Hispanic Jobs

With over 900 attendees and 57 participating employers and professional organizations, our 2008 DC bilingual & Hispanic job fair was a great success. Job seekers were lined up to meet with diversity minded recruiters anxious to find bilingual talent for their open positions from customer service to managerial positions, and covering all industries from health care to banking.

DC is a great city for us, given the large variety of employers and governmental agencies we brought into the room — these agencies offered the opportunity to land a job that can help you make a difference overseas with USAID, or the US Department of State. DEA and FBI always attract many job seekers as well. For finance professionals there was Pepco Holdings, Chevy Chase Bank, Bank of America, Liberty Mutual and Federal Reserve Board. Teachers were looking at the City of Arlington and Prince William County Public Schools, and engineers were excited about the positions offered by Bridgestone-Firestone, Sunbelt Rentals, Navair, and more.

The variety of job seekers that attend our shows is impressive; it is a good mix of young, new graduates and older, more experienced applicants. It’s also exciting to see the cultural melting pot that we create, and DC was a great place to see it. The majority of our candidates are bilingual, but bilingual in how many languages? Fluent in English and Spanish or Portuguese sure, but we also see, German, French, Arabic, a variety of African languages, and many more.

In talking with candidates and recruiters, we heard positive feedback from both sides. So, I’m proud to report another successful show under our belt. That makes it six career events so far this year that our team has put together with three more to go.

Thanks to everyone who helped make it a success!

Between my regular role in public relations for LatPro, and my special assignments such as helping with the public relations for the NSHP diversity job fairs, my days are usually pretty busy! We have a planned two-month hiatus between the Atlanta and Washington, D.C. fairs, which gives me a little time to actually write about some of the work that I do for the events!

I begin my public relations work for a diversity job fair about six weeks before the event. I generally do some research on the local job market, as well as the demographics in the area. After I’ve completed that research, my first major step is to write the press release that will be sent out to all the local media with details of the event.

My next undertaking is to create a list of media outlets in the surrounding areas of the upcoming job fair so that about two weeks before the event I can start efficiently contacting all the relevant media with the news of the diversity job fair. My list of targeted media includes newspapers, as well as local TV and Radio stations and local networking websites.

Another large portion of my time in preparation for the diversity job fairs involves developing media partnerships with local chapters of Hispanic organizations. The organizations that we partner with in each city are a combination of organizations that I approach because we have worked with them in the past, organizations that I found through internet searches or word-of-mouth, and organizations which approach us about an opportunity to be a part of the event.

Arranging the media partnerships is one of my favorite parts of this job. I find it so rewarding to work with Hispanic professionals who are dedicated to their local organizations and are really working on a grass-roots level to increase awareness of and provide opportunities for bilingual employment for Hispanic professionals in their cities. By partnering with the NSHP job fair, the local organizations have their name included in e-mail invitations that go out to prospective jobseekers, and they have a presence at the diversity job fairs. Their membership benefits with a personal invitation to attend the event, and they often find their membership increases through the visibility they have at the event.

The goal of these public relations tasks is always the same, to make sure as many Hispanic and bilingual professionals as possible learn about and are able to attend the upcoming events. Our next event is the Washington, D.C. job fair on August, 21st. I’d better get to work!

Every job board offers the ability to post jobs, and most offer a searchable resume database. For the most part, they all claim to be “leaders” and tout traffic numbers in one way or another. LatPro, too, offers all of the above, has significant traffic, and considers itself the top job board for Hispanic and bilingual professionals. However, our product line goes beyond the surface of just “how many job postings” or “resume database for how long”.

So let me tell you some of the reasons why recruiters should purchase our products and what they get behind the scenes by using LatPro. (There are many reasons why job seekers also use LatPro, which when you think about it, is another reason our traffic is high and recruiters should use us as well).

Interested companies and recruiters can expect to speak with a professional sales person from LatPro, one who will answer their questions as well as ask questions to make the right recommendations based on the client’s needs and budget. Of course we have a general pricing summary, but we make sure that any potential client knows that we will work with them on a customized product solution for them specifically, no matter how far it diverges from the standard packages.

Part of the initial back-and-forth conversation will let the potential client know that LatPro has other products besides job postings and a resume database to help complement their diversity recruiting efforts. Companies can also advertise their career center with banners or fixed-position logos on the LatPro homepage or job search page. They can also send targeted email messages based on education, geography and many other criteria. LatPro is the producer of 9 diversity job fairs in 2008 which will give companies the ability to meet many potential candidates face-to-face as well as brand themselves as a diversity employer.

When you do post jobs with LatPro, your job is not only posted on our site but with the entire LatPro Network. Your jobs will go to sites such as DiversityJobs.com and many professional association sites like NSHP, NAHN and SHPE to name a few. This gives your job advertisements increased exposure to targeted candidates as well as recognition on the partner sites.

