LOOKING FOR A JOB

ECC hosts two forums

KIMBERLY BELLAMY

The Edgecombe County unemployment rate is the third highest in the state, and has been in the top three throughout 2009. What better time than the present to bring to the forefront ways to help the citizens of Edgecombe County find employment.

Edgecombe Community College played a part in fulfilling that need by hosting two job-seeking skills forums on Thursday at their Rocky Mount and Tarboro campuses.

The Library Resource Center (LRC) sponsored the event, which brought in panelists from the school, including Director of Human Resources and Coordinator of Cooperative Education Lori Winstead and Director of Business Administration Giles Dail.

To assist with providing job seekers with advice on narrowing down their hunt were Lisa Parker and Paulette Bennett of eTalent Sourcing. The company targets those who are looking for innovative ways to stand out in the applicant pool.

The main tip that the representatives of eTalent Sourcing brought to the table was using social networking through Internet to market themselves to their potential employers.

The duo said the traditional ways of looking for print advertisements, or searching on Web sites like careerbuilder.com are becoming more, and more ineffective.

"Probably about only 20 percent of jobs are advertised," Bennett said.

"One of the things we focus on is helping you find jobs outside of careerbuilder(.com)," Parker said.

Some of their suggestions were joining social networking sites such as Facebook, or Linkedin.

From that point, they recommended that job seekers think about creating commercials to advertise their skills.

"What you need to do is figure out how to link yourself to the social threads on the Internet," Bennett said.

"Job seekers are operating in this little vacuum when it’s this huge world out there," she said.

Another factor in the hiring process that is becoming less common is expecting job recruiters to actually read the resume you submit.

"Most recruiters are going to scan a resume in three to five seconds," Parker said.

Recruiters are now using a system called applicant tracking system (ATS), which allows the recruiter to do a word search and filter out the resumes that don’t contain that word.

"When you go in through a Web site, you automatically go into their database," Parker said about submitting resumes through the Web.

Parker suggested tweaking your resume each time you submit it to include specific words relating to that position to increase your chances of showing up in ATS.

Dail also went over tips for getting noticed in the applicant pool, while Winstead reviewed the cooperative education program.

The program allows ECC students to get credit for doing a student internship with a company after completing 10 hours of credit in their major.

"Instead of going to class everyday, you would be going to work," Winstead said.

The internship opportunity as well as volunteering were mentioned as ways to fill the time gap on your resume while unemployed.

Both forums brought in small crowds but allowed for the participants to ask more questions.

"Students really interacted, and the community members interacted," said Rejeanor Scott, director of library services.

The forums were one of a series of events the LRC sponsored to address different issues affecting the community.

"We also want to interest our community, not just our students," Scott said.

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