Archives

There has been some confusion surrounding what sets Come Recommended apart from other professional networking sites, so I’d like to set the record straight. While other sites urge users to seek out recommendations from colleagues as a way to strengthen their profiles, Come Recommended requires both employer and candidate members to receive at least three recommendations before they are accepted into the community.

The recommendation process serves as a way for employers and candidates to gain immediate, objective feedback on each other. Most other Web sites lack any type of screening process for their users. This is very problematic for career-based sites because they become cluttered with false or misleading job ads and the résumés of unqualified candidates.

Recommendation requests are sent out using the site’s technology and ask specific questions about the employer or candidate. These questions ask about an employer or candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, the best reasons to work with the candidate or employer and whether or not the reference would hire or work for the individual or company again. Some examples include:

Candidates:

• Explain the candidate’s responsibilities when he or she worked with you
• Please provide example of a time when the candidate showed initiative or extra responsibility
• Would you describe the candidate as an introvert or extrovert? Would the candidate work well with others or prefer working alone?

Employers:

• What are the best reasons to work for this employer?
• What are some areas in which the employer needs improvement?
• Overall, would you recommend the employer to others seeking internships or entry-level positions, and why?

The fact that both employers and candidates must receive three recommendations before being granted access to the community is something that makes Come Recommended different from any other job networking site. The exclusivity of the site will benefit both candidates and employers because employers have the most qualified, highly recommended candidates at their fingertips and candidates can see what other people in their positions have said about potential employers. This simple process is extremely beneficial to both employers and candidates.

If you have any further questions about Come Recommended’s recommendation process, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at heather@comerecommended.com.

Best,

Heather R. Huhman
Founder & President

Come Recommended is pleased to announce a new and exciting partnership with ResumeEdge. Together, we are offering a wide array of products and services catered to every job seeker’s need.

Through the Candidate Resource Center, job seekers will be able to connect with experts in their fields who can speak the industry’s jargon.

Beneficial and strategic, these services are designed to set entry-level job seekers apart from the rest. The job pool is filled with candidates of similar backgrounds, and sometimes it’s hard to distinguish one candidate from the other based on education and experience (and references!) alone.

Through Come Recommended and ResumeEdge, not only will candidates be given the tools to put their best foot forward, but they also will receive the necessary means to highlight their commitment and strength of character.

A well-crafted résumé and cover letter-unique and sleek-have the ability to impress any hiring manager. It’s not just about getting a foot in the door-it’s about taking a step through the door.

Individually crafted from scratch (or edited from an existing résumé) based on your responses from the ResumeEdge job questionnaire, you will receive an expertly written résumé within 48 to 72 hours, have the opportunity to work with your editor for up to seven days and have an available pair of ears to discuss your job aspirations.

Come prepared, come smart, Come Recommended.

See also ResumeEdge’s Canadian site: www.resumeedge.ca.

The cost of covering applicants’ travel expenses for an interview can add up very quickly for both employers and candidates. Employers have become reluctant to accept résumés from candidates who are not from the area, and candidates are keeping their searches local, as well. Thanks to Come Recommended Visual Connect (courtesy of TokBox), the cost of interviewing potential candidates-or conducting informational interviews-is greatly reduced.

As always, both the candidate and employer must have three recommendations in order to use this feature. Additionally, one user must be an employer and the other user must be a candidate for the webcam interview to work.

On the right side of a candidate’s profile, an employer can select a time to schedule the video chat. Both employer and candidate will receive an e-mail with a secure link to their video chat. The link will be active immediately, regardless of when the meeting is scheduled. The link in the e-mail will also connect the members’ webcams and microphones and give instructions to begin the video chat.

We envision Come Recommended Visual Connect to most often be initiated by employers. However, we also encourage candidates to request informational interviews via this new tool.

While this feature is still in beta testing, video interviewing will be free to use. If a member runs into an issue with the feature, they are encouraged to submit a detailed description of the problem to support@comerecommended.com.

Two weeks ago, during a panel discussion with campus career centers, a participant asked how Come Recommended intended on reaching small businesses throughout the country.

Small businesses are the backbone of this country and our nation’s chamber of commerce and Small Business Administrations (SBAs) are the voices of these small businesses. Most of these businesses have considerably smaller budgets than large companies and are really looking to cut costs and streamline their hiring costs.

Small businesses can really benefit from using Come Recommended as a hiring tool because it is free to join the community and exposes employers to a plethora of very qualified candidates. With the help of Come Recommended, these employers can network with candidates from around the country that may be interested in their small business without ever leaving their office and at a time that is convenient for them.

