Is Your Fear of Networking Leading to Job Search Mistakes?

Job Search Mistakes and Errors – Classic Example

The Wall Street Journal Laid-Off and Looking Blog just posted a great story profiling F. Ellen Whaley, an out-of-work introverted executive fearful of rebuilding her network.

The example could be a poster child for the classic job search mistakes and errors facing most executives and senior managers when they begin their job search. Read the full article here.

Here was my response to the example posted on this blog regarding ineffective networking as one of the key job search mistakes and errors made by those starting or stalled in a job hunt:

Great example of not considering the value of networking while working. The vast majority of candidates we work with in our Executive Search Practice come to us with a woefully inadequate network to begin their job search. Most have no idea where to start in using social media as a tool in leveraging networking.

Like the commercials about loans, the time to do it is when you don’t need it. Networking should be something you do through-out your entire career so when you need it – it’s there for you. When senior managers and executives start networking for their job search, it can take a minimum of 6 months to establish an effective network that will begin to generate an abundance of job referrals and leads.

My partner and I host a weekly internet radio talk show on job search on LATalkRadio.com at 11-noon PST. This show and the FREE archived broadcasts on our website dealing with job search networking and LinkedIn are some of our most popular downloads. A month ago we posted a FREE scorecard (available to members of our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group – join the group and get the FREE Scorecard) to assess the effectiveness of your LinkedIn Profile for Job Search – the response has been overwhelming.

Interesting side note: of over 2000 job search candidates that have shared their Linkedin Profile Assessments with us, less than 10% meet a minimum standard for using the tools LinkedIn provides for effective job search networking and personal branding.

If you’re an executive and trying to figure out why your job search is a failure, stalled, or ineffective, you might not need to look any further than your network itself and the activities surrounding it. A weak network and lack of classic “old-school” networking disciplined methods will cause your job search to go from 6 months to 12-18 months.

Barry

P.S.: On Monday Brad and I will be discussing on our radio show at LATalkRadio.com 11-noon The Top Ten Job Search Mistakes and Errors and the use of a brand new FREE Assessment Tool covering your entire job search – within minutes you’ll be able to discover do you have a job search headed for a downward death spiral or will you quickly being to generate an abundance of job search leads, referrals, and offers.

P.P.S.: We’ll post the link to download the new Job Search Plan Assessment Tool exclusively into our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group on Sunday prior to the Radio Show Discussion.

What if Your Job Search takes 2X-3X longer than expected?

Amazing how time keeps marching forward in your job search like the sand through an hour glass. Every day, week, and month not spent conducting an effective job search drains your wallet and puts an unbearable level of pressure on your job hunting activities.

Miriam Salpeter, who writes a blog at Keppie Careers,  recently posted an article titled “What’s the Cost of Being Unemployed?”  Great article.  Miriam gave a few good examples:

If you expect a $20,000 salary, your weekly salary is $384.61 and an 18 week job hunt will cost you $6,992.98.

If you are looking for a job with a $50,000 salary, your weekly salary is $961.54 and an 18 week job hunt costs you $17,307.69.

If you are hoping for a $100,000 salary, your weekly salary is $1,923.08 and an 18 week job hunt costs you $34,615.38.

Many readers of our blog are in the $150K-$200K plus range. What’s the cost of your job search moving from a traditional 6 months out to 12-18 months?

Here’s the comment I wrote to Miriam’s Blog posting:

Excellent point about the cost of an extended job search. Most of the candidates I work with are significantly north of $150,000-$200,000 in annual income. Imagine the cost of a search that has gone from a traditional 6 months and is now approaching 12-18 months.

Here’s the irony: We provide many good products and services, like you and other gurus/experts in this field. Yet, my experience is that the vast majority of managerial and executive candidates would rather flounder around for 12-18 months at the cost of $150K-$200K instead of investing $29, $59, $99 in a proven validated product/service that will take months off their job search.

