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June 9, 2009

NSHP and LatPro find success in Los Angeles job fair

Posted by hispanicjobs under Hispanic professionals, bilingual, diversity, hispanic jobs, job fairs
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Last week LatPro and NSHP Network hosted a job fair in southern California, where 23 companies and professional organizations met with over 600 candidates to discuss professional employment opportunities. I’m excited to say that despite the current economy, which I believe is slowly showing signs of improvement, this has been one of our most successful recruiting events in California. I was able to see many well prepared, professional level candidates being interviewed onsite by potential employers and heard more than one success story.

Immediately after opening the floor, employers such as Wal-Mart and Boy Scouts of America were conducting on site interviews. Wal-Mart alone had 9 recruiters present, compared to the usual 2 recruiters per company. Government agencies have been a very good alternative for job seekers in these troubled times, and we had the U. S. Department of State, U.S. Census and Social Security Administration present looking to fill open positions. Health Care was also well represented by employers such as UCLA Health and California Prison Health Systems, and fellow Hispanic professional health care candidates were encouraged to network with the NAHN Los Angeles chapter. As usual at our shows, there were also many opportunities for finance, sales, and marketing candidates which were able to meet with AXA Advisors, New York Life, Aflac, and many more.

I firmly believe we have established ourselves very well in the East coast, just as we have in the central region. The west coast has been a gradual growth pattern for us, and we are working hard to continue improving all of our shows constantly. We are dedicating exhibit space for private interview areas, accommodating exhibitors to facilitate their recruiting needs, supplying advice to pre-registered candidates and more. We have begun providing two additional resources to help job seekers find employment online, through diversityjobs.com and justjobs.com. This is all for you, the job seeker, the networker, the fellow Hispanic professional.

This was our last show for the first semester of 2009; after 5 job fairs in the last 4 months, we will regroup in July, work hard to bring in exhibiting companies and innovate new strategies to improve our job fairs. See you in our next job fair on August 27: Atlanta. Enjoy the summer.

 

May 24, 2009

Over 1,000 bilingual professional candidates attend job fair in Washington DC

Posted by rvillalba under bilingual, diversity, job fairs
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Over 1,000 bilingual professional candidates attended our job fair in Washington DC on May 21, where they were able to meet with almost 40 exhibitors and professional organizations. It’s always exciting to setup events in DC, given the multicultural ambiance and professional atmosphere. I was very pleased to see that a couple organizations were holding on site interviews, and some even made some hires such as Healthstream.

This is our third consecutive year hosting our DC job fair, and this year we scheduled two events in DC in our 2009 calendar, one in the spring and the second one in the fall. Many government organizations are always present at our DC shows, and with this troubled economy governmental organizations provide a secure work environment. Nonetheless, there were many non-governmental organizations providing employment opportunities such as Oracle, Bridgestone Firestone, SGT Inc, Chevy Chase Bank, Verizon Communications, and many more.

It was exciting to see the presence of Voice of America covering our job fair, obtaining feedback from both exhibitors and candidates. This will surely serve as a good boost for our next show in the fall.

 

March 27, 2009

1,000+ Candidates visit Navy Pier in Chicago for 3rd annual bilingual professional job fair

Posted by rvillalba under bilingual, diversity, hispanic jobs, job fairs
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Over 1,000 candidates attended the 3rd annual Chicago LatPro / NSHP bilingual professional job fair at Navy Pier on March 2009. Despite the cold weather, many professional bilingual candidates lined up eager to meet with potential employers including First Northern Credit Union, Boy Scouts of America, SPX Cooling Technologies, State Farm, BP, AXA Advisors, U.S. Department of State and many more. Furthermore, we had the participation of other professional organizations such as SHPE that encourage networking amongst the Hispanic professional community.

This is our 3rd consecutive show in Chicago, and it just keeps on improving every year. This year we had almost 50% more candidates than in 2008, and most importantly their professionalism has also increased. Every crisis brings opportunity, and during our first two job fairs of 2009 I’ve noticed how the preparation level and eagerness of candidates has increased. Job seekers are doing research on the exhibitors before attending the shows, bringing plenty of resumes, dressing professionally and pitching an introductory speech to the recruiters to try to stand out from other job seekers.

