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.

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.

So Your Resume is Really, Really Bad

No, I’m not talking about arrangement, appearance, fonts, white space. You’ve done everything you’ve been advised to create a resume that is recognizable to those who need to review it. But not everyone has had a stellar career. You may have been fired several times, had significant gaps in employment, too many jobs in too short a time period, or just not accomplished much more than your basic job description called for. Now what?

Generally accepted “statistics” claim that 8% or less of jobs are filled by recruiters – retained or contingency. But let’s look closer. The higher your salary, the more likely that your ideal job is in that 8%. It’s still a small number, but with salaries lower than $100,000, it’s much lower still. So maybe you should focus even less on making recruiters happy than the average job seeker.

You’ve heard the common advice:

- Your resume won’t get you a job, it will only keep you from getting a job if done poorly.
- You need to get a job through networking.
- Don’t send your resume to someone unless they specifically ask for it.

There are some things that just can’t be fixed. You need to find a job despite that fact. So if your resume paints a poor picture, it will have to be relegated to a minor function in your job search. Plan on not getting any calls back from advertised positions where you can only be found through your resume “rising to the top of the pile”. So what TO do?

Meet people, such as hiring managers, through networking. Get yourself referred by your networking connections. Don’t lead with your resume. Meet the people first, let them “fall in love” with you first. They all will need your resume eventually. But by then, maybe it won’t matter.

You’ll have to “make lemons from lemonade” regarding your career. (Have you gotten enough of my trite, overused expressions yet?) Here are a few examples:

- after a long stint at one company, you’ve had too many jobs in too short a period since. A reasonable explanation might be what you have learned about where your interests and talents lie.
- you’ve been a homemaker for many years, following a number of junior positions early in your career. How about, “My spouse and I were fortunate to be able to rely on one income, so that we could prioritize raising our children with great values. My son is a financial adviser, and my daughter is an intern at Northwestern Med school. I think I did a great job. I’m now ready to resume my career right where I left off. The benefit to you is I come with great life lessons, significant volunteer leadership experiences, and much lower compensation demands than someone who has been employed continuously in the interim.”
- you were fired. So what? Many more people than are willing to admit it have been let go from a position or two during their career. Don’t badmouth the employer, you can’t win. Perhaps, “Losing that job was at first traumatic, but actually was the right thing for the company to do. I was not a good fit. It was a wake up call that caused me to study for and get certified as a professional project manager. These new skills enabled me to take on contract assignments for the past two years, where I was able to prove my value to these companies, in ways such as….”

Your bad resume may be a fact. Don’t let it also be an excuse.

You Need to Be Unique; Your Resume Does Not

Recently, I advised a new acquaintance, “For now, though, in my humble opinion, your resume is not doing you much good. It needs to look just like everyone else’s, with your accomplishments setting you apart, not your resume format. A functional resume is a big red flag that there is something that you don’t wish to disclose.”

If there were even one advantage in providing a functional resume, don’t you think more top candidates would do so? Here’s what a functional resume begs one to look out for:
- I think I’m too old for this job
- There was a big gap between two or more of my positions
- My job tenures were too short
- I have a few jobs that did not work out so well; hence there are few accomplishments to quantify
- I want to switch industries or job functions (meaning I have no experience in the field I am seeking)

Also, think of how someone will find you if your resume is searched in a database. Overwhelmingly, recruiters and hiring managers are searching for people who hold, or have held, job titles just like what they are hiring for. Then, if there are particular skills or specialization required by the job, those are the differentiators between candidates. It would be unusual for the first cut to be made by looking for “Team Leadership”, “Excellent Organizational Skills”, or “Customer Relationship Expertise”. More likely these terms would be searched: “General Manager”, “Project Manager”, or “Sales Manager”, respectively.

If there are some things that you don’t want someone to recognize in your resume, take the chance that they won’t draw the conclusion that you fear. But don’t advertise it by making them look for it by giving them a functional resume.

There are usually acceptable ways to explain most of the less positive features of your resume. We’ll explore some of those soon.