that fit in with corporate culture, have the qualifications, and will actually work for the compensation package that is offered, those with experience know that for many positions it’s not as easy as placing ads or finding resumes online. The process is aided, not completed by, various systems and software. It takes human contact – creating trust between you and the candidate that you desire for the role. You get to know their background and personality; you call on their references. You interview them and ask the right questions, peeling back each layer of the onion until each red flag is discovered and explained. After all this, when you know you have a solid lead, even if you don’t have a current placement option for them, they are added to your bench and you keep them close. If you do have a place for them, you are the employer’s coach and the candidate’s mentor.

This process should be true whether you are a third party recruiter, a member of a corporate talent management team, or simply the future hiring manager. Probability of successful placement increases as you develop your relationships, better familiarizing yourself with each individual and increasing the level of trust. There isn’t a computer out there that can take over these steps. Technology may have simplified (not mastered) the administration side, but it has yet to overtake the sales piece of recruitment and the development side of talent management.

Though in his ranting, Shamir slightly recognizes that there are still areas in which a human touch is needed in the realm of recruiting, it seems within our lifetime he feels it will be slowly eliminated. “Recruiting as we know it — a scrappy and gut-driven racket — has reached its expiration date.” The only thing that’s spoiled is his prediction.

Guest Author, Traci Kingery and Brightmove Recruiting Software

Kavaliro Employment Agency, has offices in Tampa, Charlotte, Orlando and Washington, D.C. and can make sure you find the right people for this important role. We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.

Working From Home

As the focus on having a healthy work-life balance becomes stronger in society, recent news of Yahoo!’s change of its work-at-home policy has caused quite a discussion among employers. These policies vary from company to company but this recent shift in thinking could change the future landscape for years to come.

Approaching these policies from an employer standpoint can be tricky, but are often selected on a case-by-case basis or have a positional qualification. The overall balance between having a laid-back yet productive work environment is something most company’s look to strive for. Kavaliro encourages and promotes admin and finance employees to work-at-home when needed. Having flexible work options is sometimes a key offering for many job seekers.

Optional work-at-home days can be reasoned with higher employee morale and an overall increase in the quality of work. But with this at hand, it’s very possible that Yahoo!’s move could have been the result of employee’s abusing the policy. As companies are sure to review their own employee’s work policy in upcoming weeks, it certainly raises an interesting conversation in the job world.

Kavaliro Employment Agency, has offices in Tampa, Charlotte, Orlando and Washington, D.C. and can make sure you find the right people for this important role. We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.

Kavaliro Q1 Food Drive a Success!

We’re overjoyed to announce the success of the Q1 Kavaliro Fueling the Community food drive! Thanks to all our supporters, we collected a total of 1,455 breakfast items—all boxed up and ready to go! The Orange County and Seminole County public schools Backpack Programs will provide breakfast for children before the FCAT. We banded together as a community and made a commitment to improve students nutrition in Central Florida.

Kavaliro couldn’t be more honored to be apart of such a proactive community. We strive to be a force of good in the Orlando region not only as individuals but also as a company. We’re excited about providing ongoing food contributions to local programs and organizations through the Kavaliro Fueling the Community food drive.

This quarter’s food drive has been a great success, and we are already looking forward to the next one! Make sure you are keeping an eye out for the next Fueling the Community food drive and join us in helping provide different items of food for those in need.

Kavaliro Employment Agency, has offices in Tampa, Charlotte, Orlando and Washington, D.C. and can make sure you find the right people for this important role. We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.

Kavaliro releases its 2013 Employee Outlook and Salary Guide

In an effort to help employees understand the job market and its trends, Kavaliro released their 2013 Employee Outlook and Salary Guide featuring research findings on employee retention trends, hot careers and starting salaries for the fastest-growing industries of the upcoming year.

These are the top three trends that are showing up in different job markets:

1. Job seekers love their mobile devices

People looking for jobs are using their iPads and iPhones more than ever. Getting to the job first, through apps like the Kavaliro app allows applicants a better shot at having their resume seen by hiring managers.

2. Robotic and .NET skills are in high demand

During the hiring process, employers generally look for job seekers with good communication and technical skills. In the IT, engineering, healthcare and medical device repair industries, recruiters are hunting for candidates with robotics skills. Robotics engineer is our hot job in this edition of our handbook.

