Tag: Job Search

How to Work With a Recruiter

Many job seeker don’t know what to expect when working with a recruiter and there are a number of misconceptions about what a recruiter will do for you.

Upcoming Teleclass from Futures in Motion, Inc.
Monday, May 18, 2009, 12noon PST

How Recruiters Can Accelerate Your Job Search – Recruiters and staffing agencies can be an important resource in your job search.  Unfortunately, most job seekers do understand what they need to do be effective and what they should expect from a recruiter.  Learn how to work with a recruiter and what you can expect from the relationship.  Executive recruiting firm owner Gary Capone will share his experiences and advice.

 

Recruiters are a great resource for your job search. A recruiter networks and builds relationships in order to find the best person to fill a job.  It is likely there is a recruiter trying to fill a position that you would want right now.

Many job seeker don’t know what to expect when working with a recruiter and there are a number of misconceptions about what a recruiter will do for you.  The first thing to remember is the recruiter works for the company and not you.  Companies hire recruiters to help fill positions – job seekers don’t pay recruiters to be considered for a position.  This means that a recruiter will not help you land a job if you are not a fit for a client.

If you are a fit for a position, a recruiter can put you in front of a hiring manager and help you land an interview.  Recruiters will also help coach your through the hiring process – a recruiter usually doesn’t get paid if the candidate isn’t hired, so they want you to be as successful as you do.

The most important thing to do when working with a recruiter is to be honest.  Let the recruiter know what you want and what you need to accept a n offer.  Let them know about your job search activity, where you have sent your resume, where you have interviewed and changes in your current employment.  A recruiter can’t be effective helping you if they don’t know your exact situation.

If you want to learn more about working with recruiters, join me in a teleclass from Futures In Motion on May 18th at noon pacific, where I will be interviewed about how to work with a recruiter.

Business Cards for Job Seekers

For the employed, carrying business cards is routine. When you lose your job, the contact information on the card is no longer useful. What do you do?

Business cards sit on the desks and are carried in the wallets of almost all professionals. As common as beaming contact information from one PDA to another has become, the simple business card is an invaluable tool. A business card provides an extremely easy way to give your contact information to someone that wants to follow up.

For the employed, carrying business cards is routine. When you lose your job, the contact information on the card is no longer useful. What do you do?

First, try to keep copies of your resume on hand. Put a folder with a few copies in your car and take extra copies to networking events and other meetings.

There are times when you can’t take a resume with you – dinner with friends, church functions, sporting events, and other social situations, for example. These events are also some of the best places to network and get help with your job search. People that know you are more likely to help you.

So, what do you do if you are at a picnic and meet a friend of friend that offers to help you get an interview with a local company? You will want to get the individual’s contact information so you can follow up, and you will want to provide your contact information to them. This is where the business card comes in.

Design

Business cards for job seekers need to be professional. Stick to basic designs. Graphics may look pretty but may not reinforce the professional image you want to create. The exception to this is in the artistic fields. A graphic designer should express their creativity on their business cards and resume in ways that would be completely inappropriate in other professions.

Provide full contact information. You need your name, address, phone number, cell number and email address. Make sure you have a professional email address. If your personal email isn’t appropriate, get a free gmail account for your job search.

Most business card designs leave room for a few other lines of text. Usually, this is taken up with the company name, job title and company slogan. You can use these fields to brand yourself with keywords related to the position you are seeking. Below is a template and sample of a design from VistaPrint.

Buying Cards

You can get business cards a number of places.  Online, VistaPrint will print 250 business cards for free, charging only shipping (between $5.45 and $25.19 depending on how fast you want your order). The free cards include a VistaPrint logo on the back. For a few dollars, you can have them printed without this. There are a lot of printers that can do business cards for you and a number of them have free offers similar to VistaPrint – so look around for the one that suits you best.

You can find a local printer to do your business cards.  The cost may be a little higher, but you will have more control over the design and may get a faster turnaround.

You can also try printing your own business cards.  Avery and other label makers provide card stock for business cards allowing you to print your own cards at home.  You can get these at most office supply stores.

Expectations

What can you expect from your new business cards? That depends on what you do in your job search. If you go to a lot of social and networking events, you will end up giving out more cards. Of course, giving out a card with your contact information isn’t going to land an interview by itself. If that’s all you needed to do, you could go to the mall or a parking garage and put your resume on every windshield.

