Archive for the ‘In the News’ Category

Rebecca Boyer recognized for St. Louis Business Journal’s 40 Under 40

ST. LOUIS, MO – KellyMitchell VP and CFO, Rebecca Boyer, was recognized by the St. Louis Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 edition on Friday, February 1st.

The St. Louis Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 recognizes up and coming leaders, like Boyer, for their contributions to regional business and community.  This year’s theme revolves around a movie premier, highlighting the newest talent on the St. Louis business scene, and predicting their presence on the front page of Business Journal for years to come.

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If you noticed a lot more facial hair around the Thanksgiving table last week, you are not alone. November has officially become known as “No-Shave November” or “Movember” by men across the country. It is what it sounds like – no shaving, for the whole month.

Movember started in 2003 with two Australian guys in a bar and a dare. Adam Garone and his brother decided to bring back the thick moustache for 30 days in November and raise money for prostate cancer. Nine years later and it is all too common to find Facebook timelines flooded with men across the country flaunting their ‘staches. Supporters are dubbed Mo Bros and Mo Sistas and the campaign has raised over $350 million for prostate cancer support worldwide.

But there is more to be learned from the story of Movember than the importance of men’s health. The story is a testament to the importance of passion, belief and persistence. Have you ever had a million dollar idea? What about a twenty dollar idea? Have you ever acted to bring those ideas to fruition? Of course, not every idea is going to take the world by storm but there is no harm in giving your ideas a bit more consideration. With the right amount of persistence (and facial hair), your idea could become something great.  Just look at the Gabrone brothers!

Who knew you could learn so much from a lip toupee movement? Another successful Movember has almost come and gone, which means it is time for the Mo Bros to get the razor out. And to the Mo Sistas – the end is in sight, phew!

Inc. recently published a list of the 7 worst tweets of 2012 – a cringe worthy list of offensive tweets that had the twitter-sphere up in arms. Don’t get me wrong, Twitter and other social media sites are a great outlet for sharing opinions. Who doesn’t love a funny tweet poking fun at a washed up celebrity or a politician caught in an affair?  But what happens if a tweet goes too far and offends your followers?  140 characters may not seem like much, but those letters also have the potential to insult your followers and ruin your reputation. Take Gap for example, the retailer recently fired off an insensitive tweet during Hurricane Sandy and the media pounced on it:

Here are a few things to consider next time you are wondering whether or not you should post that questionable comment:

• Is it authentic? Is it insensitive?
• Do you want people to be able to see it in 5 years?
• Does it follow your company’s social media policy? Don’t risk your job security over a tweet!
• Could it be interpreted as racially offensive?

Remember that everything you post is a reflection of yourself – and employers, employees, and many others can see it.  Don’t leave out your opinions and sense of humor but do think twice before clicking send. And when in doubt, ask a friend for a second opinion!

Click here to see Inc’s “7 Worst Tweets of 2012.”

By Guest Blogger: Danielle Landewe

There have been many articles posted recently on the Keys to Success.  What do you do in the first hour of work?  What was your birth order?   Are you a morning person or night owl?  Do you make a good first impression – you only have 5 seconds!

Whew!  With so much advice, I decided to see how my routine, lifestyle and arbitrary rank in siblinghood measures up.  Let’s start where I have the least amount of control – birth order.  I am a firstborn.  According to Jobs Monster, I am reliable, strive to achieve and conscientious. I agree, that is definitely me! And with my good grades and varsity basketball career, clearly I am destined for greatness!  Hold on, before I quit my current job in search of a more appropriate title, like CEO of the Universe, let’s check out the other studies.

Morning person or Night Owl – Night owl, for sure.  I like the night life and I like to watch TV alone when the kids and husband are sound asleep and there are no interruptions.  Strike one.

7 Seconds to a First Impression- This one is in the bank.  Winning smile, firm hand shake, strong introduction.  Nailed that one.

First hour of work- I think this may be trouble.  The first tip is don’t check email – seriously?  How can it be avoided?  I know there is something really important in there, and an hour without my email (for someone that has to know what is in each wrapped box before it is open) just can’t be done.   The next tip is to be grateful.  Does being grateful that I read my email to set my worried mind at ease count? I don’t care, I am counting it.  Next on the tip list- Do the Big Stuff First. I have to give this one some thought, but I think I tackle the hard issues first. I am certainly not a procrastinator…or am I?   I will answer that question tomorrow, or maybe the next day…

Bottom line is this: Read a lot, sort through the good advice, laugh at the silly advice, and know enough to weed out the bad advice.  Self-reflection should be done to ensure you are on the right path. But don’t get too caught up in the constant advice of the “professionals”, that could be a full time job in itself!

After 17 days of non-stop sporting action, the Olympics are officially over. The closing ceremonies are complete, the flag was passed on and the torch extinguished until summer Olympic action picks back up in Rio 2016. And we all probably have a lot more free time! The sporting action certainly lived up to all the excitement, but it was the non-sporting extras such as social media, apps, tools and news that also caught the attention of spectators and participants during the games. In addition to  lessons on social media etiquette, by observing the athletes and circumstances of the games the world can learn other rules and lessons to live by.  Here are a select few:

1. Practice may not always make perfect, but it’s still necessary.  It’s very rare that someone or something can be perfect and success takes a lot of hard work. Most of the athletes devoted their lives to make it to the Olympics. Too often, many think that we shouldn’t have to work that hard to be successful, but the reality is that few things in life come easily. As all athletes demonstrated, if you want something badly enough, then you must be willing to do the hard work to get there.