Although outreach to small businesses was always on the itinerary, thanks to this inquiry, we stepped up our timeline and have been notifying chambers of commerce and SBAs throughout the country about our services–inviting them to take part in free online demos. Space is limited, so sign up today!

• Chambers of commerce demos
• SBA demos

Come Recommended is a community always looking to expand its reach to others who support the cause of helping entry-level and internship candidates find jobs. This led us to join the grassroots coalition 80 Million Strong.

80 Million Strong is a coalition composed of Millenials and organizations that support them in their efforts to find employment during this slow economy. According to the 80 Million Strong Web site, nearly 87 percent of Millenials have a high school diploma and nearly thirty percent have a college degree or higher-and are in tens of thousands of dollars in debt. These young professionals need jobs and are faced with competing against more experienced workers for entry-level positions. We cannot allow the definition of “entry-level” to continue becoming more and more unattainable for recent college graduates.

80 Million Strong plans to convene a summit of young people in Washington, DC, to discuss the problem of unemployment among Millenials and develop federal legislation based on the discussion in order to build a grassroots coalition that empowers the millennial generation.

Come Recommended has added our voice to this coalition, and we encourage our members and supporters to do the same. It’s free and very easy. For more information, visit www.80millionstrong.org or follow them on Twitter at @80MS.

Thank you to the campus career center staff who attended the Introduction to Come Recommended webinar today! Unfortunately, the presentation did not record correctly. So, we’ve embedded a copy of the PowerPoint below. Additionally, I’d be happy to give a personal presentation to anyone who desires one–no matter if you attended the original webinar or not.

Finally, I wanted to address the fantastic questions asked during the presentation in more detail:

Q: How do you differentiate Come Recommended from other job sites such as Monster or CareerBuilder that also allow potential employees to create an online profile to find jobs?

A: I honestly don’t even consider those sites competitors. They have become behemoths, bogged down by fake or misleading job ads and résumés of unqualified candidates. And although I encourage candidates not to leave combing the job boards out of their search plan, that action alone simply isn’t enough anymore.

That said, a few current differentiators:

• Come Recommended is limited to only those seeking internships and entry-level jobs, and employers who want to hire at these levels. Candidate members must have graduated no longer than one year ago. That means no more competing against people who aren’t truly entry-level but are willing to take those positions because they need a job.
• Everyone in the community must have three recommendations before they are allowed to interact with you, and that includes employers. These recommendations are displayed clearly on every profile.
• Once accepted into the community, candidates have the ability to chat directly with hiring managers through the site. They can initiate a conversation with them, and vice versa. So, if candidates visit an employer’s profile and like what they see, they send a chat request and tell them! (Also note that webcam/video interviewing capabilities are coming soon!)

Q: Do you verify recommendations for students, and what happens to this information? What about the recommendations for the employer? Who recommends them?

A: We assure the legitimacy of recommendations in several ways. First, recommendation requests can only be sent to “paid” e-mail domains–not free accounts such as Gmail or Hotmail. Second, because references must provide their phone numbers, Come Recommended staff performs random checks to assure accuracy. Finally, if a user suspects a reference might not be legitimate, he or she is encouraged to contact us immediately, and we will follow-up. If, indeed, the recommendation has been falsified, the user will be permanently banned from Come Recommended.

Candidates may receive recommendations from current or previous employers, industry professionals, professors/teachers and other non-family members. References need not be registered users of Come Recommended. Once the reference answers the questions in our recommendation process and hits “submit,” the reference’s name, title, organization and e-mail address-along with the questions and answers-are automatically transmitted onto the candidate’s profile page.

The process for employers to access our site is exactly the same. Employers may receive recommendations from current or previous interns or entry-level professionals. Again, references need not be registered users of Come Recommended.

Q: You mentioned several large organizations who’ve already registered. What about smaller and mid-sized employers, regional employers, etc.? To what extent are you reaching out to employers outside the Fortune 500?

A: Come Recommended is a fantastic resource for small and mid-sized organizations–perhaps in some ways even more so than large organizations. Our goal on the employer side is to reduce hiring costs and streamline the entire process, with the hope of encouraging more internship and entry-level hiring.

We reach out to employers–of all sizes–in a number of ways:

• Through our already-existing database (monthly e-newsletter, webinars)
• Sponsors and strategic partnerships
• Viral word-of-mouth campaign (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, flickr and YouTube)
• Media relations campaign
• Attendance at key conferences/events

Q: Is there a password we can use to test out the system?

A: No, not the way we have it set up. You’d actually have to register as an employer or a student. However, I have an administrative account, and I’d be happy to arrange a time to walk you through the site virtually.

Q: Is a student’s photo required?

