If you are a human resources manager, you naturally rely on a lot of people in your organization to get things done. And it’s natural to show your gratitude to people who have helped you. But when it comes to showing appreciation, business consultants caution that you should look beyond the obvious people to those who might not immediately come to mind, but whose help has nonetheless been important.

Mentors are people often overlooked when it comes to showing appreciation, according to business strategist Dorie Clark. This might happen because they are not around on a regular basis. But the advice they give can make a big difference in your performance. Having a more senior manager in your corner to offer advice and encouragement is a real stroke of good fortune and should not be taken for granted.

When considering people to thank, don’t ignore a person just because it may have been a while since he or she helped you, Clark says. Even though you may not have seen the person in a number of years, he or she almost certainly will be glad to hear from you. Clark relates a story about a person who wrote a thank you note to a college professor a few years after she graduated. He was touched that she remembered him.

Also, remember support staff, Clark says. If someone important has helped you, in addition to thanking that person, think about the people under him or her who may have made his or her efforts possible.

The method of thanks that is the most personal and has the most impact is a handwritten note. The note should include specific details about what the person did that was helpful to you.

If you want to send a gift as a way of showing your appreciation, you need to keep in mind any legal restrictions that may apply because of the person’s position, or any ethical considerations – something that may pose the appearance of a conflict of interest, for example.

Also, when sending a gift, it is best to take into account the recipient’s interests, Clark says. If the person is a big football fan, for example, getting him football tickets probably would be greatly appreciated. If the person you wish to thank is more inclined toward the arts, or something cultural, a ticket to a symphony or an art exhibition would be more appropriate.

When you’re looking for a new job – or a new employee – look to RealStreet Staffing. We can help skilled workers in the construction, engineering and architecture sectors find great positions with Washington, DC-area companies who need them. Contact us today!

As most people know, there are different kinds of interviews, and different interviewing techniques. Most of the attention given to interviews goes to those where a job is at stake.

But there is another kind of interview –  the informational interview — that doesn’t get as much attention as it deserves, because it too can be an effective way to land a job or boost a career.

The informational interview can be used to help you gain real, practical knowledge about an industry or help you expand your network of people. More people need to use them, according to Annie Favreau, a career counselor.

She offers some advice on how to get the most out of the informational interview, beginning with doing the proper research. You should never go into these kinds of interviews without doing research on the person you are interviewing and the industry in which he or she works. You need to have some idea about what the individual does. You can perform this research in a number of ways, looking through books, on the Internet, or even talking to family and friends.

You should also have a specific reason for meeting with the person, a purpose in mind. Yes, you are gathering information, but for what, and why? You need to answer these important questions before you ever approach the person for a meeting. This is important for making a good impression on the person, because he or she will probably be a little frustrated if you are unclear why you want to talk to him or her. For example, are you interested in learning the specific duties of a certain job, or what the hurdles are to getting into a certain profession, or what you need to do to be successful in a certain job? Prepare questions in advance that relate to your reason for requesting a meeting.

And don’t waste the person’s time by asking questions you can find the answer to yourself by doing a little reading. You are there to get information that only this person can provide, the answers that come from actually working in the industry.

Finally, this is an informational interview, not a job interview, so do not ask for a job. This is a kind of bait-and-switch tactic that will only annoy the person you are talking to.

If you’re looking to find a new position, the recruiters at RealStreet Staffing would love to meet with you to discuss what types of jobs are out there. We have many terrific temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire positions with some of Washington, DC’s top construction, engineering and architecture firms. Contact us today!

When writing a resume, we have a certain image of our career in mind, an image of how it has progressed, and what we have done. It is this version that we present to employers when we apply for a job.

But career counselor Penelope Trunk says that if we are looking to switch careers or change jobs, we need to reevaluate the standard interpretation of our career, the one we have always used.

There are different ways of looking at the same events, depending on what you want to highlight or what perspective you are looking from. And this is something that many job hunters overlook. They continue to tell the same story about their career, when what they need is a new narrative, which may be completely different, Trunk says.

It’s not like a math test, where there is a correct answer or version and an incorrect one. Depending on what you emphasize in your background, you can fashion your resume to fit multiple scenarios. As Trunk says there is “no one correct story of your life.”

