It took a great deal of team collaboration to set up our new office white board. In the end, we made it look perfectly straight!
New puppy in the office! Welcome Bamba!
Securing Diversity in US Colleges: Reverse Discrimination or Favor to the Underrepresented?
By Alexandra Zatarain
In 1978 the US Supreme Court ruled unconstitutial the admission process of the Medical School at the University of California at Davis. UC Davis’ process at that time set aside 16 of the 100 seats for “Blacks,” “Chicanos,” “Asians,” and “American Indians”, establishing a separate admission process for those 16 spaces.
In 2003 (Grutter v. Bollinger), the US Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admissions processes may favor underrepresented minority groups. Since then, public universities and other public institutions of higher education are allowed to use race as a plus factor in determining whether a student should be admitted.
Over the past decades, numerous cases have been presented to the Supreme Court, with similar allegations against university admissions processes. But until present time, no ruling has been able to put a stop to allegations of reverse discrimination in university admissions processes.
The reality is that in an ideal world, race wouldn’t play a role in whether a college applicant is granted admission or not. Unfortunately we don’t live in an ideal world.
Leverage your Alumni Network
By Alexandra Zatarain
When searching for a job, every resource counts. But more often than not, job seekers forget to take advantage of a very powerful one: alumni networks.
It’s OK if you’ve been absent from recent networking events and LinkedIn groups, your fellow alumni will always forgive. But it’s time to catch up so start cleaning your address book, LinkedIn contacts and even the ones on Facebook.
Overqualified For a Job
By Alexandra Zatarain
It happens. Sometimes you are just overqualified. Maybe you really want to join the company or you just really need the job. No matter the reason, if you are applying to a job even if your qualifications are higher than required, you can still make it work.
Employers are concerned with hiring an overqualified person, as there is a higher probability that this person will leave for a better job as soon as possible. So it is the applicant’s job to address this and explain why you are truly interested in the opportunity and how you can deliver and commit to a long stay.
Optimize Your Resume with the Right Keywords
by Alexandra Zatarain
Applying for jobs is definitely exhausting. The percentage of job seekers who search for and apply to jobs online is increasing, making the hiring manager’s and recruiter’s jobs much more difficult.
And as an applicant, if you don’t know anyone at the company or can’t find a way to connect with their recruiters, it becomes much tougher and probably your resume will just go into an applicant tracking system. Hiring managers or recruiters will use this system to, maybe, if lucky, find you. And the only way this will happen is if your resume fits what they are looking for; more specifically, the keywords they are using to search for the right-fitted candidates.
HR Trends For 2013
A new year means new opportunities for change; for success and failure.
The HR landscape keeps evolving, and this year we predict that the following trends will set the stage for HR executives:
What We Learned This Year About Recruiting
By Alexandra Zatarain
2012 has been a great year for us at Creative Solutions Services. Our recruiters have done a great job at finding the best talent for our clients. It’s not always easy, but the science/art of recruiting is capable of bringing great satisfaction not only to us as a staffing firm but also to our candidates who are matched to a great job opportunity, as well as to our clients who benefit from the talent of new employees.
The following is an overview on some of the lessons learned during 2012:
New Year, New Job?
By Alexandra Zatarain
The beginning of new cycles is always a good excuse to make big changes in your life. Whether it’s your personal or professional life, things can always be better.
Finding a job where you are happy and fulfilled is one of the most common wishes for the start of a new year. It’s hard to stick with the purpose when job searching is so time consuming and your busy life might easily deterred you from the goal. So, for most employees, this means that they will close the New Year in the same spot where they started it, most likely at one that doesn’t fulfill them.
In the Know: Diversity in the Workplace
Changing times, company reputation and customer demands have led to business practices in companies that profit and benefit from being seen as diverse. EEO, diversity initiatives and programs, insurance plans for same sex partners, are some examples of the inclusion practices that companies are embracing. As diverse teams are quickly becoming a prominent feature in the workplace, understanding the positives and negatives of diversity is becoming more important. In order to do this, defining diversity is also an issue.
Read our white paper on Diversity in the Workplace, in which we’ve gathered insights from different studies that show the benefits, impact and characteristics of a diverse workplace.
This literature review focuses on multiple topics: definitions of diversity, statistics on demographic groups in labor force, effects of diversity on productivity and cohesion, managing diverse teams, and lastly initiatives and programs that can be taken to promote diversity.
Download it here