Less than 1 percent of all staffing firms in North America have earned Best of Staffing® distinction in both the client and candidate categories. 2018 marks the sixth consecutive year CulverCareers has won both the Client Satisfaction and Talent Satisfaction Awards, and the second consecutive year they have achieved Diamond status in each category.

Focused on helping employers find outstanding talent, CulverCareers averaged overall satisfaction scores of 94.4% for clients and 94.7% for candidates, some of the highest scores ever received by Inavero. The industry average for both is around 30%. Clients and candidates who work with the winning recruiting firms are more than twice as likely to be completely satisfied with the services provided compared to those working with other firms.

Best of Staffing® awards are impactful because they come directly from clients and candidates. With over 1,000,000 surveys collected this year, Inavero’s Best of Staffing award is the most trusted and prestigious survey in the recruiting industry.

Here Are a Few Testimonials From CulverCareer’s Client Companies

“CulverCareers is an excellent resource, understands our needs, and consistently provides quality candidates.”

“They are a pleasure to work with, patient, and a true extension of our business.”

“I have been associated with CulverCareers for 8 years now. I have partnered exclusively with them for the past 6 years. I think the teams are excellent. I have no plans to work with any other recruiting agency.”

Here Are a Few Testimonials From CulverCareer’s Candidates

“My contact was a delight to work with, she was prompt in her responses, gave great guidance toward company expectations and assisted preparing my resume…it was more than service but a real partnership. Even when she was down with a cold or traveling, she was always great in keeping me up to date. She is a great representative of CulverCareers! Thank you!”

“The recruiter I worked with was very upfront and honest. He was helpful throughout the entire interview process. He was very knowledgeable on the company and its employees.”

To read more testimonials from CulverCareers clients and job candidates, please visit https://www.bestofstaffing.com/agencies/culvercareers/.

About CulverCareers

Based in San Diego, California, with offices across the United States, CulverCareers assists their clients in acquiring top talent. CulverCareers is a national recruiting solution for organizations looking to scale or upgrade their teams. For more information on CulverCareers, visit www.culvercareers.com.

About Inavero

The Inavero team administers more staffing agency client and talent satisfaction surveys than any other firm in the world, reporting on more than 1.2 million satisfaction surveys each year. Committed to delivering ongoing value to the industry, Inavero is proud to serve as the American Staffing Association’s exclusive partner.

About Inavero’s Best of Staffing

Inavero’s Best of Staffing® Award is the only award in the U.S. and Canada that recognizes staffing agencies superior service based entirely on ratings provided by their clients and job candidates. Award winners are showcased by city and area of expertise on BestofStaffing.com – an online resource for hiring professionals and job seekers to find the best staffing agencies to call when they are in need. You will be sure to find CulverCareers on this list year after year.

The post Culver wins Inavero’s Best of Staffing for 6th year in a row appeared first on CulverCareers.

Research your company

Spend time online to determine the company’s marketing initiatives. Check out their website, their social media presence and look at past advertising campaigns until you have a clear idea of who they are and what they sell and why. Then, look at the rest of the industry and figure out what makes that company unique.

Come prepared with ideas or even a simple mock ad that you think best represents the company. Show you can clearly and concisely articulate their message to the target audience. If they already seem to have a solid marketing campaign, make sure whatever ideas you bring align with their existing message. If their campaign is still developing, don’t hesitate to show off some fresh ideas.

Social media

Know which sites the company uses and how. If applicable, make suggestions about new styles of content or what kind of presence they could have on other social media networks.

Have a portfolio

Show the hiring manager you can pull off your ideas, follow through and execute with samples of your actual work. Tell specific stories of past successes and failures to show what you learned from them. If you lack experience, use examples from research projects and writing samples to show you can effectively communicate a message. Make sure whatever you bring shows your level of commitment and effort, some personality and creativity.

Brand yourself

Use social media—Twitter, LinkedIn, maybe even Facebook or a personal website—to present yourself as a marketing professional. Update your profiles at least once a week with engaging original content and make sure your message is unified across all forms of media. You’re promoting yourself and developing your list of online contacts.

And of course, don’t forget the basics that apply to all job interviews: dress well, sit up straight, be punctual and don’t forget to send a thank-you note! For more tips on how to really shine in a job interview, contact us today.

The post How to Properly Prepare for a Marketing Interview appeared first on CulverCareers.

Here are six ways to keep your skills current.

Check out the most in-demand skills

Look at job titles and postings for positions in your field to find out what the most desired skills are. Search job sites for jobs like yours, and your dream job, to see what skills you’d need to develop. Read blogs, journals and articles related to your field to learn as much technical material as possible.