3. The hottest jobs command high salaries

According to the CareerBuilder Talent Compensation Report, a survey of 1,000 .NET developers and employers across the country revealed an average annual salary of $85,863, with top salaries reaching well into the six figures. Yet despite the lofty compensation on the table, employers continue to report difficulties in hiring and retaining top .NET Developer talent in the midst of unprecedented demand for these services. The explosion of web-based services and applications drives much of that demand.

These three trends just scratch the top of the job market for 2013. You can have access to the entire 2013 Employee Outlook and Salary Guide just by simply signing up for the Kavaliro newsletter.

To sign up for the newsletter, go to Kavaliro’s homepage and click the “Subscribe” icon on the right side. Simply put in your email address and we will send you Kavaliro’s 2013 Employee Outlook and Salary Guide as well as other news that will help you get ahead in your career.

Kavaliro Employment Agency, has offices in Tampa, Florida, Charlotte, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida and can make sure you find the right people for this important role. We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.

Kavaliro featured on CNN

Retail employees fight ‘Black Friday creep’

Kavaliro’s Managing Partner Bill Peppler was featured on CNN.com discussing employees having to work on Black Friday. The rising issue concerning Black Friday is its intrusion into the Thanksgiving holiday, as many retail employees now have to work on the holiday evening for early store openings. Being an employment expert, Peppler gave expert commentary on the subject of employees having to work throughout the holiday.

Many retail employees are starting to resist having to work on this holiday. This issue is sparking debate among employers and staff. Is it right to make employees work on a national holiday just to make sure consumers are getting early access to Black Friday deals? Or should stores stay closed until early on Friday morning to give staff time to be with their families and friends?

Below is an excerpt from the CNN.com feature:

Just as consumers are driving the demand, employees are choosing to work in the field, leaving companies with little choice but to take advantage of every opportunity in the marketplace, said Bill Peppler with staffing firm Kavaliro.

In today’s economy where jobs are scarce and unemployment is high, people are willing to do more now than they were willing to do two to three years ago. This is especially true in retail. Black Friday alone last year led to almost $12 billion in sales, so you can understand the employers stance on this issue, he said.

You can read the entire article from the CNN website by clicking here.

Kavaliro Employment Agency, has offices in Tampa, Florida, Charlotte, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida and can make sure you find the right people for this important role.We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.

Help Us Fuel the Community!

Sparked from the “60 Minutes” documentary on the homeless situation right here in Central Florida, Kavaliro saw an opportunity to make a difference as a Central Florida business. Being that commitment is one of our core values, we wanted to make the commitment to the community in which we live, work ,and play by providing ongoing food contributions to a local program. Each quarter we will have a “Kavaliro Fueling the Community” food drive in which we will request 2 food items to local school children in need.

This quarter we are asking for BUDDY FRUITS & SOUP November 1 – 15 We will be setting up bins in the Central Florida area and asking friends, family, colleagues and complete strangers to help feed our children. So start looking for those Buy One Get One Free deals and stocking up for November!

These are the locations where donations will be collected:

Lisa Moore
Kavaliro
3504 Lake Lynda Drive
Suite 175
Orlando, FL 32828

Tyger Danger
Uproar PR
121 S. Orange Avenue
Suite 1430B
Orlando, FL 32801

Sheila Lafont
Fairwinds Avalon Park
12800 Tanja King Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32828

Pat Moore
Great American Insurance Company
1060 Maitland Center Commons Blvd, #100
Maitland, FL

Lakeside Village
1610 Town Center Drive
Lakeland, FL 33803

Pointe Orlando
9101 International Drive Suite 1036
Orlando, FL 32819

Waterford Lakes Town Center
421 N.Alafaya Trail
Orlando, FL 32828

Winter Park
510 N. Orlando Ave Site 103
Winter Park, FL 32789

Barbara Couillard
The Moat
4250 Alafaya Trail #100
Oviedo, FL 32765

Michael Galloway
2000 Town Plaza Ct.
Winter Springs, FL 32708

Jennifer Housewright
SOHO Office
3564 Avalon Park Blvd
E Suite #1
Orlando, FL 32828