What the business card will do for you is give you a tool to allow you to take advantage of a chance meeting. You may not have any chance meetings requiring a business card like this, or you could have dozens. The important thing is being ready if you do.

Individuality in a Job Search

Individuality is a characteristic we value greatly. Whether we are seeking our 15 minutes of fame, expressing ourselves through fashion or are proud of a small quirk in our personality, we are all unique and, hopefully, proud of our individuality.

Individuality is a characteristic we value greatly. Whether we are seeking our 15 minutes of fame, expressing ourselves through fashion or are proud of a small quirk in our personality, we are all unique and, hopefully, proud of our individuality.

Then, we start a job search and become automatons – little more than cardboard cutouts of robotic workers.

What happened?

In a culture of individuality, the resumes I read every day and the interviews I conduct look and sound the same. Occasionally, I find someone that breaks out of the mold to show me something unique about them. I’m not talking about their passion for fly fishing, an interest in translating ancient sanskrit or their record in competitive clog dancing competitions. These interests are unusual but I have seen all three on resumes at one time or another.

The unique, mold-breaking presentation that stands out on a resume or in an interview comes from a job seeker that understands and communicates some action they took in their career that led to an exceptional outcome. It is this experience, a demonstrated accomplishment delivering value to the organization, that sets a person apart.

There are job seekers that differentiate themselves with specific accomplishments.  In fact, this is much more common than details of a person’s clog dancing on their resume.  The probably is that many job seekers do not list accomplishments. We have completed two resume benchmarking surveys.  In 2008, our resume research indicated that more than a quarter of experienced job seekers failed to list a single accomplishment on their resume.  In the resume research report we issued yesterday, we found more than half of transitioning military personnel failed to list an accomplishment.

The Typical Resume

The typical resume is laundry list of responsibilities. There may be a  few accomplishments thrown in, but for most job seekers, the focus is on responsibilities.  The job seeker details all of the basic day to day tasks the position requires.

For some positions, the list of responsibilities can be quite impressive. A Fortune 500 CEO, a Brain Surgeon or an Astronaut all have demanding jobs with responsibilities that are tough to fathom. Despite this, there are 500 Fortune 500 CEOs, there are over 3400 brain surgeons nationwide, and by comparison, the 86 active NASA Astronauts are a very elite group.

Now, if you are hiring a person for one of the these three roles, would a list of responsibilities set these individuals apart from their peers? The responsibilities might do a little to separate candidates. If you want an expert in performing surgery on brain cancer, a specialist in spinal injuries might not be ideal, just as a space shuttle pilot might not fit a role requiring a specific mission specialist background. Beyond that, the responsibilities do little to separate candidates.

The Interview

In an interview, most candidates expect to talk about their experience, in other words, they describe their responsibilities. Often they do this in very general terms. The result is a confirmation and fine tuning of the information on the resume, but the candidates do little to set themselves apart.

Imagine the resumes of the five living U.S. Presidents, Carter, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama. Serving as President may be the highest level of responsibility possible today. A listing responsibilities would be incredibly impressive. Managed a budget in excess of a trillion dollars – leader of the free world – commander of the most powerful military on the planet. This is big stuff. Would you consider all five of these individuals as automatons that could be interchanged without a difference in performance?

How to Be Different

The key to demonstrating your unique potential is showing what you have done. It is your the presentation of your accomplishments that will make you standout. Your competition will have the same experience you do. In fact, they probably have more experience. You can still land the interview and get the job offer. The key is showing what you are capable of doing by showing what you have done in the past.

Greg Paulus Searches for a Job in Football

A lot of people are considering career changes. The economy has declined and opportunities are scarce. Many people see no future in the career they have been in and are looking for an alternative. For NCAA athletes that are not going to make it in the pros, a career change is necessary. Choosing an alternate career is a tough choice.

A lot of people are considering career changes. The economy has declined and opportunities are scarce. Many people see no future in the career they have been in and are looking for an alternative. For NCAA athletes that are not going to make it in the pros, a career change is necessary. Choosing an alternate career is a tough choice.

A point guard from Duke is considering a switch to football after four years of focusing exclusively on basketball. Greg Paulus was a star quarterback in high school but decided to play basketball for Duke. In the last four years, he hasn't played football at all. Now, with his basketball eligibility up, he could play football for one year.