Chat with HR

Ask the human resources staff at your company to find out what skills they’re looking for when they hire someone in your profession. Find out what experiences or certifications the top employees at your company have and target those accomplishments.

Make a plan

Once you identify the skills you need to master to advance your career, make a plan to enhance them. Check into professional associations to see what types of educational opportunities they offer or suggest.

Attend a workshop

Look into workshops, webinars or online tutorials that might be offered by other software companies and other organizations. These are great ways to gain information about new products, platforms and services. There’s a wide range of topics and skill levels that are offered, many for free or a small fee. Attending a conference in person is really valuable, too. Not only is this a great chance to network, you can also chat with your peers and mentors who’ve actually used some of these new skills and technologies. They can offer advice and anecdotes that you can learn from.

Go to school

Check with colleges and continuing education programs to see what kind of course and seminars they offer to help update their skills. Check to see if there are any your company recommends or will sponsor.

Volunteer and share

Ask to take on projects either at work or at nonprofit organizations where you can practice the skills you’ve been working on. Document the output of the skills you’re trying to hone in a portfolio so you can justify that promotion or new job. Share what you know by teaching it to someone else. By helping others problem solve and fielding their questions, you’ll help to solidify your own understanding. Consider sharing through tutorial videos, blog posts or by presenting at seminars or workshops. Again, not only are you mastering the subject, you’re also getting your name out there and developing a network of peers.

For more tips on how to further enhance your skills and advance your career, contact us today.

The post Six Ways to Keep Your Job Skills Current appeared first on CulverCareers.

Here’s the difference between the two and the best ways to exhibit them.

Hard skills

Hard skills are skills that are teachable and measureable and usually acquired through books and other learning materials—perhaps a course or on-the-job training. Applying them takes logic and knowledge of math, accounting, biology, finance, statistics or some other studied and practiced field.
Some examples include proficiency in a foreign language, typing speed, machine operation, computer programming or proofreading. Often, an aptitude in one of these skills results in a degree or certificate.

On your resume

These can easily be listed in your cover letter or on your resume in a very straightforward manner. They’re easy for a recruiter or employer to recognize, assess and verify. A master’s degree, for example, is easy to prove with a phone call to the awarding college or university. A mastery of computer programming is easy for an applicant to demonstrate by sharing something they created.

Soft skills

Soft skills, on the other hand, are more subjective qualities that are hard to quantify. They’re not necessarily taught in schools, but acquired through emotional intelligence or life experiences. Some examples include effective communication, networking and how you build interpersonal relationships. An interviewer might be trying to assess how well you demonstrate empathy or whether you work well in a team. Some of that can be listed on a resume, but most of it would probably best be determined with in-person interactions.

In an interview

Other soft skills that employers and recruiters look for are patience, flexibility, leadership, self-motivation, problem-solving abilities, decision making, creative thinking, time management, a solid work ethic, confidence and the ability to handle stress and pressure situations. Again, most of these traits can be conveyed in an interview or by contacting references and prior supervisors.

Both are necessary

Both skills are necessary for any position and play essential roles in the development of your career, but employers often prefer candidates with certain soft skills because they can more easily teach the hard skills, like how to use Excel or another computer program. Often soft skills are more important in business professions, particularly in leadership positions while hard skills might be more valuable in technical jobs.

The hard skills—certifications and qualifications—listed on your resume might get you noticed or land you the interview, but the soft skills are usually what help you get hired.

For more information on how to land your dream job, contact us today.

The post What is The Difference Between Hard Skills and Soft Skills? appeared first on CulverCareers.

CulverCareers partners with employers to help them win today’s fierce war for talent and build powerfully talented teams. As a result, many of Culver’s rapidly growing, recently funded and newly public clients have become household names. Perhaps the strongest testament to CulverCareers’ abilities, however, is their partnership with other recruiting firms. In fact, six of the top 10 recruiting companies in the U.S. engage CulverCareers when they need top talent!

Timothy Culver, CEO, states, “We are extremely proud of this honor. It is nice to be recognized by a publication as universally respected as Forbes.” When asked to comment on what sets CulverCareers apart from the other recruiting firms, Mr. Culver replied, “Recruiting is about transparency, integrity, values, sophisticated search and hard work. In my 38 years of business, the one thing that keeps reoccurring is the fact that recruiting and executive search is not a commodity that can be canned and sold. It is a sophisticated, complicated art that is ever-changing. We are good at what we do because we have experienced recruiters who respect these principles.”

This honor is just one of many CulverCareers has recently received. Earlier this year, they earned one of Inavero’s Best of Staffing^® Client and Talent Diamond Awards, after winning the Best of Staffing Client and Talent Awards at least five years in a row for providing superior service to their clients and job seekers. CulverCareers has also been recognized as an Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private U.S. Company twice, the San Diego Small Business of the Year, and a winner of the California Small Business award.