Another motivating factor is the recognition that LatPro / NSHP job fairs is gaining amongst recruiters. Most if not all are very pleased with the quantity and quality of applicants, which is why they continue to recruit at our job fairs. In addition, we had live broadcasts and news clips from FOX News Channel 5, Channel 7 and WGN Chicago. All of these details add up and create even more awareness for the Hispanic and bilingual professional community, and helps us get together to network to obtain better positions. I also enjoy being able to meet some of our 5,000+ members in person, and sharing a few words with each one of you.

 

October 30, 2008

Dallas job fair unites 900+ bilingual candidates with 43 exhibitors

Posted by rvillalba under Hispanic professionals, bilingual, diversity, hispanic jobs, job fairs | Tags: , , |
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“Live large. Think big,” That is the new slogan for the city of Dallas. I believe it’s a good fit for our eighth job fair of the year too, which we hosted this past October 23 at the Dallas Convention Center. With a large space to fill, we worked diligently to bring over 43 exhibitors and laid out a floor plan which would also include some private interview rooms, to fulfill the requests from both job seekers and recruiters. Employers including Aflac, Sunbelt Rentals, Prudential, The Scotts Company, Pella Corporation, VHA, GE Energy and many more had the chance to meet over 900 bilingual candidates who lined up before registration admitted candidates at 10 am.

This event clearly surpassed last year’s Dallas fair, and I’m convinced that a great deal of that success was the location. It was much easier to find and not as big, yet large enough to give exhibitors privacy when they wanted it. Not only did we double the amount of candidates, but I’m seeing a higher quality of job seekers as we host more events; Better prepared, improved resumes and many with an impressive experience record. Then again, after 12 events, our events have improved thanks to recruiter and candidate feedback along with hard work.

One of aspects that caught my attention the most, was the use of the private interview rooms by two of the recruiters. I was thrilled to see interviews and it is definitely something we will try to incorporate more in the future. At the end of the day, I had the chance of talking to a few recruiters, one of which had plans of setting up 41 interviews after the event! That was great news to me – enough to keep me awake during my flight back to sunny South Florida and into the office on Friday to work on our next and final challenge of 2008: San Jose bilingual professional job fair on November 6.

 

September 15, 2008

The dreaded “apply online” – Leveraging face time at career fairs

Posted by vanessalppr under Hispanic professionals, Spanish, bilingual, company news, customer service, diversity, hispanic jobs, immigration, job boards, job fairs, trade shows | Tags: , , |
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We have been thrilled this year with the success thus far of the NSHP/LatPro Diversity Career Fairs. Employers and jobseekers alike have had overwhelming praise for the events and we are proud to be able to provide such a forum for the professional advancement of Hispanic professionals.

With all the positive comments and experiences jobseekers have had with our events, occasionally we hear from a job seeker who has heard one-too-many-times from a recruiter, “Go to our website and apply online.” This is because many companies are required by government regulations or their own internal policies or protocols that
candidates apply online. It does not mean that the recruiters present are not interested in you.

“But I can apply online in my pajamas from my sofa!” they will later say to me. Well that is true, but there is one incredibly valuable advantage they are gaining at the career fair that they could never get from their sofa… face time. The most important thing is how you choose to use that face time.

Here is my list of suggestions to make the most of your face time with recruiters.