A lot of rumors surround Paulus's options. Michigan and several other schools are reported to be considering him, and a few NFL teams may be interested. The question is whether he can transition from basketball to football at this stage of his career.

The challenges he will face are common among individuals changing careers. In his football career, he performed exceptionally well as the quarterback of a high school team.  He then moved into a different sport at the college level. After four years, he has two options – go pro in basketball or shift to another career.

The is similar to an individual working as a supervisor (high school) in one industry and then taking a job as a manager (college) in a different field. Now, after four years as a manager, he faces a layoff (the end of his college eligibility). The next step in his career would be to move into senior manager (the NBA), but this is a very tough step. Of the thousands of college basketball players, only a few dozen will have a shot at the pros each year.

The decision to switch to another sport is appealing. Paulus was a gifted football player and is an exceptional athlete. If he had pursued football, he might have had a shot at pros. The question today is whether he can make the shift.

If Paulus wasn't in sports but had a career in industry, my advice would be clear. Returning to an industry after being in a different industry for several years is tough. Most people would expect the candidate's skills to have grown stall. Additionally, the development of the candidate (four years in college basketball) didn't help develop the skill in the other industry (football). I would expect Paulus's football skills to be worse today than they were when he graduated from high school.

In industry, I would recommend considering a step back, not forward. Job seekers will often want to move laterally or to a higher level when they make a job change, even if they change careers. Unfortunately, this isn't always possible. A step back will often make it easier to make a career change.

Paulus doesn't have the option of a step back. Returning to high school to refresh his skills is impossible. A lateral move is tough. Finding a school that will want a quarterback with only one year of eligibility may be a stretch. I can't see how an NFL team would take a chance on Paulus. The quarterback position requires years of practice to master. It may be the most challenging position in all of sports. To step in and pick it up after four years off is difficult to consider.

In industry, there are a lot more options. A person can “go back to high school” and take a lower level position in another industry. Making a lateral move also offers more potential, since working for a company does not have the limitation in years of eligibility that college sports have. 

If a person takes a step back, moving from a manager position in one industry, to a supervisor role in another industry, is this a good move? In many cases it is. Very talented and successful people will learn and grow in another industry very quickly. Often a person that takes a lower level position will have the opportunity to move up much faster. Transferable skills, such as communications, leadership, organization, time management and others, will help a person succeed.

So, if I was Greg Paulus, what would I do? Even if the chance of playing in the NFL is a million to one, it would be too tough to pass up a chance to try. If a college or pro team will offer him a spot, I would tell him to take.  It's a long shot, but worth a try.  There are NFL teams will often take a chance on a player and give him a couple years to develop. How can you pass that up?

If I was an NFL team, what would I do? I wouldn't take the chance. This has nothing to do with Paulus, but is a reflection of the other players available. There is huge competition for the few spots in the NFL. I would find someone with a proven track record and more current skills.  I would then tell Paulus to get some additional experience at a lower level.

If I was a college coach, what would I do?  With only one year of eligibility, I would want to see Paulus get some experience and refresh his skills before bringing him on board.  His ability to play effectively is only one factor that some coaches will consider.  One significant benefit to signing Paulus is the notoriety that could be gained.  If Paulus goes to Michigan, he may drive increased advertising revenues for the program as people want to watch Michigan to see how he does.  This has nothing to do with his ability to play quarterback successfully, but it may persuade a team to give him a shot. 

Bottom Line: If you are considering a career change, it is ok to try to go pro in a different field, but be open to a step back to college or high school to gain some experience first.

Job Market Statistics

Career Builder released their 2nd Quarter job forecast recently. The report showed a slowing in hiring – just as we would expect in our current economic situation. Companies are laying off workers, cutting hours, reducing benefits and freezing hiring. There were a number of positives in the report, though.

Career Builder released their 2nd Quarter job forecast recently. The report showed a slowing in hiring – just as we would expect in our current economic situation.  Companies are laying off workers, cutting hours, reducing benefits and freezing hiring. There were a number of positives in the report, though.

