• Even if you’re currently employed, you never know when an attractive job opening may present itself.  A current resume can help you capitalize on an unexpected opportunity – before someone else has the chance.
• Over time, your important achievements and contributions may be forgotten.  Regular updating ensures that critical, measurable accomplishments are accurately recorded.
• In many cases, your resume creates a first and lasting impression on a potential employer.  Make sure it’s a good one.  By periodically reviewing and honing your resume, you can create a more powerful marketing tool that accurately and favorably represents you as a professional.

Use these tips to make your resume update simple and comprehensive:

1. Review personal information (address, e-mail, LinkedIn URL, etc.) to ensure everything is up-to-date.
2. Review your oldest job. If it’s no longer relevant, and you have at least 10 years of documented work history without it, remove it.
3. Update your responsibilities and accomplishments. Consider the following:  special projects; new expertise developed or job responsibilities awarded; knowledge or skills enhancement from special training or professional development; awards or other recognition; challenges you faced and solutions developed; measurable results you helped achieved (e.g., eliminating process inefficiencies, increasing productivity or sales, improving staffing or operational performance, etc.).
4. Revist your objective statement. If it is not in line with your current career aspirations, rewrite it.  The statement can be general, but should show some direction toward the field in which you want to work.
5. Reevaluate your references. Verify that these individuals still work where you have noted and that contact information for each is correct.  If you have developed new contacts who can attest to your recent achievements or heightened responsibility, consider replacing them with outdated references.
6. Update your resume format. Check online sample resumes to see if yours looks outdated and revise accordingly.  Additionally, you should create an electronic version of your resume if you don’t already have one.
7. Proofread everything. Sloppy spelling, grammar and punctuation may take you out of the running immediately.  If you’re not proficient in proofreading, ask a trusted friend or associate to help.

Looking for a better career opportunity in the food & beverage industry?  Give us a call or browse open career opportunities.  Or, follow us on Twitter to receive the latest job opportunities we’re recruiting for.

For years consumers sought drinks laden with ingredients like caffeine, taurine, electrolytes and herbs to give them the extra energy boost they craved.  But lately, manufacturers have introduced several non-alcoholic concoctions that promise just the opposite – they help you unwind.

Today, it seems it’s not enough for a drink to simply quench your thirst.  Manufacturers are responding to consumers’ demands for beverages that take them to new extremes.  Red Bull was one of the first drinks to gain notoriety for extreme energy.  Now a host of relaxation drinks, with names like Mary Jane’s, Dream Water and Lazy Cakes, are pushing the limits at the opposite end of the energy spectrum.

But do relaxation drinks deliver on their claims, and more importantly, are they safe?

Several recent articles, including one posted on CNN.com, focus on rising concerns about new (and sometimes untested) anti-energy drinks.  Sold on college campuses and in grocery and convenience stores, this breed of beverage is being marketed to younger adults, soccer moms and busy professionals.

According to the CNN.com article, Ronald Peters, associate professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, likens anti-energy drinks to street drug concoctions (laced with codeine cough syrup) urban youths have been mixing up on their own for years.  In the article, Peters called the marketing of commercialized anti-energy drinks “one of the worst things I’ve ever seen with corporate immorality.”

On the other side of the coin, Tim Barham, president of Frontier Beverage, said Unwind (his company’s anti-energy drink) is not “associated in the same realm at all” with the cough syrup mixtures.  He and other beverage makers say that their products are safe and that they are a positive alternative to drugs and alcohol.

So what’s in these drinks?  Manufacturers help consumers chill out with a variety of ingredients, including:

• passion flower
• kava
• valerian root
• melatonin
• rose hips
• GABA

An NPR.com article states that research on most of the herbal supplements going into relaxation drinks is spotty and inconclusive.  Herbs can’t be patented and the FDA doesn’t require companies to standardize ingredients or even back-up their claims with research, so there is ultimately no financial or legal incentive for manufacturers to scientifically test their products.

According to New York-based food and drug attorney Marc Ullman, “The relaxation product category is a category that’s looking for trouble.”  He recently told FoodNavigator-USA.com that relaxation beverage makers may face particular problems in light of the FDA’s draft guidance on distinguishing dietary supplements from beverages.