Say, for example, that you worked in the human resources department, but that over time you became the IT expert for the department, mastering the applications and databases used. Although your field is human resources, you could just as easily fashion a resume highlighting your expertise in information technology.

Trunk’s plan to look at your life story for your resume is, first, to figure out where you would really like to be with your career. Then, think back over your life and what you have done, pulling out the things you have done that have a bearing on what you would like to be doing right now. Toss out everything on your resume that is not relevant to what you want to be doing right now. Then, pull things together – work backward in a sense from what you want to be doing right now, using all those things that relate and linking them together into your personal story, your personal narrative.

As Trunk says, the important thing to remember is that your career is not something static and immutable, but dynamic and something you control. You need to tell that story from different perspectives, and not let the one perspective that is your current resume rule your life.

Come to RealStreet Staffing when you’re looking for work in Washington, DC in the architecture, construction or engineering sectors and tell us the story of your career – we’ll help you take it to where you want to go! We look forward to hearing from you.

It has become a common lament among job seekers, one you hear often. They send out hundreds upon hundreds of resumes, all to no avail. There is no doubt that in their job search they are working hard, but the question is, are they working smart?

If you send out several hundred resumes and do not even get one response, you might want to take a look at your resume and what you might be doing wrong, rather than simply lamenting how tough the job market is, says career coach Priscilla Claman.

The problem might be a simple one – such as a misspelling on your resume. But you need to confront the fact that something is wrong and take steps to correct it.

There are three questions you need to ask about your job search, Claman says.

The first – Are you getting five or six interviews for every 100 resumes you send out? (This ratio should not be taken as uniform. It may vary depending on where you work or what type of work you do.) If you are not getting this many interviews, the probability is that the problem lies with your resume, or you are not targeting the right kinds of jobs. If you simply take a scattershot approach to sending resumes, giving it to anyplace that is advertising a job opening, the odds are you are not going to have much success.

If you are not getting any bites after sending out batches of your resume, stop the mass mailings.

First, have someone take a look at your resume for errors or any other problems.

If you’ve been focusing on job boards like Monster, get away from that and move toward other job search strategies, such as using social media and networking through friends, or using company websites. Zero in on companies you really want to work for and go after them, even if they are not interviewing. Get your name out there. Find what works and stick to it.

The second question to ask, according to Claman, are you getting at least one follow-up interview for every eight initial interviews? If not, again, stop and think about what you are doing in the interview process. Are you preparing properly? Do you know why you want the job and can you express your reasons well?

The third question to ask, Claman says, have you been a finalist for eight or nine jobs and still not received an offer? Again, if not, you need to assess why not. At this stage, since all candidates are likely very qualified for the position, you may not get a sure answer, but you need to examine the situation.

The important point, Claman says, is that if something is not working, you need to change what you are doing, not simply do more of it and hope things will be different.

If you’ve applied to dozens of jobs with no results in the Washington, DC area, bring your resume to RealStreet Staffing. We’ll take a look at your resume and offer pointers on how to improve it. We’ll also help you find temporary (long- and short-term) assignments in the construction, engineering and architecture sectors that often can lead to full-time employment. Contact us today!

With the job market as bad as it is, most job hunters are looking at ways to make themselves stand out from the crowd. In other words, doing something that is unique and creative as part of the job search.

This obviously is not anything new. Job seekers always have tried unusual ways of getting themselves noticed, using gimmicks of some sort or another. But, with the unemployment rate higher than it has been in some time, and likely to stay that way for a while, many are reexamining the issue again, grasping at anything that might help.

Most professional career consultants frown on such gimmickry, saying it does little to help an applicant. Better to spend the time on polishing the resume and cover letter, making them as compelling as possible to the hiring manager.

Their advice has been to keep the resume and cover letter simple and professional – using good quality paper, a professional typeface, a neat, organized layout. Black lettering on white paper. And they advise that an applicant be sure to avoid misspellings or grammatical errors. This, they say, counts for much more than any gimmickry.

But, some might counter, is there really anything to lose? There is no simple answer to the question. It may depend on the type of job for which you’re applying. For example, something in a more creative, artistic type of business or sector might lend itself to some kind of trickery. But using gimmicks would probably be more detrimental in applying for a more traditional, conservative kind of job.

So, will using some kind of gimmick get you noticed? Certainly. But will it produce any results? Not if you don’t have a dynamite resume and cover letter with which to back it up.