The hiring forecast surveyed more than 2500 hiring managers. As expected, more firms reduced the number of full-time employees as compared to the number of firms who increased staffing. In fact, the number cutting employment was double the number expanding. What is interesting, and a reason to be optimistic, is the number reducing staffing was only 26% of the hiring managers surveyed. The other 74% of firms either maintained staffing levels or increased them.

For many firms, maintaining staffing levels requires continued hiring. Employees will still leave and need to be replaced. In fact, some of the companies reducing staffing levels may still need to hire to replace the loss of key employees. Although only 13% of the hiring managers said they were increasing staffing levels, the number who are doing some hiring could be as high or higher than three out of four companies.

The hours worked per employee were less positive. Again around a quarter of the firms made cuts, but this time only 5% increased the hours worked. The difference between this measure and the measure of the number of employees is a results of how companies are reacting to the recession. They are cutting hours and benefits, while trying to maintain staffing levels. Every manager knows that the company who maintains their staff and is ready to grow coming out of a recession will gain market share. The challenge is cutting enough to survive the recession, but not cutting too much.

You can read the full report at http://img.icbdr.com/images/aboutus/pressroom/Q22009forecastreport.pdf

Know the Pace of the Hiring Process

One of the biggest mistakes I see job seekers make is pushing the hiring process faster than the company wants. Most hiring managers and companies have a process they follow. The process is designed to meet their needs, not the job seeker’s.

One of the biggest mistakes I see job seekers make is pushing the hiring process faster than the company wants. Most hiring managers and companies have a process they follow. The process is designed to meet their needs, not the job seeker’s.

For a company, the hiring process is have four primary steps. The process starts with identifying qualified candidates and selecting the best to interview. In the second step, the company assesses the job seekers in a series of interviews. In the third step, the company makes an offer to a candidate and tries to reach an agreement to hire. Finally, the process concludes with on-boarding, where the candidate completes their relocation, orientation and initial training.

From the candidate’s perspective, there are a few key questions that need to be answered. Candidate’s want details of the position and want to meet the people they will work with. They also have questions about the compensation package, relocation and the on-boarding process. These are all important questions to ask in the hiring process. The key is knowing when to ask them.

Step 1: Candidate Identification

In this step, the company assesses resumes. Candidate’s have little opportunity to ask questions. The step may include a phone screen, but this is typically a short fact-finding call. Few candidates expect to learn a lot in this call.

Step 2: Assessment

Once the interviews start, candidates often interpret the actions of hiring managers incorrectly. Hiring managers will not make a hiring decision until they have thoroughly assessed a number of candidates. Despite this, many candidates interpret the actions and statements of interviewers to indicate the company is completely sold and ready to make an offer. In reality, the interviewers are usually just being polite and complimentary. It is this misunderstanding that causes candidates to jump to the next step before the company has completed its assessment.

Step 3: The Offer

In the third step, the company will begin serious discussions about pay, benefits, relocation benefits, and other details of the offer. Prior to this, most hiring managers will avoid anything other than a brief overview of these details. Companies do not want start working on an offer package until they know which candidate they want to hire.

Step 4: On-Boarding

The on-boarding process varies greatly from company to company. Some companies have very lengthy training programs, in rare cases, in excess of a year. Others provide a brief orientation and expect the new hire to start working almost immediately.

As a candidate, you need to understand that specifics of the offer should not be discussed until the company is ready to make an offer. Stay away from asking very detailed questions about benefits early in the interview process. I have known candidates to ask about specific deductibles and coverage of health benefits in a first interview. This makes a terrible impression. It clearly shows the candidate is focus on what’s in it for them. Another problem with this is the interviewer probably doesn’t have all the answers. Few interviewers are experts on the company’s benefit plan. They know the benefits they have, but may not know the details of each health coverage variation.

Another topic to avoid is relocation. If you are not a local candidate, it is understood that you will need to relocate.  You can ask if they offer paid relocation and may even ask a broad question like, “What does the relo policy cover?”  The likely answer will be something like this, “We have a relocation program and will cover some of the costs of your move.”  This answer is vague but is probably the best you can expect early in the process. What you should avoid is asking about specifics, for example, “I have pool table, does your relo policy cover moving it?” This may be important to you, but should wait until you are approaching an offer.

Once you reach the offer stage and the company indicates they want to hire you, you can start negotiating your package. Most companies will thoroughly review the benefits and other details with you at this point. Often a benefits expert in HR will conduct this review. This is where you can ask as many detailed questions as you want.

