As I was taking a final gander, one caught my eye. It was sent by Gwenn Rosener. Gwenn is a woman I interviewed last year about her firm Flexforce Professionals, a recruiting and staffing company in the Washington, D.C., area that focuses on helping professionals, including retirees who want to continue working, find part-time work with competitive pay. Gwenn, once an Ernst & Young senior manager, who holds a Harvard MBA in her back pocket, and her partners Sheila Murphy and Ellen Grealish all have executive-level management and consulting backgrounds. Grealish worked at Hewlett-Packard and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), and Murphy held consulting posts, mostly with government clients, including the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

They started their business in 2010, and reeled in revenues of $140,000 with a profit of $47,000 that first year, placing CFOs, HR managers, business development and proposal writers, web designers, analysts, bookkeepers and office managers–all in part-time or temporary jobs.

“Dear Kerry,

Hope you have a wonderful holiday. Enjoyed connecting with you this year,” Gwenn wrote. “Thank-you for letting us share our story. A quick update since our last talk–we actually ended up quadrupling our sales this year and surpassed the $500k mark. It surprises even us.”

It didn’t surprise me. Temporary staffing is the bee’s knees these days.

Recently, the big online job site,CareerBuilder, released a Harris Interactive survey that showed that more than a third of American companies are operating with smaller staffs than before the recession.

To keep business trucking along, 36 percent of companies will hire contract or temporary workers in 2012, up from 28 percent in 2009, according to the survey of more than 3,000 hiring managers and human resource professsionals.

And nearly a third of those employers want to hire before April. “Temporary jobs from staffing and recruiting firms are playing an increasingly important role in the economic recovery,” according Eric Gilpin, president of CareerBuilder’s Staffing & Recruiting Group.

Based on CareerBuilder’s data, the following are examples of staffing and recruiting positions currently in demand: Occupational or Physical Therapist and Speech Language Pathologist, Java or .Net Developer, Network Engineer, Administrative Assistant,  Customer Service Representative and Business Analyst.

I get it. From the employer’s perspective, hiring temporary workers simply makes sense in many circumstances. They can staff up for short-range project without the price tag of healthcare and other benefits.

And in this employment market, they can attract the crème de la crème. These are often workers who have been downsized, or taken early retirement packages. Once the dust clears, they discover they either need or want to keep working.

Is this a good thing? It certainly can be. As a career transition expert, I view temporary work as a perfect chance for a career switcher to try on different hats, work in various types of businesses, even add new skills and experience.

A temporary, “dip in the pool” assignment lets you get a feel firsthand if this is something you really want to do. I always tell people who ask my advice on changing careers–do the job first-moonlight, apprentice, volunteer. If you can get paid for a temporary gig, go for it. That’s the only way you’ll know if the new career is all you dreamed it would be.

But even if you aren’t thinking of career changing, here are other reasons why a  temporary assignment may be worth it.

• Gets you out of bed in the morning. You’ve got something to do.
• Gets you in the door. It may lead to full-time work with an employer eventually. Don’t miss the opportunity.
• Gets you decent pay. You can make your experience a plus. Employers are typically willing to pay you generously, providing you have the chops, if you solve their problem or need quickly. It lets them bypass the hand-holding and learning curve stage that a younger, less experienced, but lower-paid worker, might require.
• Builds your professional network. Nurture relationships with co-workers during your assignment. You never know where a contact may lead you, and who they might be able to refer you to for future jobs.
• Lands you new and au courant references for future employers to contact about what you’ve been up to lately.
• Keeps your resume alive. It’s a bone to stave off the disgrace of those gaping holes of idleness in your resume.
• Keeps your skills sharp. You know the mantra: Use it or lose it.
• Lets  you get psyched about a work project–without the pressure of long-term expectations. No job is forever, anyway. This one just might be shorter than most, and that can be tremendously freeing.

You can’t expect that temporary or contract positions will lead to a full-time or on-going position. I know that. If it is a job or a company that turns you on, though, you can subtly let it be known that you’d love an opportunity to be considered for a full-time position should things change. And, please, don’t take it personally, if it doesn’t. It’s not about you…it’s about them.