Every job you post on LatPro is reviewed manually for quality assurance. We will make sure that it is posted in the most effective way to bring quality results, and we will make recommendations on how to make it more attractive to job seekers—which may be adding more functions or better keywords or more information about your company. That is only one function of our customer support team. In a proactive way, they will help you with resume searching tips as well, showing you the best way to search, create folders and approach a search of the LatPro database.

When you do a search in the LatPro database, you have the ability to be completely OFCCP compliant if that rule applies to your company. When the rule was issued, LatPro decided it was very important to have an in-house customized solution to meet those guidelines.

Both recruiters and candidates also come to LatPro for our original content. LatPro’s staff writes its own articles as well as having exclusive contributors publish pieces on our site. We have started a Diversity Profiles series with some of the top companies in the country and have a long list of companies that are interested in participating (please let me know if you’d like to be considered for an interview after reviewing some of the prior ones).

LatPro publishes 3 double opt-in newsletters for Human Resource Professionals and job seekers. These provide news and information for their specific groups.

So sure. We want you to buy our products, post your jobs, send us your logos and banners. We’d love to host you at one of the job fairs this year as well. But I thought you should know all the other reasons you should use us. We are about our products but we are also all about service, and I hope it doesn’t sound overused or forced, but we are about happy customers.

Later this week, LatPro is going to have its quarterly meeting. Yep, it’s that time of the quarter when all the big wigs fly in and descend on Weston to set the company goals for the next quarter.

We always prepare our individual goals a few days ahead of time, so I’m putting together my list of recommendations. Then, at the actual meeting, we can spend our time in face-to-face conversation and brainstorming (which is really good considering we are spread out over many offices) to see what is really the best final path for the quarter. So far for me, I want to hire some sales people, I want to implement some new products and I want a CRM that is robust and well-supported by the provider. In addition, I’m going to make a movie (no, it’s not what you’re thinking; stay tuned for a later post for details on that). We will be working with NSHP on the 2009 schedule of diversity job fairs. We will surely continue the series of Corporate Diversity Profiles highlighting companies that value diversity in the workplace and their strategies. Now, I stay out of the techie stuff, but I’m betting there will be some upgrades in that arena too. Any input from our recruiting clients and jobseekers is appreciated. Seriously, if you have something to request, now’s the time to tell me for it to be considered.

LatPro started having quarterly meetings about two years ago, and they have been very valuable in tracking our progress and growth. We have been very aggressive in setting challenging goals, almost to the point of making things too difficult to accomplish. We have learned to function more as a team, however, realizing what needs to get done earlier on in the quarter because several others are relying on you to get some of their tasks done.

Does your company have quarterly (or regular) meetings to set an agenda and discuss strategy? What have you done or what are some tips that have made things more productive?

We recently hosted our 5th diversity job fair of the year in Atlanta last Tuesday, June 10 and if I were to describe it in one phrase it would without a doubt be “a warm welcome.”

Being based in south Florida, we usually travel to the cities 2 days prior to each of our events, so we arrived in Atlanta on Sunday afternoon and immediately realized the temperature was close to 100 degrees during our entire stay. Despite the warm, sticky weather, this was not enough to melt our anxiousness to get this show underway. All preparations seemed to be just right, everything was in place and a possible afternoon thunderstorm advisory was the only element of concern for our job fair.

I had visited Atlanta at least 3 times per year since 2001 as my brother lived there, and have had the opportunity to meet some great people throughout my visits. Most of which, were in the engineering field, proud Georgia Tech and University of Georgia alumni. Also, it seems that many of the people that live in Atlanta have moved there seeking better employment opportunities, and they seem to call it home shortly after. Atlanta is home to very large companies such as Home Depot, Georgia Pacific, Coca Cola, and many more – all of which also lean towards engineering, supply chain management, logistics, and more…so I was definitely expecting a large engineering crowd.

We had great companies recruiting on site, including Newell-Rubbermaid, Praxair, GE Infrastructure, and Michelin, just to name a few. After observing and talking to a large amount of the 685+ candidates that came to our show seeking multicultural jobs, I realized that yes, we did seem to attract a large engineering crowd…but we also saw a large finance, marketing, sales, customer service, IT, healthcare and education group that proceeded to interview with employers in their fields, such as CDC, Wachovia, Aflac and more.

A warm day dissipated the rain threat, and overall it was a great event. We saw a diverse candidate pool interact with a good mix of companies, which is what our job fairs are all about: Connecting high quality, diverse and bilingual candidate talent with top diversity employers offering bilingual jobs. After a short summer break (maybe avoiding heat exhaustion and preparing for hurricane season), we look forward to our next event and number six on our 2008 calendar: Washington DC.