To land a job, you still need to rely on the tried to true, and, yes, rather mundane, job search strategies – doing a self-assessment to sharpen your own idea of your strengths and what you can bring to the job market, networking with as many people as you can, researching the places where you want to work, and writing the best resume and cover letter that you can.

Contacting RealStreet Staffing is another proven way to find work. We can place you in temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire assignments with some of Washington DC’s best companies. We look forward to hearing from you!

“Tell me a little about yourself.”

That’s a common line in any job interview. It’s something you should know is coming and something for which you should prepare. You should have some idea as to how you are going to answer such a question, so you’re not left stammering or giving a rambling, hard-to-follow answer.

If you are not sure how to answer the question, here are a few tips on how to approach it.
When the interviewer asks a question like this, he or she is trying to determine how good a fit you will be with the company. The hiring manager is trying to get a sense of your personality and attitude. If, for example, you come across as a sober and straitlaced type, and the company or department has a more informal, relaxed atmosphere, that might raise some reservations in the hiring manager’s mind as to whether the company/department is the right place for you.

The irony of the situation is that a hiring manager doesn’t really want to know a lot about you personally.  You can save the biographical information for another time.

What an interviewer is most interested in hearing about is what you’ve achieved in career or job history. And now is a good time to expand on what you have on your résumé, to go beyond the bullet points and talk about what you have done, the contributions you have made, and to do it in a bit more depth. The interviewer wants to know what kind of job you are going to do in his or her company/department and telling him or her what you’ve done in the past will give the hiring manager an idea of how you’ll be able to contribute in the future.

You can also add a little information here about your attitude and personality, how you see yourself, what personality traits define you.

And, while many job applicants are under the mistaken impression that they need to be as brief as possible in their answers, you do need to watch so that you don’t wander off topic. Before you answer, take a little time to collect your thoughts and come up with a general plan as to what you are going to say. And again, it’s perfectly acceptable to talk for a few minutes about your background and experience, but watch that you don’t take any detours from your main point.

Got the job interview jitters? We’ll help calm you and give you some great tips when we send you for an interview with one of our client companies. Call RealStreet Staffing today so that we can help you find temporary and direct-hire positions with some of Washington DC’s top architecture, construction and engineering firms. We look forward to hearing from you!

Looking for a job is an arduous and time-consuming process. It takes a lot of effort. But when that effort begins to pay off, remember the work is not done until you have a definite job offer in hand. That means don’t slack off too soon – follow through with all the details.

You may think your work is done after going through the interview process, but following through after the interview is just as important to increase the odds of your getting the job.

The follow through process actually begins during the interview. Get the business cards of the people you talk to so that you have accurate contact information for your follow up note. Also, during the interview, ask when you can expect to hear from the company about its job search. This puts the ball in the hiring manager’s court, creating the expectation that there will be a response, and creating the opportunity for further communication.

Then follow through with a thank you note as soon as you can, using the contact information you have from the business cards. Today, an e-mail message usually is the most appropriate form to use. In the note, you can re-emphasize any points you feel need to be highlighted, and also add any information you  forgot to mention during the interview.

If you have been working through a staffing agency, get in touch with the recruiter to discuss the interview and how it went and to figure what to do next. The interviewer at the company will expect the recruiter to get in touch, and so if you have met and talked with the recruiter, he or she will be in a good position to sell you to the interviewer and provide any additional information.

One thing to avoid, however, is a follow up phone call, as this may appear to be an unnecessary intrusion into the busy schedule of the interviewer. But, if the interviewer told you that you would be contacted by a certain time, and that has not happened, then a call may be appropriate.

And finally, if you need help punching up your résumé and marketing your skills, many staffing agencies offer career services to help you.

RealStreet Staffing, in fact, will be happy to help you craft a great résumé. Contact us today so that we can get to work on creating a document that sells your skills and experience to employers in the Washington Metro area. We look forward to hearing from you!

If you want to increase the chances of having a successful relationship with your staffing firm, here are a few things to keep in mind when your company makes a request for contingent employees.

The first tip for making things go as smoothly as possible is to make sure you notify the staffing service as far in advance as you can as to when you will be making an order. This is even more important if you are going to be making several orders.

Make sure you get ongoing progress reports on how your orders are being filled and set a specific time when you will get the progress reports. Doing so will help you know if you will need to contact other services.

