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!

One growing trend in the workplace is that employers are using recruiters more to look for workers as part of their hiring process. If you are looking for a job, it is to your advantage to know how to work with recruiters, and to know how they work.

Preparation is key here. If you have never been contacted by a recruiter, or it’s been some time since you’ve talked with one, do some research and learn about the process, or to refresh your memory.

Although the recruiter is working for the employer, he or she can be very helpful to you as a job seeker. The recruiter can give you advice about the process and be used for feedback for your own impressions.  The recruiter also can be a go-between for employers and job applicants.  The recruiter can pass along information or respond to other concerns even before actual contact between the parties occurs.

Find out the payment system that the recruiter is using.  Is he being paid on a retainer basis, where he will receive payment regardless of the outcome, or on a strictly commission basis, which tends to make the recruiter work to close the deal as quickly as possible?   Knowing this as a job candidate is important because if the recruiter is working on a retainer, you can be more confident knowing that he will not be in a rush to close the deal and will be more concerned about finding the right person for the job.

You need to be able to sell yourself to a recruiter.  You need to give the recruiter a solid understanding of your skills and experience, as well as what kind of position you seek.

It’s also important in dealing with a recruiter to be yourself.  Trying to create an appearance that is not the real you just to fit a job description will sooner or later lead to problems because you may end up in a job that is not a good fit.  Try not to come across as too eager, which might be seen as desperation.  You need to be poised and confident in dealing with a recruiter.

As with any job search, you also want to investigate your potential employer and make yourself as informed as possible about the company.

You need to let the recruiter know if you are following up on any other job leads. The recruiter and the employer know that candidates are pursuing as many opportunities as they can find, so this is not a problem. It might also make you look better to a company if it knows you are being sought by other employers as well.

You also have to be willing to take suggestions and even criticism from the recruiter. Don’t take it personally because the recruiter is simply trying to improve your attractiveness as a job candidate.

If you’re looking for work in the construction, engineering or architecture sectors in the Washington, DC area, contact a recruiter at RealStreet Staffing. We have many temporary, temp-to-hire and direct-hire assignments with some of DC’s best companies. We look forward to hearing from you.

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!

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.

In today’s super competitive business arena, even those who are considered giants of their industry are no longer considered to be in a safe position – and sometimes are even the first to be relieved of duty.

For many senior executives, the time when they will be eased out the door is approaching – and often it will arrive sooner than they would like.  This is really no big surprise.  For many of these people, their job is intimately connected to who they are.  It is tied up with their sense of self-worth and their identity. They will miss the power and prestige and influence they have now.

John Baldoni, a leadership development consultant, argues that those who are beginning their tenure as leaders need to keep this in mind.  Their legacy is formed by the accretion of all their actions over the span of their career.  It’s not something created just during the final episode, the last year or several years in the CEO’s office or executive suite.

But when the time comes to step down, leaders often are at a loss.  They don’t know what to do.  Their job has been their whole life.  Often their personal lives, as well as avocations or hobbies, have been sacrificed to their career, so  when the career ends, they’re left with a gaping void.  So what Baldoni advises is that leaders — and leaders of the future — take the time now to develop their lives outside of work. Don’t wait for that first day of retirement and think that suddenly you can reorient everything.

Baldoni suggests several ways to do this.  One way is to cultivate friendships.  Also, do what you can when you can with your family.  You may not always be able to be there, but when you have the opportunity, you should always take advantage of it.

Another way to build up your life outside the job is to find something you love to do – other than work.  And whatever it may be, make time to do it.

A third way is to contribute to your community through volunteerism.  This is an excellent way to enrich your life and make it much more satisfying.

Make the time to do these things now, Baldoni says – don’t wait until it is too late, and you find yourself retired with no interests outside of your job.

If you’re looking to work your way up the management ladder at companies in the Washington Metro area, contact RealStreet Staffing. Let us help you work your way up in management. We look forward to hearing from you.

We have lots of ways of measuring our physical well being that help us determine when our bodies are healthy and when we are pushing them too much.  But what we don’t have is a good measure of our mental well being, and it’s something we need because we’re pushing ourselves like never before.  We are doing more things, with more speed, being deluged with information, and scattering our attention as never before in history of humankind.

We really have no reliable information on good mental habits.  Business treats workers as if their mental effort were inexhaustible, an automatically replenishing resource. Yet in many organizations, the sense of being overwhelmed is one of the biggest problems workers face.  And if people don’t have reliable information about the mind and the brain and under what conditions they operate best, workers may not be aware how that is affecting their performance and their living.

Two physicians, David Rock and Daniel Siegel, have developed seven activities for mental well being.  By doing these activities every day, you will help improve your mental well being.

The first activity is focusing on a task.  When we do this in a goal-oriented way we make strong connections in the brain.  Another activity is simply taking the time to play, to do something spur of the moment or something creative, which helps make new neural connections in the brain.  Taking time to interact with other people also is important for building connections in the brain. Another way to strengthen the brain is through physical activity, as is simple reflection, turning inward to think about our thoughts and feelings.   We need to take time to relax, to just let our mind wander occasionally to help it recharge.  And we need to get enough sleep, which is crucial to mental health and the best functioning of our brain.

The physicians aren’t recommending that businesses drop everything and radically change in order to allow employees the time to incorporate each activity.  But they are saying that people should be more aware of these activities that help lead to good mental health and should make an effort to engage in some of them as often as possible.

When you’re looking for a position in the engineering, architectural or construction fields, contact a recruiter at RealStreet Staffing, your Washington Metro staffing firm. We look forward to hearing from you.