Even if it’s just what it claims to be, a temp job, you still win in my experience. First, it might be just the flexible work schedule you’re looking for. Secondly, if it’s a full-time job you really want, it still has your back.

When you’re making money, the truth is you feel better about yourself. You feel valued. It builds confidence. That’s far healthier than shooting out resumes and not getting a single response. And seriously, you never know what might come your way when you back away from the computer screen.

A final tip: Hone your yarn-spinning. Even if the assignment was the pits, and that’s always possible, find a clever to use it in a future job interview. It can be a great example of your work ethic, ability to helicopter in and solve a problem, or fill a professional need for a company. Make the time spent part of your personal career story. Poetic license.

So Gwenn, well done and congrats on a terrific 2011!

Wishing you a successful new year,

Kerry

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryhannon/2012/01/19/why-temporary-work-is-worth-it/

 NBA recruits I-TECH Personnel for All-Star 2012 Event

JACKSONVILLE – January 26, 2011 – I-TECH announces that it will be recruiting people to work at the NBA All-Star game that will take place on February 26, 2012.

This event will be held at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, and the game will begin at 7:00pm EST. The game will also be shown live on TNT. I-TECH is currently recruiting people who are interested to work at this event on February 24, 25 and 26. Anyone interested in these positions should apply at the I-TECH website at www.itechpersonnel.com.

The NBA All-Star game will be one of the most entertaining sports events in the world. This will be the first time this game has taken place since 1992, when Magic Johnson won the All-Star MVP Award and made his successful comeback to the NBA. The NBA All-Star 2012 promises to be a unique experience that will showcase the talents of the greatest basketball players in the world.

About I-TECH

Founded in 1998 in Jacksonville, Florida, I-TECH is committed to providing both local and national clients with high quality employee placement services through attention to detail and unparalleled customer support. I-TECH has a strong track record of professional performance on many elite-level projects, including the coastal cleanup of BP gulf oil spill, the Jacksonville/EPA ash remediation, and support to the Florida Army National Guard through a major DOD contractor.

With over a decade of experience in the greater Jacksonville employment market, I-TECH has developed a unique multifaceted approach to matching talented employees with placements that match their skill sets and career goals. I-TECH maintains a strong network of multilingual candidates to meet the needs of the diverse Jacksonville business community.

Media Contact:

http://www.itechpersonnel.net/contact-us/

# # #

In my career I have reviewed thousands of resumes and conducted hundreds of employment interviews for both The Trademark Company and other businesses for which I have worked. In doing so, I got to see the good, the bad, and the downright ugly in terms of resumes, interviewing skills, and the like. For other CEOs looking to hire, here’s what I think makes a great candidate stand out from the good ones.

1.  Attention to detail

How many times have you heard this one, right? Pay attention to detail. Let me say it again: PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL!

There’s a great story at the end of the movie Coming to America with Eddie Murphy. It goes something like this:

A man goes into a restaurant. He’s having a bowl of soup and he says to the waiter, “Waiter come taste the soup.” The waiter says, “Is something wrong with the soup?” He says “Taste the soup.” The waiter says again, “Is there something wrong with the soup? Is the soup too hot?” The man says again, “Will you taste the soup?“ “What’s wrong, is the soup too cold?” Replies the waiter.  “Will you just taste the soup?!”  “All right, I’ll taste the soup,” says the waiter, “where’s the spoon??” “Aha. Aha! …”

At this point you may be asking yourself, “So what does this have to do with identifying a great candidate?”

Not less than two months ago I received a wonderful e-mail from an applicant seeking to work for The Trademark Company. The e-mail was personally crafted. The note struck a wonderful tone emphasizing capability and a willingness to learn more about what we do here. Most importantly, the candidate emphasized attention to detail. I was sold. I was ready to open up the resume and see what they had to offer. And then, “Aha. Aha! …”

The applicant had failed to attach a resume. In the blink of an eye, all of the time spent preparing for this submission–researching me, the company, and the job’s requirements–vanished into thin air. Poof!