Yesterday, I had my first experience attending a NSHP/LatPro diversity job fair as part of the LatPro team. I arrived in Atlanta on Monday where I met Saini, Ricardo, Ivete, and Mike, all members of the LatPro and NSHP Diversity Job Fair task force. This was my first time meeting each of them, and we quickly said our introductions and got to work.

Prior to my arrival in Atlanta, I had imagined what the experience would be like, and pictured sitting here today writing about how hectic the day in Atlanta had been, how we spent most of our time putting out fires and bending over backward to make demanding exhibitors happy.

I am delighted to say that due to the hard work and organization of the NSHP and LatPro teams, my preconceptions of what the day would be like couldn’t have been farther from the truth! Saini and Ricardo from NSHP had been on-site since Sunday working out all the little details so the event would run like a well oiled machine. The rest of the LatPro sales team had been hard at work for months selling booth space to companies looking to fill bilingual jobs, and we were nearly at capacity.

Bright and early on the morning of the diversity job fair I made one more round of calls to our TV and Radio contacts in Atlanta. By 7:30 we had traveled across town and arrived at the venue, the Cobb Galleria Centre. The event staff had already set up the tables at the event so we just had to put finishing touches on the LatPro and NSHP booths before greeting the recruiters as they entered the venue.

Setup went seamlessly, and soon we were surround with colorful exhibits each offering a wealth of diversity employment opportunities. Once setup was complete, there were still a few minutes before the doors opened to jobseekers, which afforded me the opportunity to speak with some of the recruiters about how their companies value diversity in the workplace, and I was able to secure several companies for upcoming articles on LatPro.com.

Soon the chit-chat had to come to an end as the doors officially opened, and the large group of individuals seeking bilingual employment came through registration and began visiting the exhibits and speaking with the recruiters and organizations that were present.

The rest of the day seemed like a blur, but a very pleasant blur! None of my preconceived notions were actualized. The event ran so smoothly and recruiters and jobseekers alike commented on how organized, efficient, and valuable the event was. I had a great opportunity to get to speak with nearly all of the exhibitors throughout the day, and they were all very pleased with the quality and quantity of candidates in attendance. The only slightly negative thing I heard from an exhibitor was “I wished I had realized what a strong turnout there would be. We ran out of promotional items half way through the day!” To her, that may have been a negative thing that she felt ill-prepared, but to us that means the event was a resounding success!

Before I knew it, 2:30 had rolled around and for the first time all day, the steady stream of jobseekers gradually started to slow down. It certainly did not become a ghost-town however, and at precisely 3:00, there were still candidates standing in lines to speak with some of the companies present.

At the end of the day we had 685 resumes from job seekers who attended the event. We had also participated in several interviews with local radio and television stations about the event, and in addition to Ricardo, several of the jobseekers got an opportunity to appear on television describing their experience as well.

It was a long day, but not a stressful one. The event was a testament to the preparedness and extensive preparation that the NSHP and Latpro diversity job fair teams. I had a fantastic experience, and learned a lot about what participating candidates, organizations, and recruiters are looking for at hispanic job fairs. Taking part in this experience first-hand will certainly give me a leg up in promoting our upcoming Washington, DC diversity job fair on August 21st.

About 163,000 H-1B applications were filed this year, far in excess of the 65,000 cap. The difference represents many Latin American professionals whose dreams of working in the United States will not pan out this year. One of the companies impacted by this shortsighted policy is Google. This is what Google has to say about the H-1B cap and its effect on the company:

As for Google, this year we submitted 300 H-1B applications, and we’re sorry to report that 90 hopefuls were denied. The yearly H-1B lottery continues to affect our employees and our business, which is why we continue to urge the U.S. government to increase the artificially low cap on these visas.

We realize that many people have strong views on the topic of immigration. Some commenters on our recent post on H-1Bs criticized Google for not hiring more Americans. Although we’re committed to hiring outstanding American candidates, Google hires employees based on skills and qualifications, not on nationality.

The irony of our policy is mind boggling — ‘bienvenido’ if you are a laborer that can survive the hike across the desert, but ‘adios’ if you are a highly skilled technology worker… it seems to me that the United States has really lost its way on many fronts. We are long overdue for a change in leadership.

When companies register at our site, you would think all of them are coming to post Hispanic jobs or searching for bilingual professionals. Many of them are. However, there are a few coming to look for contacts to either promote their services, spam, or build their own database and we send them away.

We invest a lot of resources screening every company trying to use our services and we do it in many stages, when they register, they purchase a product, and while they are using our product.