I realize folks who are out of work don’t want to spend money unnecessarily. However, like most things in life you’ve got to make a few key investments and spend a little money to make money. Most candidates we encounter have no clue what to do in an effective job search – and they’re trying the same strategies which may have worked 8 – 10 -15 years ago. Whether it’s our products/services, yours, another well-known expert – my recommendation would be for job seekers to become masters of the job search process. To do that requires purchasing audio, video, kits, courses, books, and workbooks. On top of all that great content is an extraordinary amount of FREE resources which few people take advantage of.

I just wrote a recent article on my blog about mastering the job search. My partner Brad and I will be discussing this idea in our weekly radio show on Monday.

Barry

P.S.: On Monday in our Radio Show we will release our long awaited Self-Assessment Scorecard to determine if your Job Search Plan is adequate to complete a quick and effective job search.

Get Ready for the launch of our FREE Tool for a Self-Assessment of your Job Search Plan

On Monday at 11 AM PDT in our Weekly Internet Radio Talk Show on LATalkRadio.com, Brad and I will discuss, launch, and describe in detail one of the most powerful tools you’ll probably ever use in your job search planning and preparation.

This Self-Assessment we’ve developed will become one of the most important tools in your entire job search toolkit. You’ll take it at frequent intervals and refer to it constantly in tweaking your job search for exceptional results

I know those are very bold statements. However, Brad and I are very excited about this tool. We’ve been working on it for quite some time. We’ve “field-tested” it with hundreds of candidates – revising, adjusting, and modifying it based on their feedback. We’ve validated over a 3-6 month period that the Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Tool can dramatically reduce the time it takes to find a new job. In some cases, candidates have reduced their job search by 50% or more from the average timeframe most candidates will take at their level.

The Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Tool follows the structure of our Career Success Methodology, described in great detail in our recent book titled “This is NOT the Position I Accepted” and expanded upon in our Job Search Home Study Course.

If you follow our Career Success Methodology — which is the ONLY systematic approach to conducting a job search that has been deeply researched, field-tested with live candidates, and validated for success – you’ll significantly reduce the time it takes to complete your job search.

There are lots of experts out there – resume writers, interview coaches, personal branding experts, job board consultants – however, none of them bring an integrated approach and systematic methodology to the process of conducting a job search.

The Career Success Methodology starts with Day One of your Job Search and takes you through every step of the process to the end-point of negotiating your expectations, resources, compensation, benefits, and long-term opportunity.

If you take this Job Search Plan Self-Assessment, even if you don’t invest or agree with our Career Success Methodology, you’ll still be able to identify the key areas in your job search which still require significant work and improvement.

After just a few minutes, the scoring will reveal why your job search is taking too long, why your job search is stalled, or why your job search is NOT generating the level of job leads, referrals, interviews, and offers you wish you could obtain. Most of these problems stem from making the same job search mistakes over and over again.

Join us Monday on LATalkRadio.com at 11 AM PDT to discuss, comment, and share your insights from the Job Search Plan Assessment Tool. We’ll provide the link to the tool in our LINKEDIN Discussion Group by Monday morning at 8 AM PDT so you’ll have an opportunity to score yourself prior to joining us for the radio show.

In the Radio Show, Brad and I will talk about how the Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Tool will help you overcome the most common Top Ten Job Search Mistakes. We’ll walk you through each of the main scoring categories and talk about steps to improve your job search and reduce the time it takes to find a great opportunity.

Barry

P.S. Join our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group for one of the fastest growing and vibrant job search discussion groups on the Internet

Job Search Mistake #1: Not Having a Systematic Approach to Conducting a Job Search

Is your job search systematic or more dependent on luck?

Many candidates approach a job search “willy-nilly”. The approach goes something like this “I’ll tell my friends I’m looking for a job, I’ll call the 3 recruiters I know and tell them to start circulating my resumes, I’ll dust off my old resume and update it for my last job, I’ll sit down tonight and look a few job boards to see what jobs are being advertised.”