  1. Be prepared. Don’t go up to a recruiter at a booth at a career fair and ask, “Tell me about your company?” or, “What kind of jobs do you have,” or other questions which show you were clearly not prepared to speak with them. Do your research before you go to the fair. Organizers of career fairs such as NSHP post the confirmed employers for their events weeks in advance.Go to the event prepared with specific intelligent questions for each employer you would like to talk to. Has their company recently been in the news? Ask a question about that. Has there been a recent acquisition of another company? Ask about how that has impacted their business approach. Demonstrate a knowledge of their company. You want to ask specific questions that will make you stand out from the other jobseekers.
  2. Ask for a business card from all of the employers that you speak with. Once you have left their booth and are out of sight, jot down a few notes on the back of their card about specifically what you talked about, and any portion of the conversation that may help jolt their memory about their interaction with you on that day. Indicate on the card if they accepted your resume or told you to apply online. You should take these notes because the day can be long for you as well, and it is easy to start confusing recruiters by the end of the day, so sneak away after each booth and take a couple notes. Recruiters talk to hundreds or thousands of jobseekers at job fairs, so being able to recall something very specific about your interaction is where you can really shine.
  3. Know how you will respond. It is probable that at least one recruiter at a job fair will encourage you to apply online, so know in advance how you will respond if a recruiter you really wanted to give you quality time directs you to the employers website.LatPro founder and CEO Eric Shannon suggests an approach such as this: “Susie, I traveled from Boston today to meet you because I am a true XYZ Company fan — I know that with so much traffic here, there isn’t time for us to talk in depth, but, I would like to follow up with you after I apply online… May I do that?”
  4. Don’t procrastinate. If they told you to apply online, do it when you get home, or at the latest the next day. Don’t put this off. You want them to receive your application while you are still fresh in their minds, not after they have attended three more career fairs with hundreds more candidates just as enthusiastic as you. Follow step 5 when crafting your cover letter.
  5. Leverage your face time even when applying online. If a recruiter tells you to “apply online” still get their name and ask them some deep, thoughtful, questions about the company they are representing (which you already prepared in step 1). When you go home and apply online, mention in your cover letter that you were encouraged to apply by *recruiter name* at the *city* Diversity Career Fair on *date* and that you enjoyed discussing *specifics about discussion* with them. By doing this you have already demonstrated in your cover letter that you are interested enough in employment opportunities with their company that you got off of your sofa to meet with them. That alone can set you apart from hundreds of other online applicants.When the employer receives your resume, it is likely that the HR person who first sees your resume online may contact the recruiter you mentioned in your cover letter and ask if they remember discussing *specific topic* with you. Best case scenario is that they say, “Why yes I do remember discussing *specific topic* with that candidate at the career fair. He or she was very professional, experienced, and demonstrated a knowledge of our company that many other attendees did not.”Worst case scenario is that they don’t remember you. If this is the case, at least the recruiter may be more likely to remember your name because they have tried to do a little research on you. The more a recruiter has invested in you, often the better your chances are that they will remember your name and pull out your resume when the perfect job comes along.
  6. Be Gracious. After the event, send thank you notes to recruiters of most interest. Be careful here. Don’t be obnoxious or an annoyance. You don’t want to go overboard and litter people’s mailboxes or inboxes with generic form letters about your interest, however if a particular employer and position is of great interest to you, make sure you let them know that.Remember, you were one of hundreds of faces they encountered that day. Almost all of the other jobseekers acted interested too. If this is “the job” for you, go after it, don’t just hope they will remember your charm and neatly pressed business suit. Refer to the steps from mentioning the face time in step 5 when writing your letter or thank you note.You may choose to e-mail the recruiter, though be aware they most likely receive hundreds of e-mails a day so your message could be lost. If you decide to send a letter through the US Postal Service, you should either type your letter on a high quality paper (similar to the paper on which you print your resume), or you can handwrite a note on a clean, professional looking thank you note card. Do not send your note on any flowery or busy looking stationery.Here are some approaches to writing your note:

    a. If they accepted your resume, thank them for accepting your resume at the event, mention specifically what you discussed with them at the event, and try to do it in enough detail that it will jog their memory about their encounter with you. Express your enthusiasm for the company and the particular position.

    b.If they told you to apply online, thank them for encouraging you to apply, mention when you submitted your application online (so they can find it more easily in their database) and again, mention something specific about your conversation with them such as… “I look forward to the opportunity to continue our discussion about how your company’s acquisition of your closest competitor has changed the face of your industry.”

  7. And one final tip… Make a day of it. I have observed that the flow of jobseekers is different in every city, but there are almost always a couple times during the day when the crowds thin out. Clear your schedule, arrive early, and plan on making it a day. By being there during those times when the event is less crowded, you may be able to get more face time with a potential employer. Those extra couple minutes you may get with them could be the few minutes you need to make a lasting impression!
 