Some CEOs may have overlooked this and just asked for the resume. But you can’t say you have an eye for detail and then fail to deliver on the point. Everything job candidates do, from cover letter to resume and beyond, must prove that point. Otherwise they are just wasting your time. I passed on that candidate.

2.  Proofread

My contracts professor in law school told this one to the class one day. Although he was an otherwise socially challenged individual, this story has always stayed with me.

It seems that at some juncture he was involved in delivering a speech on some topic that involved a “public option.”  He had written and prepared the speech but had left the PowerPoint slide presentation to one of his assistants.

Well, as he began delivering his speech–a seemingly dry speech–he could not understand why a wave of chuckles and murmurs would, from time to time, arise from the audience. It was not until he neared the end of his presentation that he glanced up at the screen projecting the bullet points of his speech behind him. And right there, right in that moment, he understood with perfect clarity why his speech had evoked the unexpected reaction from the crowd.

If you omit the letter “L” from the word “public,” it won’t be flagged by spell check. It will, however, be picked up by anyone else reading the slides as you deliver your speech on the “pubic option.”

This could very well be you at your next sales presentation: pissed and embarrassed because you overlooked your employee’s failure to proofread his resume during the hiring process. So, check the candidate’s resume and cover letter for misspellings that spell check might have missed. In so doing you will make sure that you hire someone that’s thorough and doesn’t rely on spell check to do their job.

3.  Preparedness

One of the first things I always do after an interviewee leaves is to ask every single person who came into contact with them what they thought. Why you might ask? You never know what little windows into your prospective employee this may provide.

Once I asked one of our receptionists what she thought of a particular interviewee. I was very surprised to hear what she had to say. She said she thought the interviewee was pleasant but did have some trouble when she first arrived: It seems that the prospective employee had no idea who she was interviewing with, so the receptionist had to call around the office for 10 minutes until she could figure out who to notify that their appointment had arrived.

I thought this displayed a lack of preparedness on the interviewee’s part, especially as she was interviewing for a job that had primary scheduling responsibilities for me and would require her to know and keep track of all of our most important customers.

In another case, after a 45-minute interview the interviewee stood and said, “Mark, thanks for the second interview.” Big problem: My name is actually Matt. Nevertheless, I shrugged it off–perhaps I had misheard the applicant, or maybe he had simply had a momentary lapse. However, when I walked him to the door he proudly reiterated my name, “Mark, again thanks. I look forward to hearing from you.” Every fiber in my being yearned to reply, “Well, if I meet this Mark fellow, I’ll be sure to have him call you.” I did not. I also did not call him back.

A candidate should know everything about you that they can find out and engage you on a level that you will enjoy and that moves you one step closer to offering them the job.

4.  Phone and e-mail correspondence

Another thing that also gets overlooked is professionalism in e-mail and phone communications. I pay attention to the candidate’s e-mail address and how they answer their personal phone.

Sure we all have private lives, but we all have to be professional in dealing with employers–and, most importantly, prospective employers. So if a candidate’s e-mail address is “bigsexy@gmail.com” or “hunkaburninlove@yahoo.com,” think twice about hiring him. Gmail, Yahoo and other companies have a great price point for new e-mail addresses: free. There’s no excuse for not having a professional-looking e-mail address.

For me, an interview starts when I call you to set up the interview. Recently I called an applicant, and they must have been at a the reunion tour of Van Halen–because when the candidate answered, all I could hear was “Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love” blasting through my phone. I mean, it was so loud I could actually see people in my office starting to bob their heads to the tunes.

After a few attempts shouting into the phone–“Is [Name Omitted] there?”–finally the music departed and I was able to hear once again. The heads stopped bobbing in my office and the person on the other end said, “Speaking.” Ahhhh. Well, I know they love music…and that they lack judgement.

