Human Resource

–JENNIFER PULLINGER

Sharon Jautz, director of human resources at Asset International, has more than a quarter century of HR experience in the media industry, but those media jobs have changed since she first started out — and so has the job interview game. Ahead of her talk on career management at Mediabistro Career Circus August 4, she tells writer Jennifer Pullinger what the new rules are for interviewing for a media job in today’s hiring environment.

“Market yourself in terms of your accomplishments rather than making your resume look like you’re a newspaper guy or a video guy. You need to market yourself in this economy as a media guy. [For example,] ‘I know Final Cut Pro. I know this content management system. I know breaking news. I know how to write feature stories, I know how to edit. I’ve managed freelancers…’ I’m looking for skill sets as opposed to background and experience.”

Sharon Jautz shares tips on managing your media career in her upcoming panel discussion at Mediabistro Career Circus on August 4 in New York.

These webinars are geared toward HR people trying to pick up a couple new skills without investing a lot of time in training. We collect the most relevant ones, most of them free, and keep this calendar up to date.

Upcoming: Technology, onboarding, and executive compensation.

Editor jobs have changed considerably now that they have to worry about page views as much as assuring the content published looks plausible and well written. But classifying someone’s online skills can be difficult.

Well Alison McPartland, manager of search at the B2B publication Questex Media, explains to Folio how her team sorts editors to highlight their online strengths and weaknesses.

“We want to show the particular strength or weakness in each editor,” says McPartland. “There are different ways to focus on how they’re preparing content online and we want to highlight those differences. If someone is our top Optimization Editor, what is he or she doing that you could be doing?”

In order to accomplish this, McPartland describes the editors in four different ways.

1) Acquisition Expert – This person is an expert at drawing people onto the site from outside sources.
2) Optimization Editor – This editor’s talents lie in using SEO tactics to bring in new users.
3) Retention Writer – An ability to keep readers on the site, looking at new material describes this type of editor.
4) Engagement Enhancer – This person has a knack for convincing readers to participate on the website, like adding a comment or signing up for the RSS feed.

The editors-in-chiefs in the company actually like the categorization strategy as well.

Read more

These webinars are geared toward HR people trying to pick up a couple new skills without investing a lot of time in training. We collect the most relevant ones, most of them free, and keep this calendar up to date.

Upcoming: The global recruiting outlook and illegal interview questions.

These webinars are geared toward HR people trying to pick up a couple new skills without investing a lot of time in training. We collect the most relevant ones, most of them free, and keep this calendar up to date.

Upcoming: Temps, freelancers, and contractors–so many contractors.

These webinars are geared toward HR people trying to pick up a couple new skills without investing a lot in training. We collect the most relevant ones and keep this calendar up to date.

Upcoming: Managing temps, social media, you name it!

These webinars are geared toward HR people trying to pick up a couple new skills without investing a lot in training. We collect the most relevant ones and keep this calendar up to date.

Upcoming: Integrating HR as a business function into the rest of the business.

Onboarding. Stupid, jargonistic term, but crucial business practice.

Sharlyn Lauby, the HR Bartender, says that it’s a shame that onboarding and orientation have become synonymous, because orientation is “that half-day event where employees sign paperwork and review the employee handbook. That’s sad, because employees need and deserve more.”

No, onboarding is “about setting the employee up for success.” Or, less abstractly, it’s about making sure they know the minor details about the office so they can get down to doing their job. Don’t make new hires learn by osmosis.

Lauby writes: “Let them know little details like what time to be there, where to park, what to wear, how lunch will be handled, etc. I know you might be saying to yourself…this is basic stuff. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen new employees arrive with no clue what would happen on their very first day. Because their manager didn’t tell them. It’s even better when you can tell them what the first week will look like.”

Here’s how to do it: at an old job on Day 1, I was handed a folder with lots of forms to sign, but the top page was a schedule of my first few days with everything from “sit in on a news meeting” to “follow around so-and-so to learn how to do your job” to “go get your photo taken for your ID.” It was smooth. They knew how to do it.

photo: o palsson

These webinars are geared toward HR people trying to pick up a couple new skills without investing a lot in training. We collect the most relevant ones and keep this calendar up to date.

Upcoming: Social recruiting and analytics.

Hiring candidates used to be a quick process. You put out an ad, got a few applications and picked the best one or two.

Now, even though hiring is returning, there’s still at least two unemployed people for every single open position out there in most parts of the country, and employers are taking advantage of it.

At Forum Financial Management, an advisory services firm, the recent hire of an administrative assistant took six months, Workforce reports.

“[Norm] Mindel[, a principal at Forum Financial,] said he wanted to be sure that the firm found the right person, even though a number of the applicants were overly qualified.”

Really? If someone’s overqualified and you’re okay with that (and it’s usually less of a problem than everyone worries, so go for it), why take six months?

Mindel says: “We had all of the associates sit and meet with every candidate and give us their feedback. They each spent an hour with the candidates. It took a long time.”

At another advisory firm, the new hiring process has been codified: every interviewee will meet every employee on staff and will be interviewed by six employees.

How well will this work in a year or so when hiring becomes more competitive?

flickr: Alex France