There’s Not a Right Answer

Job seekers are continually asking for the right way to proceed.  “Should I call, or send an email?”  “How often should I follow up?”  “Should I send a chronological, or functional resume?”  “How much higher should I make the counter-offer?”

Likewise, some career coaches and others assisting job seekers to find work are not shy to give definitive opinions on these and many other aspects of the job search.  “Spend 8% of your time with recruiters, because they represent 8% of your job opportunities” “Don’t bother networking with unemployed people, they don’t have a job for you” “Your resume should say, ‘blah, blah, blah’”.

How do they know?  More importantly, why would one even ask about the right way to attack any of these issues?  If you are doing your preparation for each opportunity, current or potential, there likely is no one on Earth that is better able to answer the question than you.  In order to answer the questions, the adviser would need to know:

• who you will be interfacing with.  The answer may be different for different people on the other side of the desk (the hiring decision)
• what’s your career been like.  Are there problems in the past that might be better addressed by a functional resume?
• what type of job, and at what level.  It may well be appropriate for a bag-carrying IT sales rep to lead with a glossy personal marketing brochure.  Probably not a good solution for an aspiring CFO.
• a lot of other things that you are in the best position to know for yourself

There is nothing wrong with asking everyone you know for their opinions.  But realize that they are only opinions.  If there were right answers, then the person that knew them would be drowning in clients due to the success (s)he enjoyed in helping folks find jobs.  Get as much input as you need;  then make the decisions for yourself.

Keep Everyone in the Loop

A best practice during your job hunt is to periodically let everyone know your status.  Hopefully, you won’t be unemployed long enough to worry about this.  But more realistically, the job search could take a number of months.

Prepare a generic note, meant for all your connections – LinkedIn, email, real world, whatever.  Here are some guidelines:

• make it short, so people will read it.  No more than 3 paragraphs
• keep it positive and upbeat, since no one wants to hear discouraging news
• note an accomplishment or two in the search so far, no matter how small
• give the recipient a simple way to help you:  ask for introductions to expand your network, OR ask for possible job leads, OR ask for ideas.  But only one request.
• succinctly state the objective of your search in a brief paragraph – ideal title, industry, geography, etc.  Permanent?  Consultant?
• offer to be of help to the reader
• space the updates out to about 2 months.  This is often enough to keep you on the radar, not often enough to be annoying
• include everyone you know or are connected with on Social Media, like Facebook and LinkedIn.  If they don’t care, what’s the downside?  They have a “delete” key on their computer
• keep the text within the body of the email,  not an attachment.  Many folks today access email on their Blackberry’s or iPhones.
• use the bcc feature so that your connections don’t see each others’ email addresses.  Many people don’t want distribution of their email addresses to unknown persons

Unless you’ve been a real jerk to everyone in your previous life, you will be positively surprised at the response this action will bring.  You will receive words of encouragement, prayer, offers of introduction,  job leads, etc.  Not from everyone, many people will not respond.  But enough to make it worth the cost of the email.

Don’t be offended by a lack of response from individuals.  Many people care and want to help, but don’t know how, or think they’re not up to the task.  That’s why you should be clear in giving them a simple assignment in the update.

Administratively, keep in mind that many email clients won’t let you send out more than 25-30 emails at a time.  So split it up into mailing lists of this size.  If you use MSOffice 2007 with Outlook and Word, and have your email addresses in a spreadsheet, it becomes easy.  Note also that you can export your LinkedIn connections to an Excel spreadsheet to facilitate this.  Other sites do the same.   If you have questions on the technicalities of this, put them in the comments section here, or send me an email.

Most recruiters on your list will likely not respond if they have no appropriate opening.  But most appreciate the updates, and will make notes in their database.  Your objective is to get back to the top of mind of as many folks as possible.

Is the Door Cracking Open on Demand for Unemployed Job Candidates?

Recently, I met with a couple of recruiter friends over lunch.  In response to my matter-of-fact pronouncement that most recruiters will not present a slate to a client which contains more than one unemployed candidate, and some not more than zero, they adamantly disagreed.  At least in their recent dealings, they heartily violate that “rule”.  Why?  Some reasons they gave, and some I have observed elsewhere:

• there are a lot of qualified and accomplished execs in the marketplace today.  It’s not like in times of normal unemployment (5%), when it’s rare to find high caliber talent that are mired in an extended job search
• even today, many employed execs have never had to look for a job.  They either have very long tenure with one company, or have seamlessly landed new assignments when recruited away.  So even when a great opportunity is presented, they have not spent the time and energy to recognize it.  “What is their dream job?”  “How much of a raise would be required?”  “What can I compare this new opportunity with?”   Folks that have been unemployed for at least a few weeks, if not many months, have exhaustively thought through those and hundreds of other questions, and know exactly what they are looking for.
• a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  How many times have you heard, “Being the newest employee, when the company made it’s latest round of cuts, it was last in, first out.”  The security of a known entity, even with an uncertain future, is preferable to a risky change, to many people.
• unwillingness to relocate.  Even with an openness to relo, a new job would have to offer a fantastic compensation advancement to be worthwhile to many employed folks.   Corporate relo policies have been scaled way back, for all but the highest level positions in many companies.  Ten years ago, companies would buy the house if it did not sell in a reasonable time period.  Today, it’s common to limit relo expenses to a moving company, meager closing costs on both ends, and a modest lump sum for temporary living expenses.  Compared to a salary of $0, this is not such a big problem for the unemployed.
• ease of attraction and transition.  With unemployed candidates, you don’t have to deal with counteroffers from the current employer.  There is less whining about “my kids are in school”, or “how many of my boats will you move”?  There tend to be few second thoughts from people that really need and want the job;  in other words, no buyers remorse.  Although employed people jumping to a new opportunity with a new employer can be very excited about the situation, it usually pales in comparison to unemployed folks, some of whom feel extreme enthusiasm and loyalty once “rescued” by the white knight employer.

If you are a recruiter, have factors like the above changed your recruiting philosophy?  How do you feel about including unemployed people on your slates?

If you are a job seeker, what has been your experience, either working with recruiters, or directly with hiring companies?  Is there more compassion and opportunity given to you than you’ve experienced in normal times?

Maybe we can turn this industry on its head, and get recruiters to favor unemployed people over those already in jobs, when trying to round out a slate of candidates.

And Now from the Recruiter’s Side…

A few months ago, I posted a piece titled, “A Plea on Behalf of Job Seekers”, which met with much acclaim.  It was meant to suggest a set of behaviors on the part of recruiters and hiring managers to simplify this whole messy process of job search.

Over the years, I’ve hired lots of people, and I’ve had occasion to help recruiters and friends try to find appropriate candidates for open positions.  I’m continually amazed at the number of people that apply for jobs for which they have no qualifications, at least according to their resumes.  Maybe if we started an “anti-littering” campaign against this practice, it might have similar results to America’s anti-littering campaign which started in the 1970′s.  Today, it is somewhat rare to see large amounts of trash on the sides of  highways.  If it became the norm for job seekers to only pursue what they are actually qualified for, it might cause the hiring folks to likewise play fewer games, and make the process less painful for all.

Now that’s not to say that people should not pursue a change in career, or to consider taking on new challenges with little or no previous experience.  But sending a resume in response to a job board posting is not the way to go about this.  This is best done, of course, by taking another assignment with your current employer, where you have proven yourself.  For the unemployed, it’s a similar deal.  A previous boss that has moved to another company, in a different industry, likely understands that your work ethic and skill set is very transferable from being a CFO in a paper company to being a CFO in an IT company, or that you can sell CPG easily after having been a medical device sales pro.  A recruiter, or resume screener, though is not being paid to take this risk.

Downsides to “littering the landscape” with your resume:

• burying the recruiter – if they get 600 resumes, 500 of which are unqualified, they are likely to miss some of the best resumes in the pile.  Selfishly, you don’t care?  But what about on the  next search where you actually are qualified and your resume gets overlooked?  This is a call for a major cultural adjustment.
• cheapening your market worth – it’s likely, especially on blind postings, that you are sending multiple resumes to the same person, time after time.  Job seekers tend to look at the same job boards.  Recruiters tend to post on the same job boards.  If I start to notice that Linda Smith has applied for 6 things this month that she’s not qualified for, how seriously can I take her resume on a job that she is qualified for?
• alienating your target company – many companies are using Applicant Tracking Systems.  This makes your previous applications to the company quite visible to the hiring manager.  Again, if you have applied to be a salesman, a project manager, and a controller in the same company, you won’t be seriously considered for any of them.  Do not kid yourself that this behavior demonstrates your great interest to the company.  Likewise, people that brag on sending 100 applications to the same company as a sign of persistence, somehow demonstrating their followthrough as qualification for a job, have probably destroyed their credibility after application 3 or so.

Please join the cause to focus your job search, tighten your resume, apply for jobs you are qualified for, and use networking with people that know you well as a means to move into another career.

Working with Recruiters

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how best to work with recruiters lately.  Although they only represent a small portion of job placements, you might as well become proficient at that channel as well.  Recently, my friend Barry Trout provided one of the best set of recommendations on this topic that I’ve seen.  Barry is a retained search executive recruiter, with the Harvard Group, in Atlanta, GA.  Who would know better?

