Paul Walker and Following Your Dreams

Paul Walker, most known for playing Brian O’Conner in Fast and The Furious died in a car crash this past Saturday. He was a great actor and a good person. Walker started his career as a child in the 1986 movie ‘Monster In The Closet’.

There is something to say about people who have passion for what they do and stick with one thing for their entire life. Passionate people are the most successful people. If you aren’t passionate about what you do, the effort that it takes to finish a project or develop a new technology won’t drop on your front door. Even the discovery of the most ‘accidental’ products such as Penicillin, the Microwave, vulcanized rubber, and Coca-Cola were brought about by a passion for discovery and invention.

So how do you discover your passion?

• The best way to discover anything about yourself, is to write down goals and express what you are passionate about on paper. Seeing something on paper in front of you drastically changes the way that you think about it. It’s like nothing is concrete until you write it down.
• Create an environment where you are excited and encouraged to succeed and perform. This could be as simple as changing the way you plan out your work-week or changing small things about your desk at work.
• Set goals for yourself and reward yourself when you accomplish those goals. Having a rewards system for yourself will lead to becoming more enthused and passionate about your work.
• Strive for new skills and responsibilities in your workplace. Ask for that account or step up and take on a new project that no one else wants to fit into their schedule. Trying new things and taking risks are bona-fide ways to become a more successful person. Everyone who is successful has risked failing and has come out on the other side ( despite multiple failures themselves).

If you are looking to build your career passion by finding a new opportunity, give us a call at Search Solution Group. We are looking for people to work with who are like Paul Walker and live life to the fullest, smiles often, and is passionate about their work.

These 5 Celebrities Would Make The World’s Best Recruiters

If you were walking down an alley and your cell phone rings. The voice says to you, ” Hi, this is _______, I’ve read your resume online, and I am impressed by your experience. Do you have time

to talk about an opportunity we have?”  There are a few people we feel that you couldn’t possibly say no to.

This is a list of  people Search Solution Group came up with who we feel would be amazing recruiters:

 

5) John Travolta circa 1970/1980: Would you say no to his sweet, sweet dance moves? We’d let him jab us in the heart with a shot of adrenaline any day of the year.

 

 

 

 

 

4) Mike Tyson: If you say no to him, you’d be KO’d faster than you could say ‘sweet face tat’. He has the Junior Olympic  record for knocking his opponent out in 8 seconds!

 

 

 

 

 

3) Pam Anderson: There is not a man in the world who grew up watching BayWatch that would say no to her.It’s a fact. Not only is Pam Anderson a hot beach babe, she is an enthusiastic activist for PETA, is a master gardener, and became the Labatt’s Blue spokesperson as her first big break from just wearing a t-shirt to a game.

 

2) Bill Clinton: He puts the baby in Ice Ice Baby. And c’mon, Bill Clinton is the coolest president of all time. He’s saved lives, he has two Grammys, and he plays the saxophone like a boss!

 

 

 

1) Bill Murray: America’s Sweetheart literally does whatever he wants and no one says no to him. Most recently Bill Murray body slammed Bill Corso at Game Day at Clemson, he did Karaoke with complete strangers, and Bill Murray showed up  at SXSW and started bar tending! Bill Murray is a mythical creature that pops up in random places and does whatever he wants. No one says no to Bill Murray.

If you met one of these people in the street, who would you say yes to?

Making The Sale vs. Customer Service

We are in the process of finding new tools to help us be an efficient recruiting firm and have access to a larger network of good candidates. Some of these companies have been great when it comes to customer service, but then there are some that only seem to care about the end goal of making the sale. Making a profit off of  customers is the only purpose for every single business ( even non-profit companies need to make money), but customers are looking to spend their money with a friendly helpful representative. It doesn’t matter how good your product is if you have terrible customer service.

When hiring people, for roles that have contact with customers, it is important to consider whether or not they understand the fine balance between being pushy to make the sale, and not aggravating the customer.

Here are some crazy numbers of damage done from poor customer Service:

• 55% of customers back out of a transaction due to poor customer service!

• 66% of customers are willing to spend more with companies they believe has excellent customer service!

• 83 Billion: Estimated annual loss to US businesses due to poor customer service!

Those are some hefty numbers relating to something as easy as  being helpful and friendly to customers. When interviewing candidate’s and building relationships with clients and potential clients, customer service is HUGE! ! A candidate might not be the best fit for the job they’ve applied to, but we are sure to keep in contact with them for future opportunities.

Search Solution Group believes that Customer Service and relationship building is the best way to drive business and make people happy!

