Finance Careers Archives

Adjust Your Mindset to Find Success in Networking

Most people think of “What’s in it for me” when they think about networking, especially when it has something to do with finding a job. This is a natural thought, because the end result needs to be a job and a means to survive. However, a mindset shift of “How can I help others” will really have more long-term positive effects than the short-term focus of yourself.

Here’s how to develop a positive mindset about networking, and greater success with the job search process.

1. Think about what you can offer to someone else.

It’s easy to engage in networking activity with the thought of only getting something out of it. But if you go to a networking event or start networking with others online, it will become very transparent if this is your only goal. Instead, go to a networking mode with the thought that you would like to find ways to serve other. Think about the value that you have, and how you can help others rather than take from them.

2. Consider all the connections you have and how they can help others.

Also consider the connections that you have within your social, professional, and educational networks. Chances are, there are people who may complement each other and are worth introducing to each other. Use your networks in a more positive way and you can expect that others will think of you when they have someone to refer. This can work in your favor during a job search.

3. Develop a professional brand that’s above your immediate needs.

It’s easy to go about developing a personal brand that is only about your career or your passions. But this does not necessarily serve you as a job seeker. Instead, think about ways that you can develop a brand that appeals to others and their needs. This is a similar approach that sales professionals use when trying to attract prospects – you must speak their language in order to be effective as a networker.

4. Get outside of your comfort zone about networking – try new methods.

Networking is not just about sitting at a computer behind social profiles. It’s about stepping outside of your comfort zone and attending local networking events, business mixers, and industry conferences. It’s about volunteering in your community and giving something back. Learn to develop a strong pitch for yourself and again think about how you can serve others. The people that you meet will be happy to learn about you, if you put yourself out there.

At Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, we focus on your area of expertise to find the right job opening for your skill set. Contact our award-winning team today to partner with top financial recruiters in Chicago.

Why Listening Makes You a Better Leader

Today, a leader must be an excellent communicator. They must be able to delegate effortlessly, motivate the team, and must be good at both verbal and written communications. But communication is a two-way street. Leaders also need to be active, patient and responsive listeners. While being outspoken and communicating clearly are two of the many attributes necessary for one to become a leader, it is listening that makes one a better leader.

How listening can make anyone a better leader

In the workplace, a leader is expected to address problems and initiate improvements. Certain problems will be obvious and a leader must be able to identify them. But, many problems are not so obvious. The only way a leader can get to know those issues is if they listen to the team or any particular member of the team. People should be able to come up to a leader with their problems and a leader must not spurn them.

Many leaders fail to actually hear what others have to say. They shrug at what is being shared or reported to them. They pretend to listen and forget what has been said soon after. They don’t even offer an audience and even if they listen. They can discard the issues at their whims and fancies. Such approaches are unbecoming of a leader.

The first step in being a better leader is to take the time to listen to others, and reflect back what is being said to clarify matters. A leader who listens is respected by their team members. Listening to anyone would make that person feel that they are important, what they say or have to say is being heard and that their thoughts, situations or their role in the team are valuable.

Steps to be a better listener include:

When listening to another person, imagine that they are the only other person in the room and be fully engaged in what they are saying.
Be open minded and put yourself in their shoes. You might not agree with what the person is saying, but give them a chance to fully articulate their thoughts. People will appreciate that you are making an effort to understand and hear what they are saying.
Repeat back the key points you are hearing and ask for clarification of anything you did not understand or may have missed.
Establish what follow up there will be, if any, so the person is clear on what will happen after the conversation is finished.
Remember, conversations are just the beginning step to implementing great ideas!

Listening is a skill that comes with time and practice. Leaders need to talk but they don’t need to talk to hear their own voice. A leader can always learn from others, from advice or suggestions from the team members and the act of listening itself can open up a treasure trove of informational and helpful exchanges. Remember, it only takes one person to suggest an idea for significant change to affect the organization.

As a leader, it’s up to you to become a better listener so you can improve your skills and earn the respect of your subordinates.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources is dedicated to locating top talent for your accounting and finance positions. Contact a leading recruiter for finance careers today to get started!