As consumer demand skyrockets and manufacturers continue to blur the distinction between drinks and supplements, we’re likely to hear much more on the topic.  What’s your take?  Please leave your comments below.

Kinsa Group – Your Food & Beverage Industry Recruiter

For over 25 years, The Kinsa Group has delivered the high performing food & beverage industry professionals your company needs to compete in today’s competitive and rapidly changing marketplace.  Simply put, food and beverage recruiting and assessment is all we do.  Contact us today to learn more.

MyPlate Replaces Food Pyramid

Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled MyPlate.  Government officials say the new icon will be a part of a healthy-eating initiative that emphasizes the fruit, vegetable, grains, protein and dairy food groups.  The symbol replaces the 2005 Food Pyramid, which was widely criticized widely for being difficult to read.

The U.S.D.A. said MyPlate will convey seven key messages, including:

1. enjoy food but eat less;
2. avoid oversized portions;
3. make half your plate fruits and vegetables;
4. switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk;
5. make at least half your grains whole grains;
6. drink water instead of sugary drinks;
7. and compare sodium (salt) in foods like soup, bread and frozen meals, and choose foods with lower numbers.

More information about MyPlate can be found at www.choosemyplate.gov.

Men’s & Women’s Health Ingredient Trends

Wild Flavors, Inc.’s whitepapers detail the ingredients food & beverage companies should incorporate now to capitalize on changing health trends for both men and women:

Men’s Health Ingredient Trends

Men are more concerned than ever about their own well-being.  They want to prevent disease and improve the quality of their lives through joint health, strong immune systems, proper sleep patterns and strong brain function.  Openness about health concerns and changes in social attitudes have made men more receptive than ever to new and innovative nutritious options.

Food and beverage companies have a prime opportunity to capitalize on men’s health trends, by creating products with ingredients that address men’s key concerns:

Heart Health: Omega-3s, Phytosterols, Coenzyme Q10, Tea Polyphenols, Citrus Bioflavonoids.

Bone & Joint Health: Hyaluronic Acid, Grapeseed Extract.

Immunity: Pomegranate Extract, Citrus Bioflavonoids, Grapeseed Extract.

Cognitive Health: Omega-3s, Coenzyme Q10, Phosphatidylserine.

Holistic Sleep: Melatonin, L-Theanine, Gamma Amino Butryic Acid (GABA).

Women’s Health Ingredient Trends

According to Wild Flavor’s “Women: Trends & Health Ingredients” whitepaper, women account for the vast majority of household spending decisions and consumer purchases.  Furthermore, many women put family needs ahead of their own.

To capitalize on these consumer behaviors, food & beverage organizations should create products with ingredients that address the following top concerns for women:

Hearth Health: Omega-3s, Phytosterols, Coenzyme Q10, Tea Polyphenols, Citrus Bioflavonoids.

Bone & Joint Health: Hyaluronic Acid, Soy Isoflavones.

Immunity: Cranberry Extract, Citrus Bioflavonoids, Grapeseed Extract.

Beauty: Coenzyme Q10, Hyaluronic Acid, Tea Polyphenols, Citrus Bioflavonoids.

Holistic Sleep: L-Theanine, Passionflower Extract, Chamomile Extract.

Weight Management: Conjugated Linoleic Acid, Green Coffee Extract, Green Tea Catechins.

But just what, exactly, is the “right fit”?

For many employers, it means finding a candidate who shares the same belief systems and values as the company’s, and who meshes with the corporate culture.  To identify this type of individual, these employers often turn to values-based recruiting.

Values-based recruiting goes beyond examining competencies and experience.  It’s about creating a values match by building a model that outlines behaviors associated with corporate values, and then assessing candidates for those behaviors.  The process typically yields hires whose thinking, values and ways of doing business closely match those of the employer.

But what if your company needs a proverbial “shot in the arm” to fuel its success – a new direction, fresh business perspective or innovative ideas to re-energize your organization?

In a case like this, the right fit for your food & beverage organization will be an individual who, by definition, is not a perfect values-based match.  Rather, this candidate should be selected based on a model that outlines behaviors associated with leading your company in new direction.  To begin this process, your company must first determine new goals, create a list of competencies and values for the available position that will support those goals, and then recruit and select accordingly.

