with Warehouse and Operations as a Career and were back at The Taste of Oak

Cliff Festival.  We had a blast out here

last year, and with an invitation from Belmar Integrated Logistics we jumped at

a chance to come on out and talk with everyone that stopped by their Recruiting

Booth today!  I even ran into a couple of

people I’d had the pleasure to help secure new positions for in the past, it was

really neat getting to catch up with them and their careers!  I wanted to talk about a recurring question

that came up over and over again, it seemed to be aimed at staffing or sourcing

companies in general, but I sensed frustration and sometimes desperation even

as people would ask “are you background friendly”.  From my experiences your typical staffing or

sourcing agency are working within their customers guidance.  I believe things are mostly looked at on a case

by case basis.  I see this question come

up often, way too often on social media too.  Look, what ever happened has happened, we have

to have a job, we’ve all got bills to pay and we have to find work.  I feel, and understandably so, its easy to

get frustrated and just start answering ads or posting comments like are you

background friendly.  As much as I

believe social media is a great tool for us to use when seeking employment, we

do have to work it.  You’ve probably

heard me, and several recruiters that’s been on the show, that Facebook is a

great place to find those companies or agencies that’s hiring but call

them!  An email might be ok if they have

provided an email address but call them, leave a message, or messages if you

don’t catch them on the phone.  I have

just not seen any positive results with private or direct messages, recruiters

just don’t have the time to answer all the questions one by one.  I had one recruiter show me her Facebook

inbox, it was full of where are you located, what are the hours, can you tell

me more and are you background friendly. 

We shouldn’t have a problem sharing, I mean we have to be totally honest

when we’re speaking with a hiring agent about our backgrounds.  Oh, and as a side note, don’t falsify anything

like that on our application, they won’t be working with us when we’re caught

doing that.  But like I mentioned

earlier, everyone knows we need work.  If

we’ve paid our fines, done our time or whatever, and we’re working on getting a

fresh start we can find work, we’re just going to have to work harder at it

maybe.  A few months ago, I had a young

man explaining he had a background issue and another individual chimed in on

the conversation, she knew of a warehouse that was a little more relaxed with

employment history.  She gave him the

address and he applied and was hired on. 

Try not to get down about it or embarrassed, it happened, we’ve learned

from it, or I hope we have, and we can get work.  Even if its not exactly what we want, I

encourage everyone to just get in the door and show our management team what we

can do.  Once we’re that valued employee,

they’ll got to bat for us and they won’t want to lose us right!  I encourage you to call the phone numbers in

the ads or go and apply in person when the address is listed.  The way I look at it is if a recruiter doesn’t

supply you with a phone number or an address and is encouraging you to DM or PM

them its probably not what I’m needing right now which is a job I can start

quickly and with no cost to me!  We’ll there’s

my 2 cents about backgrounds and employment, we can find work, it’s harder

maybe, but we’ll be successful.  I hear

just as many people without any kind of background opportunities getting just

as frustrated.  Finding work is work, but

we can all find us something to get in the door with!

taste of oak cliff festival is like most of your spring and summer festivals,

you have the great food, man, there’s some great food out here today, anyway, there’s

booths set up for the crafty type, business owners selling their jewelry and

paintings, realtors, staffing agencies, Colleges, vacation planners, and of

course the list goes on and on but today I was thinking about all the planning

and logistics it takes to put something like this together and then close it

down and haul it off.  I helped Belmar

set up this morning, we arrived early, as did all the other vendors and we all

swarmed the event space together. 

Everyone would pull up to their assigned booth and unload all their

wares or point of sale materials and then try and get the vehicles back out on

the street.  Just as in our daily work

activities there has to be a flow, a workflow if you will to make everything

work, things have to be in sync and have their rhythm!   I couldn’t

help but wonder how it had all come together. 

It was a chamber of commerce event, and I realized that each booth was

an independent company really.  It

reminded me of a supply chain, which as we’ve learned is the backbone of our

industry, or warehousing and transportation! 

talked about the supply chain in an earlier episode and I have upcoming plans

to interview a couple of pros in the logistics fields next month but todays

event really got me to thinking about how much we see logistics and the supply

chain in our everyday lives. 

tells us the supply chain is a system of organizations, people, activities,

information, and resources involved in moving a product or service from

supplier to customer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain  That’s what I experienced this morning!

logistics, the detailed coordination of a complex operation involving many

people, facilities, or supplies. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/logistics

about learning more on both those fronts in the coming weeks and I’ll have

those experienced in the fields sharing all their thoughts and opinions about

their industries with us!

remember seeking employment is quite possibly harder to do than the jobs we’re

seeking.  Don’t get discouraged, it’s out

there, that dream job is available to us, we just have to work hard to find

it.  I can only suggest to use those

phone numbers and apply in person when ever possible.  I think social media and the job boards are

great places to source our next career but its honestly our responsibility to

get in front of those hiring agents and recruiters.  Rarely are they going to seek us out, and its

my experience, I’ve been told to use that word instead of saying its my

opinion, so it’s my experience that asking all the questions like tell me more

or info in the comments or DM’ing and PM’ing individual questions will rarely

produce results for us. 

Well I’ve got to get back up at the table and

meet some more people and of course hit up a couple more of those food trucks

so I’ll say thanks for listening in this week and I hope you’ll join us again

next week.  Remember we love getting

mail, send us a message to [email protected]

with comments and any topic suggestions you may have.  Have a great week and please think, work, and

be Safe out there!