As long as the company is still conducting interviews, stay focused on selling your background, experience and potential. Focus on the elements the company wants – not what you are looking for, and you will make a better impression.

My Interview Prep Book Is Now Available

My new book, Power Up Your Job Search: A Modern Approach to Interview Preparation, provides a step-by-step system to prepare you for an interview, and will help you outpace the competition.

My new book, Power Up Your Job Search: A Modern Approach to Interview Preparation, provides a step-by-step system to prepare you for an interview, and will help you outpace the competition.  I co-wrote the book with my business partner at Palladian, Mark Henderson.

We started writing this book more than three years ago in an effort to develop a simple guide to help candidates in our executive recruiting business.  We were shocked by the poor interview performance of many exceptional job seekers.  Some of the most successful candidates in a field could not present their capabilities and potential effectively.  Over the years, we developed a powerful system to prepare individuals to interview quickly.  This book teaches our system in a clear straight-forward manner.

We wrote the book with three audiences in mind – experienced professionals and executives, transitioning military personal, and individuals entering the workforce.  Each audience possesses a different background, but similar needs.  To address all three groups, the book starts with several chapters that provide a foundation. It then moves on to advanced interviewing techniques. By following this approach and considering the needs of all three groups, the book will benefit the most experienced job seekers in a straight-forward style that even the least experienced job seekers will find easy to follow.

Almost everyone will benefit from this book, but some people need it more than others.  If a person has gone on an interview, felt they did great but never heard from the company again, they need this book.  Too many job seekers make fundamental mistakes in interviews but have no idea they are sabotaging their search.  These individuals need to learn the techniques in the book.

For regular readers of my blog, some of the techniques in the book will be familar, but a lot of the content is new and never published before.

To learn more about the book, go to Power Up Your Job Search.

How to Select a New Career

Recessions are a time of change for a lot of people. A downturn forces people to leave jobs at unsuccessful companies and seek work at more successful firms. In this process, many people will change careers, leaving industries that are overstaffed for industries that are understaffed. As painful as recessions are, they are a fundamental part of our economic system. Periodically, industries, companies and people reinvent themselves.

Recessions are a time of change for a lot of people. A downturn forces people to leave jobs at unsuccessful companies and seek work at more successful firms. In this process, many people will change careers, leaving industries that are overstaffed for industries that are understaffed. As painful as recessions are, they are a fundamental part of our economic system. Periodically, industries, companies and people reinvent themselves.

The uncertainty of changing careers is difficult and scary. I’ve changed careers several times. In school, I completed and engineering degree and an accounting degree at the same time. This gave me an incredibly wide variety of options. I started in public accounting with Price Waterhouse and then made a change to process engineering with Newell-Rubbermaid. Since then, I have worked in a few other careers and several different industries. Some of the changes I made were in careers that were very well suited for my interests and abilities. Others, it turned out, weren’t as good a fit.

If you are facing a major career change, knowing the best direction can be difficult to determine. The uncertainty of the industry, job and company can be daunting. Despite this, you may be forced to make a major change. If you are in Michigan and from the auto industry, finding a job similar to what you have done may be impossible. How do you decide what career and industry to pursue?

There are resources to help. Research industries and careers, start online and then speak with individuals in those careers. This will give some background on the careers you are considering. If you are making a small change, this research may be all you need. A more significant change may require more help.

Consider talking with a career counselor to learn more about how your skills and interests match different careers. A good career counselor knows how to interpret the interests of a job seeker to identify jobs that will satisfy these interests. A counselor will also help develop the roadmap for moving into the new career.

There are a number of reasons people use career counselors. Markell Steele, from Futures In Motion, outlines a few of the most common:

“People who seek out my career advice are motivated by a number of factors. They may:

  • Be fearful of a pending layoff or reorganization,

  • Feel that they have few opportunities for advancement,

  • Be looking for new challenges,

  • Think their career is off track,

  • Be uncertain about their future career path, and

  • Recognize that the job market has changed and they don’t know what to do.

They are feeling overwhelmed, under challenged, unmotivated, stressed out, bored and burned out. Working with a career counselor can help you alleviate the anxiety of changing your career situation.”