About CulverCareers

For over 38 years, CulverCareers has partnered with some of the most dynamic, fastest-growing companies in the U.S. Specializing in the placement of sales, marketing, manufacturing, technology and management professionals with salaries ranging from $50,000 to $400,000 annually, their targeted search markets cover most of North America, as well as Great Britain and select European countries. In 2017, the executive search firm was named a winner of Inavero’s prestigious Best of Staffing Diamond Award highlighting exceptional client and talent service quality, placing them in the top one percent of recruiting firms in North America.

For more information, visit www.culvercareers.com.

The post CulverCareers Recognized as One of America’s Best Professional Recruiting Firms by Forbes appeared first on CulverCareers.

Keep it as professional as possible, so avoid friends and family. Focus on three to five people who can speak to your work ethic, skills, education and performance. Here are the people you should include.

Former supervisor

A former boss can attest to your reliability and performance, but don’t feel like you have to include them. If they don’t know enough about your abilities and accomplishments to speak well of you, leave that person off the list—especially if you left the company on bad terms. And do not use your current employer if they’re unaware you’re seeking a new job. Hearing from a competing company is probably not a good way to find out!

Former co-workers

Your co-workers can speak about your diligence, problem-solving skills and ability to collaborate. Since they worked with you every day, they might even be better references than a supervisor.

Friends

Although you generally want to avoid listing personal relationships, a friend or family member might be appropriate if that person was your manager at one point or is employed by the company you’re currently applying to. They can at least speak knowledgeably about your strengths, weaknesses and fit for this position.

Faculty members

If you’re a new graduate with little work experience, it’s acceptable to use a former professor or advisor, particularly if they taught you in a field related to the job you’re applying for. If you’re still in contact with them, high school teachers or coaches are also appropriate. Other students are acceptable if you worked closely with them on long-term group projects.

Volunteer supervisors

If you’ve volunteered regularly at a nonprofit organization, be sure to list your supervisor or contact person there. Volunteering is impressive and increases your chances for getting hired, so it’s important to mention.

How to go about it

Always ask your references first if it’s okay to use them. When a hiring manager asks for a list of references, remind those people they might be hearing from someone about you. Inform them what kind of position you’re applying for and give them a copy of your resume. Be sure to point out any skills or accomplishments you want them to mention. Keep them updated and thank them for their help with this process.

List your references on a separate sheet of paper, not on your resume. Include each person’s name, professional title, relationship, company name, company address, phone number and email address. Only provide your list if the hiring manager requests it, but always have it with you!

At CulverCareers, we understand the importance of choosing the right people as references. Contact us today for more information.

The post Who Should I Be Using as References? appeared first on CulverCareers.

Here are five important steps to help you stand out and land a real-life interview.

1. Get Organized

Request a specific time when you know you can chat without interruptions or distractions. Set up a quiet space with paper and pen, a copy of your resume, cover letter, and job posting to refer back to.

Use a landline if possible, and don’t answer your call waiting during the interview. Have a clock handy so that you can make sure you’re not rambling. Your first response should be about two-to-three minutes.

2. Be Prepared

Research thoroughly about the company beforehand. Research shows that a candidate is truly interested in the opportunity. The more research a candidate does the better. Make sure you understand what the company does and the job description. Be prepared to explain how your skills and accomplishments make you a good fit. You might want to outline your responses to common interview questions in advance, but be careful not to read from a script.

As for salary, be prepared to discuss salary, but don’t be the one to bring it up. Know what you deserve to be paid and be ready to negotiate. They should know that you’re interested but still desirable.

3. Keep Notes

Jot down the names and positions of everyone interviewing you, so you can give personalized replies. Repeat the question in the final sentence of your answer and use verbal cues such as “finally” or “ultimately.” Communicate thoughtfully and make sure you sound positive and interested. Listen carefully and never interrupt.

4. Be Enthusiastic, Stand Up and Smile!

Answer the phone promptly and politely. Smile and exude friendliness. Even without being able to see you, the interviewer can detect your level of enthusiasm. Stand up or sit straight so you sound more confident. Speak clearly, slowly, and directly. Allow for silences and chances for your interviewers to take notes and absorb what you’ve said.

5. End It with Affirmations

As the call is wrapping up, reaffirm your qualifications and interest in the company. Ask where you stand and what the next steps are. Ask for everyone’s contact information so that can send follow-up questions and thank you notes. Have a calendar ready and suggest a few days when you can visit for a next interview.

While on a phone interview, remember to be prepared with questions, take notes and be enthusiastic. For more information on landing your dream job at your dream company, contact us today.

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