Which type of recruiting is right for your business needs?

Kinsa’s recruiting experts will work with you to determine how to find the right fit for your company’s needs.  Whether you require an individual whose values closely match your company’s, or someone who will bring fresh ideas and perspective to your business, Kinsa’s exclusive recruiting process will deliver only A-level candidates.

During the Position Specification phase of recruiting, Kinsa Group will precisely define who we are searching for and what this person needs to accomplish.  This guarantees that our recruiting is strategic, accurate, and highly expeditious.  A discipline-specific Consultant will work with you to create the Position Profile (performance goals, qualifications, candidate profile, compensation package) and the Marketing Platform (an overall promotional summary of your company’s story, career track and location attractions).

Contact us today to find out how Kinsa’s 8-Step Recruiting Process for food & beverage executives and professionals can deliver the right fit for your organization.

As a nationwide food & beverage industry recruiter with over 25 years of experience, we at Kinsa Group provide a full complement of technology tools and resources to facilitate your job search.  Here are some of the best:

• Twitter. Looking for a Business Development Manager opportunity?  Searching for the latest VP Plant Operations positions?  Be the first to know about new job postings by following Kinsa on Twitter.
• Facebook. If you’re on Facebook, Search Kinsa Group and Like our Fan Page.  We post select positions on our Wall, which will show up automatically on your Home Page.
• LinkedIn. Connect with our recruiters by becoming part of Kinsa Group’s LinkedIn network.
• Website. Kinsa Group’s website contains a full complement of technology tools to facilitate your job search.  You can learn about our services for food & beverage job seekers, upload your résumé, search open food & beverage jobs.  Once you’re registered with us, you can update your profile and track your interview schedule right from our website.
• Blog. Kinsa’s blog is updated weekly and contains valuable career advice, job search tips and trends impacting the food & beverage industry.
• Kinsa CareerEdge.  Kinsa CareerEdge™, powered by Kinsa Group, is our FREE online career resource that enables you to: access over 1,000 Job Boards on one site; prepare a résumé or receive a résumé critique; participate in weekly webinars covering job seeker “hot topics,” receive job search advice, and more.
• iHobnob. iHobnob, a niche job board for the food and beverage industry elite, provides an objective medium for you to establish relationships, grow professionally, manage and enhance your career.
• National database. As a Kinsa candidate, our Recruiters across the nation have instant access to your profile.  We actively maintain our database to rapidly match your skills, experience and career interests with potential employment opportunities from coast to coast.

At Kinsa Group, we’re dedicated to making your food & beverage job search search faster, easier and more effective than ever.

Accurately appraise your cost of replacing a manager or executive.  In addition to the direct costs of recruiting, screening, interviewing and hiring, you must also calculate:

• Opportunity costs (time HR and hiring managers could be spending on other productive activities)
• Costs of vacancy in the position (impact on customers and team/department members, lost productivity)
• Costs of replacing knowledge that leaves with the employee

Determine who is leaving and why. To decrease turnover, you must first understand why it’s happening.  Go through exit interviews and question co-workers to uncover:

• Who is leaving. Look for patterns in age, tenure, performance level, sex, department/job category, etc. to see if you can develop a “turnover profile.”
• Where they are going. Are you losing employees to a competitor?  Are they going back to school?  Moving out of town?
• Why they are leaving. Ask co-workers why other employees left.  Additionally, hold a focus group to find out what motivates your existing workforce to stay and what threatens their commitment to your organization.

Create a focused plan. You won’t be able to stop turnover completely, so use the information you gather to create a plan that targets your most costly turnover.  Often, these are strategic jobs with a long learning curve and/or requiring extensive or specialized knowledge.  Focus your retention efforts where they’ll have the biggest impact on your organization’s long-term success.