For example, when they register, we check their company information in many ways to make sure they are a real company legitimately trying to hire Hispanic or bilingual professionals. We check their address, name, website, registrations, comments on the web about them, etc. Even big legitimate companies that want to purchase our database are sometimes declined because we care about the reason why they will contact our candidates (a real full time position versus an opportunity to do Primerica multilevel kind of thing).

If a company passed the approval to use our services and purchases a product, e.g. a job posting, we not only check the credit card payment source ( e.g. a credit card form the same country versus something coming from Rumania), we also make sure the posting is of value to our job seekers. We would not publish “multilevel marketing offers”, “work from home and make million dollars” kind of opportunities. In those cases, we block their access and refund the money. If the job is legitimate, we check that it has enough information for the candidate; it should show information about a specific position not a general request for resumes, etc.

Wait, it doesn’t end there. We also monitor how are they using the product. If they are using our resume database, we monitor how many people are they contacting, time spent reviewing each resume, etc..

We also protect recruiters and employers. We ask useful information to job seekers to make sure recruiters can get a hold of those candidates who match their search, the resumes are real resumes, not spam, resumes are classified in different matching criteria versus the job posting, etc.

All these quality filters add to our cost of doing business, starting with declining clients up to ending relations after we think they have not come for a legitimate purpose of hiring a candidates for a real position. We are proud of taking good care of both our candidates and recruiters. We can certify that “Our website is junk free”. In my next comment, I will list some funny cases… just to see the fun part of maintaining high quality at all costs J

I am a bilingual professional -in fact trilingual- and if I had the face to stretch the truth I would say multilingual. I speak Spanish, my native language, English -my adopted language since I moved to the US- and if I practice I could probably get back to speaking French. I have a decent understanding of Portuguese and Italian when it comes to reading, but I can’t speak either.

But this posting is about what it means to be bilingual when we are talking about jobseekers. Normally, you would call bilingual someone that can manage in two languages, right? But what is “to manage”? Read, write and speak or just comprehend? Where you draw the line?

I am the kind that can be a bit of a perfectionist for some things, so for a long time I didn’t consider myself “fully bilingual” because I definitely have an accent when I speak and some weird grammar if I write in a rush. Being that my Spanish is impeccable, I felt that my English was not at the same level and I didn’t feel comfortable calling myself “fully bilingual”.

Big mistake. After some years I noticed that fully bilingual does not mean perfect. It means you can write, speak and read in any of those languages without struggling. Now, while knowing English is very important for any professional in my country of origin, being bilingual here in the US most of the time goes beyond the language.

And that is why at LatPro we believe that most of our jobseekers are not just bilingual but bicultural. Most of our candidates, not all of them of course, are second or third generation Hispanics. That means not only that they know the language, but they know the culture too. They know the American culture because that is what they live daily, but they know the values and priorities of the Hispanic culture. They have an insight that is extremely valuable for any company trying to reach that market.

So if you are a Hispanic jobseeker remember: you have an advantage, and that is that you are bicultural. “Fully bilingual” or not.

For most recruiters and HR professionals, SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, needs no introduction. SHRM offers lots of valuable learning opportunities and certifications amongst its benefits for the HR community.

But let me offer a little perspective on what exhibiting at SHRM does for LatPro and I’d guess lots of other job boards. SHRM has two sets of clients that it needs to make happy, so let me give some insight from the non-HR world. And yes, I know that there are many HR people and HR providers that are outside of the recruiting and job board world, but this is my post and I don’t work for those companies (certainly feel free to add your knowledge here with a reply about those areas).

Over the years, LatPro has exhibited at all of the different SHRM trade shows, trying to figure out which offered the most value for our business. Without a doubt, we’ve found that the Annual Conference provides the best opportunity to speak with high level HR executives and recruiting professionals. It also gives us the chance to see what other vendors and job boards are doing and to keep in touch with other business colleagues from other companies. We’ve also found the Staffing Management Conference (fka EMA) and Diversity Conference to be valuable targeted trade shows where we can meet a specific specialty of HR professionals that most closely match our business offerings.

Exhibiting at SHRM’s trade shows gives us the ability to have our company name and products in front of thousands of HR professionals that might not otherwise ever hear about LatPro and what we have to offer the recruiting and diversity areas of companies. It also adds a personal touch to meet long-time clients or new prospective customers face-to-face. Being an international company, my sales team operates mainly via telephone and email; however, these conferences offer the best opportunity to meet many people in person in one place over a short amount of time. If you are interested in what LatPro has to offer your company, and would like to meet us at the Annual SHRM show at the end of this month, give me a call or send me an email and I’ll send you one of our complimentary Free Expo Passes. The Annual Conference is June 22-24 in Chicago.

Hope to see you in Chicago!