Tara Strickland serves as AgCareers.com’s Upper Midwest Sales Support Coordinator. She has been with the company for more than 5 years and works from the North Carolina headquarters.
What do you do on a day-to-day basis in your role with AgCareers.com?
I work with new registrants, and I help with current customers’ maintenance with their current job postings that are live. I also work with dormant accounts to see if they’re interested in posting with us again and some lead sourcing.
What do you enjoy about working with AgCareers.com?
I didn’t grow up in agriculture, so it’s interesting to learn more about all the different aspects. Working here helps you learn about the different companies and industry sectors as well as the jobs in the industry. I like AgCareers.com for trying to link those people to those jobs. I also like who I work with. It’s a great company; a friendly, family environment.
What advice would you give to job seekers using AgCareers.com for the first time?
I would tell them to first set up an account. If they’re not in our database, they won’t be found. Make sure that your resume is up to date; have more than one resume depending on what position you are applying to. Put yourself in our system because our employers do use our database and look by the position.
If you are working on developing a resume, you may not have given much thought to which fonts you will use or which will look best. You’ll probably end up going the default route and slapping Times New Roman on there.
STOP! Remember, you want your resume to stand out, right?! How can you make that happen when your resume looks exactly like everyone else’s? Now, before you eagerly open your resume document to swap in a decorative font like Curlz MT, think again: decorative fonts are also a huge turnoff and look wildly unprofessional.
It’s a tricky line: you want your resume to stand out visually but yet you shouldn’t go overboard. Here are a few suggestions of resume fonts that will make you look like a winner.
By Deborah Kohl, Program Director Kansas State University Master of Agribusiness
Most people look back nostalgically on their undergraduate experience. We cheer for our alma mater, thumb through the alumni magazines and reminisce about the good-old-days, and for good reason. Our undergraduate experiences shape who we are, determine many of our life choices and lay the foundation for our professional journey.
For many, however, year two or three on the job scene brings the realization that there are some additional skills needed for an employee to continue to be successful. For some this realization comes in the form of an evaluation that doesn’t go quite as hoped; for others, there is a shoulder tap by senior leadership pointing to a future with the company, but only with advanced degree. It is at this point the search for additional training opportunities often takes place.
Your resume impressed the employer and you are now on to the next step, a face to face interview. Time to prepare yourself: you’ve gone through the processes of researching the company, analyzing the job description, practicing questions and have even picked out the perfect outfit to wear, but have you really put much thought into what you are going to bring with you to the interview? This may seem like a silly question, but many people forget to take into consideration the appropriate and inappropriate items to bring with you to the interview. Don’t stress! Below is a list of items that that should help you through the process.
Extra copy of your resume
It is easy to assume that your interviewer already has a copy of your resume and you may be thinking this is not necessary. Never assume that there will not be additional people in the interview than expected. Not every person may need a copy, but it never hurts to have them on hand.
Where the ag jobs are, one waits for you. AgCareers.com recently released its 2015 Job Reports for the United States and Canada. Check out the following findings regarding the states and provinces with the most ag jobs posted in 2015 by employers.
1. Iowa – Reigning again as the top state for agricultural jobs, Iowa is known for its pork and corn production.
2. California – Very close behind Iowa is the state of California. As a very agriculturally diverse state, you can find produce, livestock, crop and agribusiness jobs in California.
Guest Blogger: Erin Brenneman, Brenneman Pork
Sitting in traffic is definitely one of those things that I never really realized was such a chore until I didn’t have to do it daily anymore. Even now, 12 years after I moved from the city lights to the starry country nights, I think to myself “how do these people really do this every day?”. But the reality is that it was once a way of life for me. I was born and raised in a suburb of Chicago called LaGrange Park. Its population is around 12,000 and we were all pretty convinced that food came straight from the grocery store. Of course there is always that notion of a farm somewhere that grows things, maybe raises some animals, and definitely owns several pairs of overalls. But what definitely wasn’t pictured was what I discovered when I met my husband and moved back to farm with him and his family in southeast Iowa.
I can remember when I first came to visit the pig farm with my husband over a weekend from college. It was a gorgeous day and I was about to experience my first time “choring”. Little did I know that “chores” were about to become the most important part of my day, for the rest of my life. We walked through the pig barn together as he explained the whole process. We stepped outside and I gazed upon the scene that greeted me. A house on top of the hill, surrounded like a deserted island in the middle of the ocean, but by rolling green cornfields. I called up my mom as I stood there taking it all in, “I think I am going to spend the rest of my life here, this is amazing” I told her. A few short months later after that conversation (and some “you are moving WHERE??!!” questions from my family), we said our vows and the rest is history.
Mary Barefoot is AgCareers.com’s HR Services Manager. She has been with the company for 11 years and works from the Clinton, North Carolina company headquarters.
What do you do on a day-to-day basis in your role with AgCareers.com?
I feel that my role is divided across several different focus areas, one of which would be serving as the HR generalist for our team. My other hats involve providing compensation resources to our clients through our agribusiness compensation survey called our Compensation Benchmark Review. That portion of my job is somewhat twofold in sharing the service offering with clients as well as managing the process of collecting the data and reporting the information. Beyond the salary survey, we also conduct the Agribusiness HR Review on an annual basis which provides HR policy and procedure benchmarks for agribusinesses in a given year.
What do you enjoy about working with AgCareers.com?
I personally enjoy the challenge that it presents to me on a given day. I really enjoy the variety that’s offered through my role. Staying up to date on HR legislation to connecting with clients and then analyzing data that results in information that can be applied to businesses. I also enjoy that all of those efforts are within the ag industry because I grew up on a farm. I’m very passionate about that.
You’re graduating! Eeeek! This is both exciting and terrifying, depending on a few things. Do you have a career in place to start once you leave college? And are you ready for it? If not, what are you doing to search and prepare for a career? Either way, if you’re not as excited as Sue Heck (pictured to the left), maybe you should try a few of the 10 suggestions below to help prepare for your career.
Note: These apply even if you don’t have a job lined up.
You’re running out the door for an interview, starting your first day at work, or getting ready for a big presentation on the job and notice a major wardrobe malfunction- ARGHHHH, what now?!? You aren’t a skilled seamstress and don’t have much time. NO FEAR! You can overcome many wardrobe emergencies with simple fixes, using things you have around home or the office.
Popped Button
Grab a twist tie from your bread bag to temporarily reattach a button. If the button is loose but still hanging on, dab on some clear nail polish.
Loose Hem
The stitching has come loose on your pant and your hem is hanging down- fix it with some double-stick tape…voila!
Stuck Zipper
Not the best timing for a stuck zipper! Rub some Vaseline, lip balm or even pencil on the zipper to work it loose.
At the end of the interview, when it’s time to ask questions, anything’s okay, right? Wrong. Very wrong. Asking certain questions could cause your potential employer to second guess you, even if you’ve just given a shining interview.
Julie Le Suer, Senior Director at Quality Placement Authority, shares her personal input for candidates and what they should leave off the table following an interview.
1) What would my starting salary be? How about benefits?
From Le Sueur: “This one is the most obvious—a candidate should never bring up compensation or benefits at any point until the interviewer/employer does. The only exception would be if the company is getting ready to make an offer (the candidate should make clear at this point what their compensation expectations are in a diplomatic way). If a candidate brings up comp/benefits prematurely, it will often kill an interview in the interviewer’s mind right then and there.