A: A student does not need to upload a photo–it’s only there as an option if they choose. If they do not upload a photo, a generic “avatar” is put in its place. We chose to have photos as an option because we feel it helps both candidates and employers seem more “real” and personal, rather than just another résumé. But again, students do not have to include one, and many of our current students haven’t.

Q: How soon will the new features be added?

A: As soon as possible! We want to grow the site quickly. In order to do this, we are forming strategic partnerships with organizations that already offer the features we’d like to add-but we also need sponsorships to cover our costs and to keep the features low-cost or free to our members.

Q: Would we just go ahead and link to your from our Web site for our students to get started?

A: Yes, that would be fantastic! You might also want to think about including an announcement in your newsletter if you have one and/or sending information to your school’s student newspaper.

Logo choices for your Web site can be found here. Resize them as necessary. Also, the two sentence description of Come Recommended is as follows: Come Recommended is an exclusive online community connecting the best internship and entry-level candidates with the best employers. Unlike other exclusive recruiting networks, Come Recommended requires both candidates and employers receive three recommendations before accessing the community and its features.

Please let us know how else we can help you get the word out to your students.

Best,

Heather R. Huhman, Founder & President
Come Recommended

At Come Recommended, we are always looking for new ways to help our members-and it is no secret how difficult it is to find entry-level jobs and internships right now. That’s why we’ve created a two-part online course to put you ahead of the competition: “Come Recommended: What You Won’t Learn in the Classroom.”

The introduction session is held on Saturdays at 2 p.m. Eastern Time, and the advanced session is held on Saturdays at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. While you do not have to take both sessions, the tuition for the course covers both. Each session requires a minimum registration of two people and a maximum of five. The total cost of the course is $300 dollars, but if there are five people signed up for the sessions you join, you share the cost (only $60 for you!). If two people sign up, the cost to you is $150, and so on.

During the introduction course, you will learn the essential tools needed to get you into the door for that interview:

• Résumé and cover letter writing
• Choosing great references
• Compiling a compelling portfolio

During the advanced course, you will learn tips and tactics to take you from the job search to the interview and beyond:

• Creating your own job search strategy
• Proper phone interview tactics
• In-person interview pointers
• Thank you notes
• Tips for following up

If you wish to join one or both of these ongoing Saturday sessions, you must make your reservations by Wednesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. You will be contacted on Thursday if there are not enough people registered for the session, and payments must be received Friday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time.

The “Come Recommended: What You Won’t Learn in the Classroom” course will begin on Saturday, July 11. As an added bonus, the first five people to sign up for these July 11 sessions will be able to take the course for free! For more information and to register for the course, click here.

Come Recommended is a community that truly values the feedback of its members. In this spirit, we are asking for your suggestions: If you have a great idea for a new feature, please send it our way.

All feature ideas must be: 

• Keeping with Come Recommended’s mission of helping the best internship and entry-level job candidates connect with the best employers.
• Catered towards the candidate audience and/or the employer audience.

If we implement your idea as a paid feature on our site, you will be able to use the feature for three months for free as a reward. In addition, Come Recommended’s first 250 candidate members and 50 employer members will get to beta test (three months of use) all new features for free–forever.

For more information or to submit feature suggestions, please send a detailed e-mail to comments@comerecommended.com.

New this week, Come Recommended has launched a reminder feature to help candidates and employers Come Recommended. This feature will serve as a friendly reminder to those users who have not received their three recommendations yet.

The e-mail entitled “[Come Recommended] Friendly reminder” politely reminds you to follow-up with your references so you can gain access to the Come Recommended community. The Come Recommended team thought this would be a great feature to have because many people have signed up for the community, but there are still more than a handful of people who have not received all of their references and are missing out on many great features and resources.

Do you have any ideas for features we should include in future updates? Share your thoughts in detail at comments@comerecommended.com. If we implement your request as a paid feature, you will receive it free for three months as a reward. This is a community, and we greatly value your input and feedback.

The Come Recommended team is pleased to announce our charity of choice: JobAngels. In keeping with our mission of connecting candidates with employers, JobAngels is an online community where each person has the same goal: to help just one person find employment. 

JobAngels began in response to the economic downturn and the difficulty people were having finding jobs. Founder Mark Stelzner believes that if everyone helps just one person find a job, a major dent would be made in the number of unemployed Americans. Although this grassroots movement began just a few months ago, there are now more than 20,000 JobAngels across the country. Through social networking tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, more than 650,000 JobAngels messages have been sent. The members of JobAngels all share the same core characteristics: they are innovative and passionate about developing a new generation of meaningful and results-oriented talent networking.

Getting a job (or internship) is more difficult these days, and helping one another is incredibly important. Check out JobAngels at www.jobangels.org or follow them on Twitter.