Qualities of a Customer Service Genius:

• Product Knowledge: You want an employee who knows the product in order to answer a customer’s questions. Plus, you can’t be a good sales person if you don’t know your product better than the back of your hand.
• Follow up: Not being timely to follow-up with a customer is a great way to lose their business. When interviewing candidates, we look at how long it takes them to follow-up with us as a sign of what their follow-up would be like in the position.
• Ask Good Questions: Customers are individuals and expect to be treated as one.Therefore, asking the right questions to see how you can help them specifically will help build a relationship with that person and give them the sense that you actually care about their problems.
• SMILE!:  Even if you are on the phone with a customer, smiling makes your voice sound friendlier and will keep a customer from getting irritated. It can be awkward and unsettling for the customer to talk with a customer service rep who sounds unhappy. 

Goodbye Breaking Bad

**Spoiler Alert**

Did last night’s series finale of Breaking Bad give you such excitement that you threw a viewing party like these guys?

Did you then shove your face full of delicious Breaking Bad inspired cupcakes to drown your sorrows at the show’s ending?

If so, this post is for you. If you did not watch last night, you can still read on, but beware, it’ll spoil everything.

At Search Solution Group, there are a lot of  friendly bets  and challenges that happen. A recent bet made between Jeremy and Ashley was on whether or not Walter White would die or if  he would get away and ride off into the sunset.  Ashley won the bet and is now the recipient of a delicious lunch.

So Walt ends up dying from a stray bullet. But before he did so, he created a future for his children, finally told Skylar the truth about his continuation in the meth biz while giving her a way to avoid further legal trouble, and destroyed every single person who needed to be destroyed.

The majority of  what breaking bad enthusiast loved about the finale was that the writers kindly found a way to actually give us a finale. We weren’t left in the dark like in some other popular shows that literally left us in the dark. *Cough* Sopranos*Cough*.

The episode starts with Walt whispering to himself (or perhaps to the chemistry gods) “Just get me home, Just get me home”, and home he got. There are theories that he was acting as a ghost of himself wandering into places undetected, but we knew he had a plan he had to complete no matter the consequences, and had faith that his mission would be completed. This ghost-like quality was his realization that he knew he would be dead soon, so he might as well throw out all civilized behavior.No Fear.

That driving commitment to greatness and mission completeness is what connects Search Solution Group to Breaking Bad and the great Walter White. Search Solution Group’s recruiters strive to think of every possible outcome and are marvelous at solving problems in a genius way. While it might not involve the engineering of a deadly but brilliant trunk machine gun, SearchSolutionGroup’s recruiters have been known to engineer creative solutions to your needs in order to find the best talent. We don’t just stop at coming up with ideas, our recruiters take it a step further than other recruiting firms.

Our recruiters take the recruiter/candidate/client relationship a step further than other recruiting firms  and continues to maintain open lines of communication. We believe that by being available for clients and candidates in every step of the placement process keeps mistakes from happening. We want everything to be tied neatly with no loose ends just like Walt’s meticulous handling of a very sticky situation. While we don’t want for you to be bleeding out on the floor of a meth lab like Walt, we do want for our clients to have the same feeling of belonging and home  that was laid out so beautifully in the last scene, of the last episode, of the best TV Drama ever.

Now sorry for the interruption, please continue despairing over the loss of another great Sunday night TV drama.

Finding The Best Executive Recruiters

When starting your job search ( or if a recruiter calls you because you are a top candidate) the best type of recruiting or search firm to work with are a team of recruiting  specialists looking to work with specialists in their industries. For example, our recruiters at Search Solution Group specialize in placing people in these industries: Manufacturing, Retail Management, Distribution, Restaurant Management, Logistics, Energy, Health Care, Consumer Product Goods, and Hospitality. Within these industries are thousands of specialities ( like Finance or Human Resources) that we’ve placed. There are to be exact, a bajillion recruiters in the world, yet only some have connections, expertise,  and recruiters who are passionate for their jobs like our recruiters at Search Solution Group. 

Search Solution Group Super Recruiters

When looking for a great recruiter, take these qualities into account: 

Do They Know Your Industry? 

Say you are a Mechanical Engineer looking to find a new position, it would be important for you to work with a Recruiter who knows the industry and has connections and relationships with engineering firms  that employ Mechanical Engineers. For example, Search Solution Group has recruiters who have very strong connections with local, national, and international engineering firms and maintain those connections even when there is no job for them to fill because they know one day soon there might be one open.

Do They Communicate?

You want a recruiter who is always open to talk with you, give you advice, and listen to your concerns. Top recruiters have very  demanding schedules, but the important quality to have in a Recruiter, is responsiveness. If a recruiter doesn’t return your phone calls, emails, or hides behind a bush when they see you, its time to find yourself working with  Search Solution Group. If there is one thing that our recruiters are excellent at, it is responsiveness. Our recruiters are not afraid to pick up the phone and call you. Following through with a candidate is so imperative that you want to make sure you partner with a recruiter who will value your time.

Is This a Long-Term Relationship? 