Make Small Talk Your Strength by Shifting the Conversation Here

In the ‘information age,’ communication is the key to a successful office career. While lucid communication has always been a desirable attribute in a professional, especially for those in delegating and leadership or management roles, it has become much more quintessential today. Why? Companies are seeking professionals who are adept and comfortable in all forms of communication, including making small talk that leads to better working relationships.

How to improve the conversation by shifting the focus to small talk

When developing communication skills, it’s important to first focus on mutual interests demonstrated in initial small talk. Take the attention off “me” and put it on “we,” so that you can discuss a topic that you and your colleagues enjoy. It’s effective when relating to co-workers, talking with subordinates or managers, and building rapport with clients.

To be viewed as a true office professional, it’s important to establish or showcase your prowess in communication. That can be achieved by speaking decisively, confidently and in a manner that is understandable, convincing and engaging. Since communication is a two-way process and both or all parties must feel engaged, it is quite possible that what you talk about might not entice the other person enough. That is where small talk becomes your strength. Whether it is your interview or your first interactions with your fellow colleagues, small talk can give you the impetus you need.

What does small talk have to do with things?

In many ways, small talk is considered a normal part of any job. Unfortunately, there are some people who don’t like such conversations. When you speak about topics that matter to you and the other person, you can easily guide the conversation. At a more basic level, you get to establish a connection that will work in your favor. Small talk is also necessary if you wish to switch the topic of a conversation or you simply wish to steer the whole correspondence in a certain manner. Use open-ended questions to get the conversation going and invite people to tell stories instead of one word responses. Here are some conversation starters at the office:

What do you enjoy most about your weekend?
What is the most interesting thing that happened at work today?
If you could be anywhere in the world, where would you like to be?
What is the best way to accomplish our target for the week?

As Dale Carnegie stated, “Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.”

Using small talk during an interview to improve your career

Communicating better and more lucidly will become easy when you master the strength of small talk, especially on topics of mutual interest. For example, while being interviewed for a job, a candidate can use small talk to build a common ground with interviewers and appear to have the right personality for the job. This will present a candidate as having a confident, interesting and asserting personality. Use these tips during an interview:

Don’t ramble on. Keep small talk interesting and brief
Realize the interviewer is asking questions initially to see how easily you can engage in conversation
Answer the questions you are asked
Look at the interviewer and look interested in the conversation
Listen more than you talk

These are attributes that any company in any industry would want to have in its employees.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, a winner of Inavero’s Best of Staffing® Client Award for the second consecutive year, focuses directly on your area of expertise. Contact us today to work with a leader in finance recruitment.

How to Get Responses from Passive Candidates

To a recruiter, passive candidates may seem like a golden opportunity to attract a professional with a strong sense of loyalty and above-board skills. The hardest part is often connecting with the elusive candidate without being too “sales” oriented. While it is possible to accomplish this on social networking sites like LinkedIn, recruiters must still tread carefully so that they do not scare off, intimidate, or – worse yet – annoy a passive candidate.

Many recruiters have equated passive candidate attraction to the dating world. You may like what you see, but taking that first step and talking to the passive candidate is the hardest. Failure to take action could mean losing a valuable person. Coming on too strong could ruin any chance you had to begin with.

Try these suggestions for reaching out to passive candidates and getting them to respond in a positive way.

Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes

What is it that you’re actually sending to passive candidates? If you’re not sure of how your initial messages may appear to a candidate, take the time to send a message to yourself – wait 24 hours, and then read it to get an initial impression. Remember: These are people who are not actively looking for work opportunities, however with the right offer they may consider at least talking with you. Your initial communication with a passive candidate must be respectful of their time, and not overly pushy.

Explain who you are

Getting a message from an unknown source can be creepy to anyone. Be sure to explain in a non-threatening way who you are and why you were contacting a passive candidate. Keep your message warm and friendly. Make sure all of your social profiles are up-to-date, including your cover photo profile information and any open positions you are recruiting for. Remember: A candidate will immediately start searching for you online, so you want to shine in the best light.