2. Motivation, inspiration and drive are critical for success.  Athletic skill is clearly an important component for excelling at competition, but most athletes in the games exhibited more than just physical excellence.  Their significant achievements can also be credited to continuous motivation, drive and faith in themselves.  They live by the mantras: never settle for just good, always strive to be great and push yourself beyond limits.  For South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius, a dramatic feat had already been accomplished by simply him competing in the games as a double amputee.   And USA track athlete  Manteo Mitchell ran the entire 4×400 relay on broken leg.  These incredible obstacles did not stop them from their ultimate dream and their sheer will drove them to success.

3. Teamwork is critical to success. Surround yourself with colleagues, friends and family who will help and support you. In team sports, athletes obviously work together to win, but it is also important to acknowledge examples of non-traditional team events.  Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete ever, thanked his relay team for helping him to win all those medals.  Without them as a supporting cast, he wouldn’t have won as many medals as he did.  Another common sight seen was of the families and coaching staff supporting and cheering the athletes along as if they were themselves competing. This support was critical in contributing to the athlete’s success. No one can truly do it alone.

4. Learn from your mistakes. At the end of practice or their performances, the athletes recapped their mistakes to see what they did wrong and learn how they can be better next time. The USA women’s soccer team lost the World Cup to Japan last year, but when facing them in the Olympics a short time later beat them to win the gold.  Surely they reviewed and watched and analyzed their past matchup to ensure a better performance for the future.   Same is in life where we need to observe ourselves, ask for feedback and measure our actions so we can strive to be more effective in the future.

The Olympics were certainly action packed with all the athletic events we awaited and anticipated. These last two weeks also reminded us that Olympic athletes should be admired not only for their athletic skill, but also for the behaviors and examples they set for us to follow and live by.
What was your favorite Olympic moment or lesson learned?  What will you remember most about these London games?

Cassandra Sanford Is 2012 Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year from WBDC

CHICAGO, IL, July 2012 – Cassandra Sanford, CEO and co-founder of KellyMitchell Group, of St. Louis, Mo., will receive the 2012 Entrepreneurial Woman of the Year Award from the Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) at the organization’s 26th Annual Entrepreneurial Woman’s Conference to be held on Thursday, September 20, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

Click here to read the full press release.

Congratulations Cassandra!

The Olympics are halfway over and alongside the extravagant opening ceremonies and record-breaking results, another hot topic continuously being talked about among athletes, viewers and media is social media and the pivotal role it has played so far during these games.

With over 15 million people currently following the Olympics via social media, this is by far the most social Olympics yet. It appears however, that this social behavior is taking the gold medal on the gossip podium—and unfortunately it’s not all positive.

Let’s take a quick look at the social media good, bad and ugly of these Social Olympics thus far:

The Good:

1. With the Olympics across the pond and in a different time zone, social media has allowed us to follow our favorite commentators and athletes while making it easy to get a personal look and experience the games from their “eyes.”

2. Improvements, developments and enhancements to social platforms are already resulting from the exposure:

a.  Starcount is a new website that shows currently who the most talked-about and trending athletes are on social media.

b. The International Olympic Committee has teamed up with Facebook to create the Olympic Athletes’ Hub, a website dedicated to keeping fans updated on current happenings in London.

The Bad & Ugly

1. While the personal touch of social media is great for some fans, for others it’s ruining the games by leaking the results in real-time, long BEFORE the broadcasts air on TV.
2. Earlier this week, GPS and communication tools were failing during the road races which was possibly caused by too much social and online activity.  Spectators were directed to Tweet only in cases of emergency to avoid any further interferences and outages.
3. Overall security was potentially threatened due to pictures of badges, including entry barcode Tweeted by some athletes.
4. Due to threatening comments and posts made on Twitter towards a British diver, one fan has already been arrested.
5. Two athletes (a Greek triple-jumper and Swiss soccer player) were expelled from their teams and unable to compete in the games due to racist tweets.

Social media has given the world a backstage pass to the Olympic Games, but it has also provided fans and athletes with a variety of new ways to get into trouble.   Hopefully, all the delinquents have learned from their mistakes and the rest of the social world has learned from them as well.  As professionals we need to remember that social media is publicly published content- just as other traditional forms of communication are and should be treated with the same care and professionalism, regardless of the context and situation.

We should all learn from these experiences, focus on the advantages and benefits of social media and be thankful to be part of the connected social society that we live in today.

What’s your opinion of how social media is shaping the Olympics? How do you think social media will change based on experiences from these games?

Hot Off the Presses! We are super excited to share with you the first KellyMitchell overview video!
We hope you enjoy it and share with your networks!

We’re KellyMitchell—a premier technology consulting company dedicated to matching the most qualified IT professionals with top organizations nation-wide.

As an award-winning, professional services and IT staffing company, we pride ourselves on offering high-quality strategic consulting, staff augmentation and outsourced business solutions to a wide variety of companies, from Fortune 500 corporations to rapidly growing high-tech organizations.

Whether you’re a candidate seeking an IT job, or an established employer looking to hire, we’re up to the challenge. As your IT staffing liaisons we are committed to achieving your goal by helping organizations quickly and effectively meet their technology personnel needs. Let us impress you.