Jeremy Avner
Nuviva Weight Loss Clinic
891 Outer Road
Orlando, FL 32814

Charlotte

Esme Doucette
Kavaliro
9140 Arrowpoint Blvd.
Suite 260
Charlotte, NC 28273

Katherine Rios
ITT Technical Institute
4135 Southstream Blvd.
Suite 200
Charlotte, NC 28217

Gaining valuable experience from internships

For a 22 year old, I am proud of my resume. I have worked since I was 14, starting my work experience at my father’s dry cleaners. Fast forward to the age of 19, I began my first internship with Sun Sentinel’s Forum Publishing Group. This led to a virtual internship with MusicSkins the months preceding its end.

Today, I am still in college but I am not interning because I am actually working full time at a job, which is actually a career. Pretty unheard of, right?

After I finished my internship with MusicSkins, I so badly wanted to do another internship; however my father told me he would no longer support my free labor.
I was sick of serving; it was too much work, and not enough pay – not to mention, it added little value to my resume. Realizing this, I began looking for a real job.

While all internships may not lead to a career, mine indirectly have led to one. Here are a few tips on how to transform your internship(s) into a career.

Make sure you are learning.
At both Forum and MusicSkins, I added valuable major-related lines to my resume and the internships provided me with material for my portfolio. It might be great to have widely-known companies on your resume, but if you only ran coffee then you really haven’t gained any valuable experience, have you?

In the case that you’re not learning…
Talk to your internship supervisor if you are unhappy with the work you are doing. The goal of an internship is to help you learn things firsthand, which you couldn’t in a classroom, and gain skills you didn’t previous have. Be very nice and polite, and simply say: “I don’t feel as though I am being used to my full potential. Could I try working on XYZ project? I have never done it before, and it would look great in my portfolio.”

Don’t sell yourself short.
If you have done an internship(s) like mine, then you are more than qualified to be considered for an entry-level position. It will be hard to sell yourself to many companies when you’re still in school because they know they can utilize you for free until after you graduate, but don’t give up. You will find an employer who values your skill set and proven capabilities more than the generation you were born in.

Lauren Holliday is the founder and CEO of Freelanship, a startup that combines freelance and internship experiences. Freelanship launches in January.

-Lauren Holliday, Guest Author

Kavaliro Employment Agency, has offices in Tampa, Florida, Charlotte, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida and can make sure you find the right people for this important role.We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.

Bill Peppler on unemployment in Orlando 2012

Bill Peppler from Kavaliro speaks regarding the high unemployment rates in Orlando and the ways to find a job. He recognizes specific industries that aren’t hurting and the importance of hitting those markets now.

Forbes Magazine named Orlando in its list of “The 10 Happiest Cities for Job-Seeking College Grads.”

Forbes Magazine named Orlando in its list of “The 10 Happiest Cities for Job-Seeking College Grads.” The 10 cities chosen were based on 140,000 data points from the career site CareerBliss.com. Among those listed, Orlando ranked 6th with an average cost-of-living-adjusted salary of $43,047 and a variety of industry positions are available for young jobseekers.

“Orlando has many great advantages that young jobseekers are recognizing,” Bill Peppler, managing partner of Kavaliro said. “With a plethora of positions available, Central Florida is a great place to start your career.”

The amount of advice sent out to college grads can be overwhelming, but this article, based off the book “Don’t Go to Law School, Move to Asia, And 28 Other Pearls of Wisdom for 2012 Grads” helps new jobseekers evaluate important factors in the next chapter of their life.

The article was formed on responses from employees all over the country on 10 factors that can affect workplace happiness.

“Those include one’s relationship with the boss and co-workers, work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks, and control over the work one does on a daily basis,”according to the article. “They evaluated each factor on a five-point scale and also indicated how important it was to their overall happiness.”

The complete list includes these happiest cities:
St. Louis, Mo.
Salt Lake City, Utah
Jacksonville, Fla.
Memphis, Tenn.
Indianapolis, Ind.
Orlando, Fla.
Houston, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
Oklahoma City, Okla.
Birmingham, Ala.

To read the article, visit http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/05/18/the-happiest-cities-for-job-seeking-college-grads/