September 11, 2008

Second New York job fair another success

Posted by rvillalba under Hispanic professionals, bilingual, diversity, hispanic jobs, job fairs
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There is no doubt that New York City is one of the largest melting pots for global cultures, and our New York City job fair serves as a window to view a sample of this diverse population. Over 900 multicultural candidates attended our job fair last week, eager to meet with more than 40 exhibiting companies and organizations that were anxiously waiting for the bilingual talent to appear bright and early. Based on previous events, we were expecting a large number of attendees and we knew we had a long day ahead of us. Nonetheless, NYC is always an exciting event, and a city we look forward to returning every time. The high level of candidate experience and education that we encounter in NYC along with the huge volume of attendees is always something we look forward to, and so do the participating employers. The busiest booths were Home Depot, Corning Inc, and Unilever, although all of them had a very good candidate flow. Candidates constantly asked me for the location of Federal Home Loan Bank of New York and Bridgestone Firestone on the floor plan, and as in previous locations, candidates had a great experience with Boy Scouts of America. For the first time since we began organizing job fairs in 2006 we decided to repeat a location in the same year, and New York City was our pilot for such an endeavor. As usual, these events are organized for you, and we work hard to bring employers and candidates together in one location. I had the opportunity of meeting a job seeker that was experiencing her first job fair, and Iam very satisfied that it was at one of our shows. I have been to many job fairs throughout the country, organized by major online job boards or local organizations, trying to compare our fairs to theirs and attempting to grasp where we could improve. As much as I can study other shows, its all about the job seeker for us and you are our best source for improvement, so we highly appreciate any feedback provided. On another note, NYC was a great opportunity to finally meet in person many of the wonderful individuals who are helping our new networking site grow! With almost 800 members already, we are growing at a great pace, and this is all because of you, so pat yourselves on the back, and continue networking.

 

August 25, 2008

Washington, DC job fair a success

Posted by internetinc under Hispanic professionals, bilingual, company news, hispanic jobs | Tags: , , |
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With over 900 attendees and 57 participating employers and professional organizations, our 2008 DC bilingual & Hispanic job fair was a great success. Job seekers were lined up to meet with diversity minded recruiters anxious to find bilingual talent for their open positions from customer service to managerial positions, and covering all industries from health care to banking.

dc-08-fair-013DC is a great city for us, given the large variety of employers and governmental agencies we brought into the room — these agencies offered the opportunity to land a job that can help you make a difference overseas with USAID, or the US Department of State. DEA and FBI always attract many job seekers as well. For finance professionals there was Pepco Holdings, Chevy Chase Bank, Bank of America, Liberty Mutual and Federal Reserve Board. Teachers were looking at the City of Arlington and Prince William County Public Schools, and engineers were excited about the positions offered by Bridgestone-Firestone, Sunbelt Rentals, Navair, and more.

The variety of job seekers that attend our shows is impressive; it is a good mix of young, new graduates and older, more experienced applicants. It’s also exciting to see the cultural melting pot that we create, and DC was a great place to see it. The majority of our candidates are bilingual, but bilingual in how many languages? Fluent in English and Spanish or Portuguese sure, but we also see, German, French, Arabic, a variety of African languages, and many more.

In talking with candidates and recruiters, we heard positive feedback from both sides. So, I’m proud to report another successful show under our belt. That makes it six career events so far this year that our team has put together with three more to go.

Thanks to everyone who helped make it a success!

 

July 8, 2008

Public relations preparation for a NSHP diversity job fair

Posted by vanessalppr under Hispanic professionals, Spanish, bilingual, company news, customer service, diversity, hispanic jobs, immigration, job fairs, trade shows | Tags: , , , , , , , , , |
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Between my regular role in public relations for LatPro, and my special assignments such as helping with the public relations for the NSHP diversity job fairs, my days are usually pretty busy! We have a planned two-month hiatus between the Atlanta and Washington, D.C. fairs, which gives me a little time to actually write about some of the work that I do for the events!

I begin my public relations work for a diversity job fair about six weeks before the event. I generally do some research on the local job market, as well as the demographics in the area. After I’ve completed that research, my first major step is to write the press release that will be sent out to all the local media with details of the event.