If you have an interest in learning more about career counseling, take a look at Markell’s “SPECIAL REPORT: 6 Tips For Discovering The Work You Love By Working With A Career Counselor.”

How to Fail at a Job Fair

A month ago, I attended a job fair. As an executive recruiter, my primary goal at job fairs is to build my database. I can never be sure what my clients are going to want in the future, so I need to cover all the bases.

A month ago, I attended a job fair. As an executive recruiter, my primary goal at job fairs is to build my database. I can never be sure what my clients are going to want in the future, so I need to cover all the bases.

My database is electronic. I doubt I have more than half a dozen resumes printed at any point in time. There are just too many candidates to try to keep track of everything with hard copies. This makes it critical for me to get an electronic version of each resume to upload into my database. I don’t have the time to type a resume into the system.

I am explaining my motivation and process so you can understand the mistake a lot of job seekers made at the job fair. When I talked with a candidate that impressed me, I would give them my business card and ask them to email me their resume. I did this with at least thirty or forty different people. After the job fair I received emails following up on the conversations from two people. Two candidates out of thirty or forty took the time to email their resume after a recruiter requested it.

There are a variety of reasons why the candidates didn’t follow up. I expect the most common was they forgot who I was. After meeting with a hundred companies, the job seekers couldn’t remember most of the conversations. All they had was a pocket full of business cards.

I was disappointed so few candidates followed up, but I wasn’t too upset. If a person can’t follow a simple instruction like “email me your resume,” then how successful do you think they are in their career?

I did have a number of job seekers give me paper copies of their resume. A paper copy doesn’t do much for me though. I can’t load the resume into my system without retyping it, and that is too time consuming. When I got home I reviewed the resumes. If someone fit a job we were working right now, they got a call. All the other resumes ended up in a stack and will ultimately be shredded. I could take a job order tomorrow that is ideal for one of the people in the stack, but I have no way of finding the resume.

Bottom line: If you want to maximize your success at a job fair, take notes when speaking with each company and follow up after the job fair.

Hiring Managers Want to Succeed

One of the most significant priorities of hiring managers is selecting a person that will make them successful. Every position within a company has goals and expectations. If it didn’t, the position would be eliminated. Managers need to deliver results, and this requires each member of their their delivering results that contribute to the team’s goals. To standout in the interview process, you need to show how you will contribute to the company’s and team’s success.

One of the most significant priorities of hiring managers is selecting a person that will make them successful. Every position within a company has goals and expectations. If it didn’t, the position would be eliminated. Managers need to deliver results, and this requires each member of their their delivering results that contribute to the team’s goals. To standout in the interview process, you need to show how you will contribute to the company’s and team’s success.

This is just the starting point though. There are other factors beyond individual contribution that a hiring manager will consider. A big issue is how easy a person will be to manage. Managers may overseas a few people or dozens. The larger the team, the less time the manager can devote to each individual.

I’m sure you have worked with someone that was very needy. The type of person that requires constant direction and management. This could be caused by insecurity, a lack of initiative or a low skill level. Regardless of the cause, an employee requiring significant time and effort to manage can make the manager less effective. It is rare that a manager today is only responsible for managing their team. Most are tasked with a variety of other responsibilities.

Some people won’t care about the problems and tasks of a potential boss. They are focused on showing they can do the job they are seeking. The downfall of this is hiring managers will hire the person who will make their team successful. This may not be the person with the most experience or talent.

Professional sports routinely show talented athletes that hurt their team’s performance. Terrell Owens has been regarded by many as the most talented receiver in the NFL for a number of years. His ability is exceptional and he can dominate a game. Despite this, he was cut from the Philadelphia Eagles mid-season a few years ago and has now been released from the Dallas Cowboys. There are a number of teams that need a good receiver that have passed over T.O. several times. Recently, the Bills signed him and it will be interesting to see if he helps or hurts the team.

In your job search, it is important to show how you will help the company, your team and your boss. If you only focus on your personal achievement or contributions to the company, without any concern for the success of your team, you can hurt your chances.

In preparing to interview, look at what you did to make the jobs of your past bosses easier. How did you communicate with them? When and how would you ask for help? Are you able to work autonomously or do you need a lot of attention? How did you get along with your team?

Consider these questions before your next interview. Even if you are not asked any of them, you can be certain you will be assessed on how you will contribute to the success of your prospective boss.