Beth Braccio Hering, Special to CareerBuilder

We’ve all heard that whom you know is just as important as what you know. But what can you do when you’ve exhausted your inner circle and still don’t have a job?

Branch out even farther. “If your immediate friends could help you, they absolutely would have already,” says Caroline Ceniza-Levine, co-author of “How the Fierce Handle Fear: Secrets to Succeeding in Challenging Times” and partner at the career-coaching firm SixFigureStart in New York City.

Although seeking out and introducing yourself to friends of friends, acquaintances of colleagues or even complete strangers who might be potential job leads can seem daunting, the payoff can be worth the effort. Here, experts give tips on making the process more natural — and hopefully more profitable.

Meeting new people
To meet friends of friends or acquaintances of colleagues, Janet Civitelli, workplace psychologist at VocationVillage.com, recommends asking people you know to invite you to events where all of you can connect. If that isn’t possible, she suggests asking your friend or colleague if he can introduce you with an email or telephone call. “Help smooth the way by mentioning to the people you know what they can say about you and why you want to connect. For example, your friend or colleague could say, ‘Tracy, I’d like you to meet Frank. Frank is a product marketing manager who just moved to Los Angeles from Boston. He has a great background in working with software startups.’” continue reading…

Beth Braccio Hering, Special to CareerBuilder

In a tight market, every job seeker needs to find a way to stand out from the crowd. What separates the great from the good and makes a particular candidate too irresistible to pass up? Often, it is one of these three things:

1. Ability to prove worth

It is one thing to call yourself an outstanding communicator or an effective leader. It is another to back those claims with proof. Employers want to know what you’d bring to the table if hired.

“Candidates who can provide real, tangible examples of successes at their current and past jobs certainly stand out,” say Western Union’s Chris Brabec, director of leadership talent acquisition, and Laura Hopkins, vice president of talent acquisition.

Alan Guinn, managing director and CEO of The Guinn Consultancy Group in Bristol, Tenn., agrees. “More and more of my clients simply aren’t interested in questions like, ‘If you were an animal, what would you be?’ They are exponentially more interested in seeing if the candidate for a position understands the value that he or she brings to the employer when hired.” continue reading…

by ConsultantBox

The world of SAP consulting has some very inventive people involved in it, at every level, from consultants who can drag every last ounce of benefit from the SAP software solution to consulting houses who deliver excellent, fully functional solutions (beyond the definitions of the initial spec, while still bringing them in on time and under budget), and…….. then we have the SAP agents who have specialized in the art of lifting money from a customers budget, before it touches the consultants bank account and, to be fair, the latest generation of agents seem to be mastering their skills well.

During the late 1990’s the standard strategy, was to take a high commission by keeping the rate being offered secret from the consultant for as long as possible. 20-30% was the norm even then.
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How much commission is a fair compensation for the work an agent does?

This question has been around since consultants were first hired on contracts in the industry, and has been addressed innumerable times, both in the past and currently, with people having very different views on the answer – however, it seems that many of the agents also have an opinion!

The days of agents charging what they want are long over – so why is it that today in 2011 there are agents for large companies charging upwards of 30% of a consultant’s charging rate – is that the agreed commission rate – is that even a defendable position given what role an agent has in the process? continue reading…

Given 5 minutes on the net, you can find out which plumber to contact, who wont rip you off or which insurance broker, which car salesman, doctor, dentist even which priest to bury your cat but take as long as you like and you wont find a single way of truly assessing an SAP consultant.

Odd really, when you consider that SAP consultants almost only work in high profile companies such as the fortune 100 – maybe the fact that there is no way of checking if a consultant is any good or not, is the reason the unprofessional consultants continue to find work at the cost of the many hard working SAP consultants out there.

Imagine if every SAP consultant was made accountable for their own actions, even their own reputation….. how would that work out for the unprofessional – would they work hard to become professional experts or would they hide behind the fact, that it is considered “unfair to stop people working” regardless if they are actually worth hiring in the first place? continue reading…

Beth Braccio Hering, Special to CareerBuilder

Hindsight is 20/20, but might there have been clues during the interview that this job was going to suck? Improve your vision by keeping an eye out for these red flags.

1. You get asked strange questions

Web developer Dave Haynes thought it was a bit odd when a potential boss asked if he was offended by cursing. “I said, ‘No, I curse sometimes myself. No big deal.’” But after taking the job, it became apparent why the topic had come up. “The boss cursed ALL the time. Every sentence that came out of his mouth was filled with negativity and cursing. He cursed in e-mails and in comments in the code for the software we were writing. He cursed so much that I actually was offended (and later quit).”

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