Find out if the staffing service also is filling requests for the same types of workers for other companies, and where your company stands on the list of orders to be filled.

You also should let the service know how much leeway your company has as far as what the skills you need in the temporary workers and how many hours a day or week they will be at on site.

If you are looking for a specific set of skills, you need to be clear about your requirements with the staffing firm, be very clear that you won’t  settle for anything less.

Make sure that you have frequent communications with the staffing firm’s managers, and get together on a routine basis with the your service’s representative to let him or her know how the firm is doing.

Check with other staffing companies to get an idea of the rates you will have to pay to be competitive and to avoid any unnecessary haggling.

Finally, try to create a welcoming atmosphere at your site for the temporary workers on assignment with you so that they will want to come back.

When you need reliable professionals skilled in the construction, engineering and architecture industries for your Washington, DC-area company, contact RealStreet Staffing. We can source, vet and place workers in temporary, temp-to-hire and direct hire assignments. We look forward to hearing from you.

For many of those who are looking at staffing services to find work, an important consideration is the kind of benefits they offer. Many staffing firms offer a variety of benefits, including health insurance, as a way to recruit and keep workers.

One international staffing service, for example, offers up to five different healthcare plans for its workers. The company also offers dental and vision insurance, along with short-term disability insurance. Other types of insurance include life insurance and accidental death insurance.

This firm also offers a retirement program — a 401(k) through Wells Fargo. And the company also has a tuition reimbursement program for workers who want to return to school. In addition to these benefits, the staffing service recently began offering legal insurance. If one of the firm’s temporary employees is buying a house or wants to draw up a will, the employee can pay a premium for help from a lawyer.

RealStreet Staffing is not an international service and therefore can’t offer the scope of benefits as mentioned above. We do offer our temporary associates a variety of benefits, including:

For Salaried Employees

• 11 Paid Holiday
• 15 Days Paid Time Off
• 401(k) with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 7 percent
• Health Insurance Coverage – choice of three plans, two of which are company-paid for our employee.
• Vision Coverage
• Prescription Coverage
• Dental Plan
• Life Insurance
• LTD

For Hourly Employees

• 401(k) with dollar-for-dollar matching up to 7 percent
• Health Insurance Coverage – choice of three plans, two of which are company-paid for our employee.
• Vision Coverage
• Prescription Coverage
• Dental Plan
• Life Insurance
• LTD

We offer these benefits as a way to allow our workers to maintain their careers as well as to provide protection for their families. For more information on the Washington Metro-area jobs we offer, as well as our benefits, contact a recruiter at RealStreet Staffing today.

Sooner or later, every person in a position of leadership is going to make a mistake, one that will also entail the obligation of an apology.  We’re only human.

It might involve a snafu on the job, some action that was taken or not taken, or something that was said that shouldn’t have been.  Once it has occurred, what then?

The first thing to do, according to Dorie Clark, New Hampshire communications director for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, is admit that you made a mistake.  If you are in charge of a business and something embarrassing has happened, you need to get it out in the open.  Without doing that, no one will be able to concentrate on business issues because they will be focusing on the mistake. Ignoring it may make you feel better, but it won’t make the problem go away.  Once you address the problem, you speed up the recovery.

Another thing that might help, according to Clark, is showing a little humor.  You have to be able to laugh at yourself.  You can’t take yourself too seriously.  If you do this, you let your workers know it’s all right for them to blow a little steam off that way, too.

Then, in order to get back on track, you need to refocus attention back on the task at hand and away from the gaffe.  You might want to take a different approach in addressing the problem, or get feedback from workers on how best to proceed.

The most important thing is maintaining the trust of your team.  If your error has disturbed that trust, the first order of business is to reestablish it.  If you or your business has made a mistake – it could be a new product that didn’t work out in the market, something you said that was inappropriate, or a public relations plan that went off track – there always will be some people who will be pitiless when you look for some sign of forgiveness.  You can’t worry about them.  What have to work to do is fix that trust with your team.

Errors happen, but communicating effectively can go a long way to repair the problem.

RealStreet Staffing can help Washington Metro construction, engineering and architecture firms meet and exceed their strategic staffing goals. Contact us today so that we may work with you to craft a staffing plan that will help your business grow and prosper.