One of the best ways your organization can guard against turnover’s negative effects is by working with a trusted food & beverage recruitment and assessment firm such as Kinsa.  We offer tremendous advantages to employers:

• A wide range of service options to suit your specific placement needs
• Up-front assessments, by dedicated and experienced recruiting specialists, to ensure the best match for your available position
• Minimal disruption to your organization and no loss of focus
• Value-added services, such as initial compensation ranges, marketplace climate data and position profile development
• Access to the recruitment firm’s extensive candidate database, as well as regional and national recruiting networks
• Satisfaction guarantees

Kinsa Group - A Better Way to Hire Food and Beverage Industry Professionals

Hiring on your own can be an expensive, time-consuming and frustrating process.  So why do it on your own?  Contact Kinsa today.  For over 25 years, we’ve delivered highly qualified professionals and senior-to-executive level management candidates through our unique recruiting process.

Our dynamic staff of skilled recruiting professionals will make your next hire a success – guaranteed.

“Tell me a little bit about yourself.”

Sounds innocuous enough, but in reality this is an extremely important question.  Interviewers ask it for a number of reasons:

• to get a sense of what you feel is most important about yourself;
• to see how well you’ve prepared for the interview;
• to find out why you think you’re the best candidate for the job;
• to see how you handle yourself in an unstructured situation;
• to see how articulate you are;
• to find out what type of first impression you make.

There is a lot riding on your response to this question, so make sure you knock it out of the park.  Here are a few quick tips for answering the “tell me about yourself” interview question the right way:

• Be brief.  Keep the answer short – no more than two to three minutes.
• Develop and include your USP.  Your Unique Selling Proposition, also known as a personal branding statement, is a one-sentence description of who you are, what you greatest strength is and the major benefit that a potential employer will derive from this strength.  Plenty of help for developing your USP is available online.
• Practice, practice, practice.  Write your answer out, then rehearse it until it’s second nature.  The better you know your pitch, the more poised and confident you’ll sound.
• Cite examples.  When you develop your answer, include one or two examples that best demonstrate why you’re well-qualified for the available postition, or highlight your most important accomplishments.  Quantify these results whenever possible (e.g., cost-savings, market share, measurable process improvements, increased revenue, etc.)
• Stay focused.  Make sure your response clearly focuses on the experiences and accomplishments most relevant to the available position.

The “tell me about yourself” interview question offers a great opportunity to set yourself apart from your job competitors.  So don’t waste it.  Take advantage of your time in the driver’s seat by selling yourself, creating a great first impression and setting a positive tone for the rest of the interview.

The Kinsa Group is committed to the success of your career search in food & beverage.  With over 25 years of experience placing high-level executives and managers with top employers in the food and beverage industry, we have the resources and connections to match you with the ideal opportunity.  Contact us today or Search Jobs online.

One by one, your food & beverage industry colleagues get promoted while you toil away, month after month, in your current position.  You want to wish each of them well, really, but silently you ask yourself, “Why them, and not me?  Do they know something that I don’t?”

Maybe.  If you want to realize your full professional potential, your boss must perceive you as a viable candidate for advancement.  Your hard work and accomplishments are key, obviously, but playing the personal PR game is just as critical to staying visible in your company.  If you’re looking for ways to make yourself more “promotable,” here are some great ideas to get you started:

1. Assess where you are and where you want to be.  Before you identify specific ways to promote yourself, you need to conduct an honest appraisal of your job, your professional strengths and your goals (if you have a good boss, he may even help you with this exercise).  Take the time to write down:
   –Your current job description
   –Your key strengths, skills and accomplishments
   –A description of the job you want, including the skills and experience it requires
2. Identify gaps between where you are and where you want to be.  Do you need to build your knowledge base?  Develop better management skills?  Learn a new software program?  Conducting this professional inventory will help you understand your strengths and weaknesses, and create a roadmap for where you want to go.
3. Seize every opportunity to learn.  Stay on top of new trends in your segment of the food and beverage industry to increase your knowledge and skills in areas critical to your organization.  If you want to be promoted to a specific position, find out everything you can about that job.  Read, take classes or inquire about shadowing opportunities to prepare yourself for stepping into a new role when the opportunity arises.
4. Make friends with higher-ups.  Establish rapport and cultivate good relationships with your boss and his colleagues.  When you attend company gatherings or fundraisers, do more than make an appearance.  Talk with people throughout the company, not just within your team or department. 
5. Create a portfolio.  Keep track of your professional accomplishments and contributions by assembling a portfolio that showcases your skills and experience.  When it comes time to make your case for a promotion (with either your company or a competitor’s), your portfolio will prove an invaluable tool.
6. Brag the right way.  When it comes to getting promoted, “who knows you” is often as important as “who you know.”  So do what you can to get onto key executives’ radar screens, without coming across as a braggart:
   –Accept credit graciously.  Instead of shrugging a compliment off, try saying, “Thank you.  I’m really glad my hard work paid off.”
   –E-mail your boss a brief weekly status report, outlining your major accomplishments and upcoming projects.
   –Volunteer to draft your team’s memos to department heads.
   –Present your group’s milestones at the next business planning meeting.
7. Be patient.  Promotions are not always available when you want them.  Sometimes, you have to stick with a company a little longer to get the promotion you deserve.  If you’re working for a good company, keep your eye on the prize and stick it out a little longer.