My next undertaking is to create a list of media outlets in the surrounding areas of the upcoming job fair so that about two weeks before the event I can start efficiently contacting all the relevant media with the news of the diversity job fair. My list of targeted media includes newspapers, as well as local TV and Radio stations and local networking websites.

Another large portion of my time in preparation for the diversity job fairs involves developing media partnerships with local chapters of Hispanic organizations. The organizations that we partner with in each city are a combination of organizations that I approach because we have worked with them in the past, organizations that I found through internet searches or word-of-mouth, and organizations which approach us about an opportunity to be a part of the event.

Arranging the media partnerships is one of my favorite parts of this job. I find it so rewarding to work with Hispanic professionals who are dedicated to their local organizations and are really working on a grass-roots level to increase awareness of and provide opportunities for bilingual employment for Hispanic professionals in their cities. By partnering with the NSHP job fair, the local organizations have their name included in e-mail invitations that go out to prospective jobseekers, and they have a presence at the diversity job fairs. Their membership benefits with a personal invitation to attend the event, and they often find their membership increases through the visibility they have at the event.

The goal of these public relations tasks is always the same, to make sure as many Hispanic and bilingual professionals as possible learn about and are able to attend the upcoming events. Our next event is the Washington, D.C. job fair on August, 21st. I’d better get to work!

 

July 3, 2008

Beyond job postings and resume database access

Posted by robertsteward3 under Hispanic professionals, Spanish, bilingual, company news, diversity, hispanic jobs | Tags: , , |
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Every job board offers the ability to post jobs, and most offer a searchable resume database. For the most part, they all claim to be “leaders” and tout traffic numbers in one way or another. LatPro, too, offers all of the above, has significant traffic, and considers itself the top job board for Hispanic and bilingual professionals. However, our product line goes beyond the surface of just “how many job postings” or “resume database for how long”.

So let me tell you some of the reasons why recruiters should purchase our products and what they get behind the scenes by using LatPro. (There are many reasons why job seekers also use LatPro, which when you think about it, is another reason our traffic is high and recruiters should use us as well).

Interested companies and recruiters can expect to speak with a professional sales person from LatPro, one who will answer their questions as well as ask questions to make the right recommendations based on the client’s needs and budget. Of course we have a general pricing summary, but we make sure that any potential client knows that we will work with them on a customized product solution for them specifically, no matter how far it diverges from the standard packages.

Part of the initial back-and-forth conversation will let the potential client know that LatPro has other products besides job postings and a resume database to help complement their diversity recruiting efforts. Companies can also advertise their career center with banners or fixed-position logos on the LatPro homepage or job search page. They can also send targeted email messages based on education, geography and many other criteria. LatPro is the producer of 9 diversity job fairs in 2008 which will give companies the ability to meet many potential candidates face-to-face as well as brand themselves as a diversity employer.

When you do post jobs with LatPro, your job is not only posted on our site but with the entire LatPro Network. Your jobs will go to sites such as DiversityJobs.com and many professional association sites like NSHP, NAHN and SHPE to name a few. This gives your job advertisements increased exposure to targeted candidates as well as recognition on the partner sites.

Every job you post on LatPro is reviewed manually for quality assurance. We will make sure that it is posted in the most effective way to bring quality results, and we will make recommendations on how to make it more attractive to job seekers—which may be adding more functions or better keywords or more information about your company. That is only one function of our customer support team. In a proactive way, they will help you with resume searching tips as well, showing you the best way to search, create folders and approach a search of the LatPro database.

When you do a search in the LatPro database, you have the ability to be completely OFCCP compliant if that rule applies to your company. When the rule was issued, LatPro decided it was very important to have an in-house customized solution to meet those guidelines.

Both recruiters and candidates also come to LatPro for our original content. LatPro’s staff writes its own articles as well as having exclusive contributors publish pieces on our site. We have started a Diversity Profiles series with some of the top companies in the country and have a long list of companies that are interested in participating (please let me know if you’d like to be considered for an interview after reviewing some of the prior ones).

LatPro publishes 3 double opt-in newsletters for Human Resource Professionals and job seekers. These provide news and information for their specific groups.