The majority of recruiters will collect a large number of OK candidates for a position, and then drop them once they’ve made a placement. The recruiters at Search Solution Group look for a limited number of phenomenal candidates and makes sure to partner with those candidates in the future, whether it means working with you in your new Human Resources position, or staying in contact with you in order to find you the perfect position in the future. You want to work with a recruiter who cares about your success as much as they care about their success.

 

The recruiters at Search Solution Group are a team of dedicated, passionate, and caring people. We do everything to bring success to our clients and candidates. If you are looking to make a career change, contact us, find new job postings, and submit a resume through our website HERE and HERE!

6 Interview Killing Mistakes

Lets face it, at some point in your life you were just a little bit imperfect. We at Search Solution Group have never experienced an ounce of imperfection, but we hear it’s a common occurrence for other folk. One of those awkward or imperfect moments was most likely career search or interview related. While there are some people who seem to be natural-born interviewers who can land a job like nothing, it actually is a combination of Practice, Conscious Effort, and Experience that give these people immense power to land any job.

From the mouths of top Recruiters at Search Solution Group, here are 6 ways to kill any chance of acing an interview:

• A Terrible Personality: It should go without saying that you want to be perceived as a team player, a people enthusiast, and someone who won’t drag down the environment of the office. Being outgoing and personable during your interview goes a long way towards success. No matter how skillful or intelligent you are, a recruiter has a really hard time approving of a candidate who is lacking in the personality department.
• Focusing on Your Needs: When you go in for an initial interview, your main goal should be to make a good impression, find out more about the position, and decide whether or not you think you’d be a good fit with the company. While you may be thinking about the salary and benefits, DON’T ask about it. When a candidate is initially interviewing, the recruiter wants to see interest in the position and not perks of the job. Wait until further interviews when the recruiter or interviewer brings up compensation.
• Um, Like, You Know! : These words are fillers and they make you sound dumb in an interview. If you need time to think of a response to an answer, do just that! Don’t open your mouth to answer until you have a complete answer. This will avoid those filler words and your interviewers won’t mind the pause. In fact, showing that you carefully formulate answers will be a good sign of intelligence
• Dressing Like a Slob: It doesn’t matter if you are interviewing to be a Barrista or the Creative Director at Starbucks, always dress nicer than you think is necessary. It is better to look professional than run the risk of being judged on your low appearance. If your shirt wrinkles easily just from wearing it, it probably isn’t the best thing to wear to an interview. Gentlemen, wear a nice tie and a suit jacket, shave your face, and shine your shoes. Ladies, wear a nice and simple suit either of the pant or skirt variety, wear minimal makeup/perfume, and wear shoes with a reasonable heel.
• Disorganization: When asked about specifics on your resumé, and you can’t answer the question, that is a HUGE red flag to recruiters. Why would we take you seriously as a candidate if you can’t explain your past experiences. Additionally, when dates and positions with past companies don’t match up, you are either labeled as sketchy or sloppy.
• Unprofessionalism: First and foremost, not being early to an interview is being late. Additionally, when you have terrible eye-contact or a weak handshake, you didn’t  bring multiple copies of your resumé, all label you as a lame candidate and can potentially devastatingly kill your chances at landing that job. However, luckily for you, all it takes is some practice and conscious effort to not make these mistakes.

As a candidate, our recruiters at Search Solution Group work to make your interview process as smooth as possible. We act like a coach with our candidates and are looking for a huge win for you!

Big Employment is Baloney

A recent question submitted to Career Mojo got us  at Search Solution Group a bit baffled. The question was “How do I get a job with a large company?”  The questioner wanted to land a position with a large fortune 500 company but thought she was being looked down upon for her lack of corporate experience.

The reason this was perplexing is that working for a small company is waaaaaay better than being a number at a large company. The enigmatic logic that the only way to have a successful career is with a large company is dead wrong. While it may be awesome to just sit around all day and wade through the red tape created by corporate culture, working at a small company doesn’t allow the option to be just a cog in the wheel, but a linchpin. The magnificent book by Seth Godin, ‘Linchpin: Are you indispensable?‘ is a good guide to becoming a passionate worker. If you haven’t read it yet, go buy it. Right now.

It is so easy to just become an amorphous lump of clay in a large company and  it takes Houdini-esque performance to care about the projects you are working on when you don’t see the point. You might have a small role in a project, but wouldn’t it be better to directly impact the company with your ideas?

Directly and drastically impacting the direction of development!

Yes, that is a lot of alliteration, and two it is what those who work for small companies get to take part in on a daily basis. It is a lot of accountability, but that’s what makes it great. Having stake in your work makes you a passionate worker and develops you into a successful human being. Another perk is having access to close mentoring and an employer invested in your success.

So you get your voice heard, you don’t have to deal with the annoying corporate red-tape, you have closer relationships with colleagues, you have an accountability and feeling of ownership of projects, AND you get to wear lots of hats (preferably fancy hats)  that lead to a well-rounded professional skill set.