Here are a few more great tips to help you get the promotion you deserve.

If you’re in the market for a new job, or are just curious about what kind of food and beverage are available right now, please call us today.  As national recruiters specializing in the food & beverage industry, Kinsa Group offers a variety of excellent career opportunities.

• Position Specification and Search Strategy Development.  Before starting a search, a professional recruitment firm will help you precisely define what type of individual you are looking for (skills, experience, traits, etc.), and identify the most expedient and cost-effective ways to find that candidate.  A quicker, more targeted search improves hiring success while reducing the cost of vacancy in the position.
• Recruiting.  A recruitment firm executes a comprehensive search strategy on your behalf, including advertising, database searches, cold-calls to target companies, social networking and generating referrals.  A recruitment firm with industry specialization, such as Kinsa Group, can leverage its experience, industry contacts and recruiting economies of scale to produce results faster.
• Assessing and Evaluating.  By working with a search firm, you save your HR department the time and expense associated with screening résumés, arranging and conducting initial interviews, and checking candidate references.  This frees your internal staff to focus on other key priorities.
• Guarantees.  To help ensure hiring success, many recruiting firms offer placement guarantees.
• Outsourcing.  Some recruiting firms, such as Kinsa Group, can act as your company’s internal recruitment function for a portion or all of your jobs – handling the entire recruiting / hiring process from job profiling through the on-boarding of the new hire, including staff, technology, method and reporting.   Known as Recruitment Process Outsourcing, this service improves your company’s time to hire, increases the quality of the candidate pool, provides verifiable metrics, reduces cost and improves governmental compliance.  RPO changes fixed investment costs into variable costs that can vary with fluctuation in recruitment activity.

Kinsa Group – A Better Way to Hire Food and Beverage Industry Professionals

Hiring on your own can be an expensive, time-consuming and frustrating process – so don’t do it alone.  Contact Kinsa today.  Using our unique recruiting process, our dynamic staff of skilled recruiting professionals will make your next hire a success.

Use these insights to motivate your high performers and maximize their job satisfaction:

• They need opportunities to learn and grow.  Ironically, the more high performers are able to grow professionally within your organization (and therefore become more marketable), the more likely they are to stay with you.  Your company must meet their need to remain highly marketable.
• They need recognition.  Although fueled by their own need to achieve personal career goals, you must give them recognition due.  When appropriate, let them shine.  Stroke their egos, but only when merited.
• They need continual career development.  Recruit senior employees to mentor high performers, helping them to set goals, develop their careers and take on tasks beyond those designated in their job descriptions.  Mentors should use their status and influence to help these protégés gain entry to groups and experiences that would be career enhancing.
• They need their individual goals to align with their company’s.  As an employer of these talented individuals, you must match their skills and interests with their responsibilities.
• They value additional non-compensation benefits.  Wellness programs that promote the general health of employees (e.g., exercise and nutrition programs, health screenings, etc.) are an important factor in a high performer’s decision to remain in his current position.  Additionally, work / life balance programs (e.g., casual dress days, educational seminars, flex hours, job sharing, etc.) increase their overall job satisfaction.

A final note.  One of the biggest reasons employees don’t return to former employers is because they’re embarrassed to think about how to approach coming back.  So if a high performer leaves your company for another, let him know that the door is open for his return, in case he realizes that the proverbial grass isn’t greener on the other side. 

The Kinsa Group specializes in recruiting and assessing high performing professionals for the food and beverage processing industry.  Visit our website to learn more.