5.  Honesty is overrated

Yes, you want your potential employee to answer questions truthfully, but answering too truthfully may also show a lack of judgment. For instance, I often ask the hypothetical question, “If you were hired and six months after you were hired another opportunity presented itself, would you go on an interview for that opportunity?” You would be surprised at how many people say they would. Wrong answer!

Let’s take one of my more infamous examples. Once I was asking a prospective employee to explain an 18-month gap in his employment history. To this day I remember his response verbatim. It went like this: “Man, the whole work thing … ya’ know … like, wow.”  I was left mouth agape and speechless. Needless to say: He did not get the job.

Written By:

Matthew Swyers

Matthew Swyers is the founder of The Trademark Company, a web-based law firm specializing in protecting the trademark rights of small to medium-sized businesses. Matt founded the company on the belief that top caliber trademark services should be affordable to all. Today, the company is recognized as one of the top trademark firms in the world by industry magazines while maintaining its customer service focus and an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. The company is also ranked No. 138 on the 2011 Inc. 500 list.

Source: http://www.inc.com/matthew-swyers/5-things-i-look-for-in-a-jgreat-job-interview.html

For Immediate Release

Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) Partners With I-TECH To Meet Temporary Staffing Needs

Award-Winning Jacksonville Florida Temporary Staffing Firm Chosen By The Jacksonville Transportation Authority To Provide Short-Term Employees Who Help Keep Residents And Visitors Moving In Duval County

JACKSONVILLE, Nov. 18, 2011 – I-TECH Personnel, the award-winning Jacksonville staffing solutions firm, today announced that it has partnered with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) to provide temporary staffing solutions for the regional public transit provider. This move ensures that the JTA has immediate access to a high-quality network of skilled candidates in Duval County who can provide on-demand staffing solutions to the independent state agency.

More than just a public transit authority, for over 50 years the JTA has been responsible for designing and constructing roads and bridges throughout the county in addition to providing residents and visitors with a variety of mass public transit options. Services of the JTA include the operation of neighborhood shuttles and regional buses, the downtown monorail and trolley services, and the Jacksonville Stadium shuttle. They also manage the JTA Connexion which provides low-cost transportation for passengers with mobility issues along with a number of park-n-ride commuter lots throughout the area.

As a Jacksonville-based staffing firm, I-TECH was the logical choice as the temporary staffing partner of the JTA. I-TECH was founded by a local entrepreneur over 12 years ago with the vision of developing a company that would provide world-class service to clients. Along with carefully matching candidates to the client’s needs, I-TECH has specialized in linking multilingual workers with area companies, supporting the local Jacksonville community while providing meaningful opportunities to their employees. I-TECH has been recognized as a business leader in Jacksonville through a number of accolades, including being awarded Service Provider of the Year by the Florida Minority Supplier Development Council and listing as one of the Fast 50 Privately Held Firms in Northeast Florida by the Jacksonville Business Journal.

I-TECH and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority are both committed to projects which help area residents and businesses reach their potential. Through this partnership between I-TECH and the JTA, a number of motivated and skilled area candidates will be provided with meaningful employment along with the opportunity to gain valuable experience working with a world-class integrated transportation authority.

About I-TECH

Founded in 1998 in Jacksonville, Florida, I-TECH is committed to providing both local and national clients with high quality employee placement services through attention to detail and unparalleled customer support. I-TECH has a strong track record of professional performance on many elite-level projects, including the coastal cleanup of BP gulf oil spill, the Jacksonville/EPA ash remediation, and support to the Florida Army National Guard through a major DOD contractor. With over a decade of experience in the greater Jacksonville employment market, I-TECH has developed a unique multifaceted approach to matching talented employees with placements that match their skill sets and career goals. I-TECH maintains a strong network of multilingual candidates to meet the needs of the diverse Jacksonville business community.

For more information, contact I-TECH at [http://www.itechpersonnel.net/contact-us/].

Contact Information:

Thank you again, for your guidance and support. I will continue to do my best to never disappoint you.

I highly recommend I-Tech as a complete full service staffing agency and hope to continue working with them as long as I am in need of staffing services.