Be complementary and specific

When a passive job seeker reviews your message, they will be able to tell immediately if it is a form letter or if you wrote it specifically to them. Review the candidate’s background carefully and compliment specific achievements that they’ve made. Recognize their value to appeal to their ego. If you have a common connection, make sure you indicate this in the message. Keep the message concise and discreet. Include your direct contact information. Let the candidate know you will be checking back with them within a specified amount of time.

Invite the candidate to self-schedule

Thanks to modern scheduling calendar software, it’s possible to invite the candidate to select a time that is convenient for them to talk with you about the career opportunity. This call to action can be very effective in getting a passive candidate to respond to your request. Clearly state that you want to find out what their career goals are and how you can help them accomplish this. This should appeal to any passive candidate who may be thinking about a career change in the near future.

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources, a winner of Inavero’s Best of Staffing® Client Award for the second consecutive year, can help your company meet all of its financial staffing needs. From a recent survey, the feedback we received was: “I am pleased with the professional service provided by Casey Accounting & Finance Resources.” Contact our award-winning team of financial recruiters today to get started!

Job Interview Blues? What to Do When the Interviews Don’t Go Well

You’ve brushed up your resume, practiced your interview answering skills, and put on your best power suit. The big day of your job interview is finally here and you are pumped up and ready to impress. But then, something doesn’t feel right, you start to falter, and gradually the interview starts to go very wrong. You walk out almost in tears, wondering what just happened and how you can redeem yourself in the eyes of the hiring manager.

It’s happened to just about everyone who’s ever interviewed for a job. Interviews don’t always go as planned because they are about people. And people are prone to making mistakes, saying the wrong things, and yes, sometimes looking ridiculous. Before you beat yourself up too much, turn things around.

Think about what happened from both sides.

Were you late to the interview or got lost trying to find the office? Did you stumble to come up with an answer to a tough interview question? Try to see things from both sides. It may not be as bad as you think. The hiring manager may have mentioned that the office is hard to find, and they may know that the interview question always stumps people. In other words, the whole scenario may not be as bad as you think.

Be prepared.

Are you ready to give examples demonstrating your accomplishments? Can you give examples of various situations in your previous work experience, show examples of how you responded to these situations with the actions involved and what the results were that you were able to accomplish? Remember SAR: Situation, Action and Results when talking about your accomplishments.

Take the pressure off trying to be perfect.

You are a human being and this means you are not perfect, not even close. You can do your best to look perfect, behave perfect, and show off your perfect resume, but it’s not going to land you that dream job right away. Instead, you need to be a genuine person and let your personality shine so that others can see your value. The next time around, just be yourself.

The recruiter may have been challenging you on purpose.

You may not have had a stellar interview, but then not many people do. In fact, a trick that recruiters will use to make you think you are not a good fit for the organization is to act like they aren’t interested in you at all. They may appear emotionless in an interview. They may even cut you off while you speak. They may challenge you. This is an attempt to see if you will fight for the opportunity or walk out.

Find a support and job networking group.

If you are having the blues after a poor interview, be kind to yourself and reach out to others for support. Don’t go it alone. A job search is a long and frustrating process, so find a support network as you go through this experience. Share your story and listen to others talk about their bad interviews. Learn from it and move on to the next one!

Casey Accounting & Finance Resources is a dedicated team of professionals that provides superior value. Contact our great team of recruiters today to help you in your career search for finance careers in Chicago.

Behavioral Interview – Are You Ready?

Do you have a behavioral interview scheduled with a company that might hire you for an available position? If so, there is no reason to stress about the interview, or downright fear it either.

Many people worry about behavioral interviews, because they don’t know what to expect. Companies and recruiters are using behavioral interviews more often to determine which candidate might be the best for the available position. Why? Because past behavior could lead to future behavior.

Here’s some expert insight into behavioral interviews, so you can confidently handle them if and when they come up in your job search process.

What Happens During a Behavioral Interview?