So sure. We want you to buy our products, post your jobs, send us your logos and banners. We’d love to host you at one of the job fairs this year as well. But I thought you should know all the other reasons you should use us. We are about our products but we are also all about service, and I hope it doesn’t sound overused or forced, but we are about happy customers.

 

June 25, 2008

I am leaving the company… but I love our product more than ever!

Posted by scbr under Hispanic professionals, bilingual, customer service, job boards | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Some months ago I decided that it was time for a change. I have been at LatPro for more than 5 years now and while I love the team and the product, I am seriously in need of some change. It’s just who I am. I have never been for so long with one product and I have reached the point where I need a different product and a different challenge –if possible multiple challenges.

So I talked with Carolina first and with Eric afterwards and as I am not sure what path I want to take in the future -if I want to work independently or for another company-, I offered a transitional period of three months so they could find someone else to replace me and/or we could re-assign with calm part of my tasks to some other members of the team.

That period is coming to an end so even when my plans are to take at least a couple of sabbatical months, I decided to polish my resume and get it out there into some other job boards, just in case…

Of course I already have accounts in a good number of job boards because I am always doing benchmarking for LatPro, but in some of them I had a profile without a resume (CareerBuilder) in other cases I had the resume but not public (Monster).

Following my own advice -I always recommend jobseekers to use one or two of the general job boards and one or two niche board like us- I decided to get my resume in CareerBuilder. Mamma mia…, WHAT a mistake!

First, I had to enter it twice, by some reason the first time wasn’t saved. Then right after I hit “save” I got an ad, an interstitial, so I have to click on the “no thanks”. Ten seconds later I got an email through CB that was one of those general blasts from companies no matter what your resume looks like.

As they have an option where you can choose to stop a specific company/recruiter from seeing your resume or sending you emails, I clicked on “block recruiter” promptly. Next day, same email. I blocked it again. Next day, same email, I blocked it again and I contact their support team asking how I was getting those emails if I had blocked the recruiter not once but 3 times…. And guess what? I never got an answer!

This is just half of my bad experience with Careerbuilder, but after some more blasts offering jobs that had NOTHING to do with my profile I decided that enough is enough and I made my resume private with them. Not good enough. When I receive their job agents, if I click on any job listed there, I got a pop under…. So I think I may kill my account there. I am not desperate looking for a job, and I find the whole experience so awful, that is not worth my time.

Monster on the other hand, is not SO bad. Still, I have an interstitial each time I login, what once again means losing my time clicking for the 10th time in “no thanks” (no thanks, guys, I have said it like 20 times already, I am not interested in a University of Phoenix degree, give me a break!) and the quality of jobs there goes from pretty decent jobs to things that seem more spam and/or scams than real jobs. HotJobs also has a lot “work from home” and fishy offers, but at least does not bother you with interstitials or popunders.

Comparing this experience with LatPro, where you will never find an interstitial, where we do not have a “block a recruiter” because we know that if the recruiter grabbed the email there is little we can do but where we have an opt out option so people get out of blasts, where each company posting has to fulfill some quality assurance levels, where there are no fishy “work from home opportunities” and where customer support answers in 24 hours… I love our product more than ever!

Of course LatPro targets professionals, and that makes us different from Monster and Careerbuilder, so it makes sense that they may not care in being more picky with the job offer they published as we are, but there is no excuse for their disrespect for the jobseeker when it comes to the search experience.

I guess that if you are extremely desperate for a job, you may not care how many times you have to click in a “no thanks” page to get to see jobs, nor do you mind getting offers that have nothing to do with your profile or 20 pop unders open after seeing the same amount of jobs. And I do understand that job boards are not charities and they need profits, but if Careerbuilder wants to live just from advertising, I will be looking for a job somewhere else.

Why don’t I talk about any direct competition of LatPro? Because there is none. I tried another job board that supposedly targets Hispanic professionals and I got once and again the same jobs through their agent and they also seem to be more about advertising than anything else.

So, so far I will stick with searching at LatPro, Monster, HotJobs and networking of course. Did I tell you? I loved LatPro as a product before I started working here, I have seen it improving by developing more tools and services during my 5 years here, and I may be leaving but I still love the product. Is simply one of the best if you want to search for good jobs and you want an answer each time you have a question!

 

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