In Barry’s words:

“The advice I give everyone I meet with is:
1.. Get a list of recruiters from a source like Kennedy Publications “Directory of Executive Recruiters” (http://www.kennedyinfo.com/directory/executiverecruiters?C=cBkYD0RHysVecxvy) and create an e-mailing list of 200-300 RETAINED recruiters who look for people like you (unless you want people blasting your resume out on a fishing trip … then add contingency ones). I think Kennedy has something where you can create a mailing list and pay them some price for it. Make sure you GET the mailing list and it’s not just one that’s on their website where you have to pay them each time you use it.
2.. Use a program like Worldcast (http://www.fairlogic.com/worldcast/), which is free for private use, to EMAIL (not call) your list of recruiters (makes it automated and looks like you’re writing each recruiter individually)
3.. Have a VERY short email … basically just your industry, function, etc. preferably in bullet points (think “flash cards” … recruiters don’t like narratives … too hard to scan quickly … we’re usually looking for something like a half dozen key things, the faster we can see if you’re in the ballpark on those the better)
4.. Have your resume attached in a Word document (not a bio and not a link to your resume on the internet)
5.. Don’t ask for or expect a phone call or email back (if you’re anywhere in the ballpark for a search a recruiter is working on they will call you)
6.. Send an e-mail about once a month to your recruiter list.
7.. Some people have suggested having an attachment that may be of interest to the recruiters … nice, but not necessary, it’s timing that counts
The reality is, recruiters really do spend only a few seconds looking at a resume so its really easy to scan a resume to see if it’s a match for something you’re working on. If it’s a match, you’ll call the person or have someone else call the person pretty quickly. If it’s not a match, you move on. Opening a resume and viewing it is very quick and easy … it’s calling that’s time consuming and if you’re not a match, it doesn’t really help you much anyway.

As a candidate, your best bet of getting a job from a recruiter is having them see your resume when they have a search you might be a match for. The easiest way to do that is “ping” them on a regular basis without expecting a call or e-mail back. Monthly is good. It’s not so rapid that it’s pestering (an investment banker told me one time “there’s a fine line between being persistent and being a pest”), but it’s not so long that a whole search has gone by you might have been a match for.

You can subscribe to websites like NetShare and Exec-u-net and you might get some leads there. But whether you do or not, make sure you’re pinging recruiters en masse on a regular basis so you’re visible when they have a search you could be a match for.”

I would add my own recommendation here.  www.ritesite.com offers a convenient way to connect directly with 600+ retained search recruiters with a great tool to send each an individual email with your resume and cover letter.  The last time I did this (you can do so once every 4 months), I had a call from a recruiter within a week, with a very attractive job that I’m now in the running for.  If I get nothing else out of it, this alone paid for the $94 annual fee for membership.  The job board and job search tips are just a bonus.

Recognition for Great Followup

A few weeks back, I posted “A Plea on Behalf of Job Seekers” on this site. If you’ve not read it, you’ll probably feel better after you do.

In the spirit of fairness, I’d like to recognize two recruiters that do make the job seeking process a bit more tolerable.

Brian Cork, who runs his own very successful boutique retained search and outplacement coaching firm is helpful to lots of folks. He also treats people well. Although I was not a candidate for a recent CFO slot that he is working on, I came across his note to the candidates. It looks like he had more than 200 resumes and the same number of phone calls. In his note, he let “the rest of them” know that his firm had narrowed the list down to 4 finalists, with an average score of 92% vs the client specified criteria. He provided additional general feedback as to why he settled in on this particular slate of candidates. The update note was encouraging to everyone else, and thanked them in a sincere way for their interest. I bet it took Brian less than 15 minutes to compose the update, and perhaps even had a staff member send it out. But it is so rare that a recruiter or hiring manager uses this type of simple courtesy. Very refreshing, Brian.

If you’ve not done so, register on his website www.briancork.com. If you have need for a professional retained search recruiter, Brian Cork Human Capital has been on the Inc 500 list several times. I think you will find he treats his clients even better than he treats his candidates.

Last week, I had the pleasure of a call from Josh Schukas, of OSG Global, a contingency recruiting firm. Although I’ve not had great experience with certain other contingency firms, Josh has been very professional throughout our discussions. He was calling to tell me that his client chose not to interview me. He gave me specific feedback. Again, very unusual courtesy for a recruiter, and very much appreciated. Could he have spent the time more productively on business development or contacting other candidates? Probably. But he considered closing the loop part of his professional responsibility. Way to go Josh!

That behavior merits at least a visit to his company’s website: http://www.osgglobal.com/

Please comment to this posting with other examples of the behavior that you’ve seen from other recruiters or hiring managers that makes the job search a much more pleasurable experience.