You might be wondering what happens during a behavioral interview. First off, the interviewer will ask you to describe a situation in which you had to deal with a difficult co-worker who was not pulling their weight on a project or ask about another situation at a previous job. The interviewer will want you to explain the situation and how you handled it without generalizations or theorizing the issue. The interviewer will likely take notes, and you might not be able to discuss any stories you might have prepared.

How to Prepare for a Behavioral Interview

The next step here is to prepare for a behavioral interview as much as possible, in order to succeed the next time you have a job interview scheduled. The following steps are how you should prepare for a behavioral interview:

Think about past experiences that show leadership, teamwork, planning, education, customer service and more from your career.
Prepare to describe the situation, the action you took and how the situation came to a conclusion. An easy way to remember this is with the STAR acronym – situation, task, action and results.
Have short descriptions of each situation prepared, and have details ready in the event that the interviewer asks for them.
Make sure the outcome of the situation reflects positively on you, even if the overall outcome was negative.
Never generalize about these events. Be as specific as possible.
Never leave out any details, or embellish true ones, because the interviewer will be able to find out what is true and what is false.

Avoid Short Answers

Do your best to avoid giving interviewers short answers when taking part in a behavioral interview. Short answers give the impression that either you are not prepared, or you do not have any experience with the type of situation the interviewer is asking you about in your career. Both of these could lead the interviewer to remove you from consideration for the job, especially if the position requires you to handle tough situations with co-workers or subordinates. The more you offer in the answer, the better the interviewer can understand what type of worker and problem solver you have been in the past.

There is absolutely no reason to fear the behavioral interview, especially if you have had to deal with tough situations in the past. Just follow the tips above and you will shine in any interview.

How to Get Your Accounting and Finance Credentials Noticed on LinkedIn

It’s true that working in the financial industry takes a lot of hard work, a strong education, and outstanding finance credentials. But all of this doesn’t matter if your LinkedIn profile is not getting noticed by the right recruiters. Why? Because 90 percent of all hiring companies are checking out finance and accounting candidates on LinkedIn and other social media platforms before calling them in for interviews.

As a serious contender, you might have an excellent LinkedIn profile that may be updated all the time, but it could still be hard to get it noticed. Here, we will discuss how to get your finance credentials noticed on LinkedIn so you can secure a solid job within the industry.

Tell Recruiters Who You Are

Right off the bat, make sure you tell recruiters who you are so they do not have to guess what you do for a living. Use keywords related to your financial profession in your headline so it is picked up by search engines. The headline is the first part of your LinkedIn profile that recruiters notice, so make sure it counts. Make sure you include your e-maill address, so it is easy for recruiters to reach out to you.

Validate All Claims Made on LinkedIn

If you make any claims about your financial background on your LinkedIn profile, be sure to validate all of them with strong recommendations. The recommendations should come from trusted sources, such as former employers, mentors, professors and co-workers who know you well and know your body of work. If you work independently in finance, you can acquire recommendations from clients.

Use LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform

LinkedIn offers a publishing platform that you should take advantage of if you want recruiters to notice your financial credentials. By writing articles and publishing them through LinkedIn’s publishing platform, you will be able to develop thought leadership within your industry. Make sure you write articles about your profession so recruiters who are looking for financial candidates can find your expertise on LinkedIn and then browse your profile.

Write a Top-Notch Summary

As with your headline, your summary on LinkedIn must include keywords related to the financial industry. If possible, write the summary in first person because it comes across better to recruiters. The summary should be no shorter, and no longer, than two sentences. After the two sentences, make sure the summary has a “proficient in” list that talks about your strongest skills.

Provide Examples

When writing a financial LinkedIn profile, make sure you provide examples of all claims made on your profile. For example, if you said you helped an employer save money, make sure the amount is mentioned in your profile. This helps recruiters understand what it is you accomplished at your job and how it helped the company. Also, write down how you saved the money in as descriptive a way as possible.

It is imperative that your LinkedIn profile is as strong as possible when searching for a financial job because it will help in the long run. Recruiters use LinkedIn more and more these days to find the best candidates, so be sure you follow the tips above to get noticed and invited to an interview.