After 25 years of executive search, over 1000 search assignments, and beyond 100,000 candidate interviews, I can guarantee that “willy-nilly” approach to your job search is a recipe for disaster. Unless luck intervenes, you’ll probably fall victim to one of two unfortunate job search failure scenarios:

Job Search Failure Scenario #1: You’ll take 2X-3X longer to conduct a job search than is necessary. If the average time to conduct a job search for your level of position is 4 months – it will probably take 8-12 months. Imagine the savings if you could knock a few months off your job search.

Job Search Failure Scenario #2: You’ll take a job that is not a good fit out of desperation and lack of clear thinking and planning about what is the right role for you. This job search scenario will force you into what we term is the “Circle of Transition”. You can read more about the Circle of Transition in our blog post on this subject and download a visual representation of this depressing cycle many individuals fall into during their career and from which they cannot escape.

A systematic plan requires the ability to conduct effective job search preparation, develop a compelling resume through a personal success profile, prepare to win every phone interview and face-to-face interview, master networking, and create a powerful personal brand that makes you visible to recruiters, human resources, and hiring managers.

We’ve developed a FREE Job Search Planning Self-Assessment Tool to determine if your job search is systematic or if it’s “willy-nilly”. This tool can help you restart a stalled job search, get your job search off to a rapid start, and most importantly, help you to reduce by half the time it normally takes to complete an effective job hunt for an ideal opportunity.

This FREE Job Search Planning Assessment takes our 25 year mountain of research across every dimension of job hunting and walks you through the steps of our Career Success Methodology –  a deeply researched and validated systematic job search system.

The FREE Assessment will be made available within the next 24-48 hours only to those who are members of our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group. This is an exclusive offer to the 2,000 plus members of our Discussion Group. You can join the group by clicking here.

By the way – as an added bonus, we have also developed a FREE Assessment to determine if your LinkedIn Profile is effective in making you visible to recruiters, human resources, and hiring managers. This FREE LinkedIn Profile Assessment is also available through membership in our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group. You’ll see it immediately upon joining as one of the featured discussions.

Our Job Search Home Study Course takes the Career Success Methodology and presents it through a comprehensive workbook, templates, and audio programs. After completing the Job Search Home Study Course, you should be able to dramatically reduce the time it will take to find a great opportunity. If you’re not happy with the course, use our guarantee to return it at no obligation.

Barry

IMPACT Hiring Solutions Weekly Job Search Blog Round-up: August 22, 2009

In case you missed some of the individual blog postings this week, here’s a round-up of some of the more popular posts Brad and I wrote for the Job Search Blog:

It’s Okay to Swear in the Interview: Learn the secrets of a structured response to every interview question. Follow this format in responding to interview questions and hiring managers will move away from box checking to engaging with you in a conversation and dialogue about the job.

Your LinkedIn Profile as a Multi-media Expansion of Your Resume: LinkedIn provides a wealth of tools for job seekers for personal branding, networking, self-promotion. Are you using all these tools to become visible to recruiters, human resources, and hiring managers?

Keyword Searches in Resumes: You might think you’re perfect for a job – but hiring managers would disagree after reviewing your resume. By not focusing on the proper key words – are missing out on job opportunities?

Honesty + Guts Works in the Interview: Can you look a hiring manager in the eye and challenge them in the interview if you disagree with their expectations or perspective. Are you praying things might be different when you join the company. The interview is the time for honest and direct dialogue without being confrontational.

Brad and I wish you much success in your job search in the coming week.

Barry

Are You Difficult to Connect with on LinkedIn in Your Job Search?

Many candidates are obsessive about protecting the confidentiality of their contact information on LinkedIn when they are in a job search, even when they indicate on their LinkedIn Profile that they are open to career opportunities.

Why?

This doesn’t make any sense!

Here’s the sad part: Most recruiters, human resource professionals, and hiring managers will skip right by you on LinkedIn searches for candidates when recruiting if you make it too difficult to connect with you. When I do a search on LinkedIn for candidates in our Executive Search Practice, if you make it too hard to connect I’ll move on to the next candidate – I might sound a little harsh – regardless of how much you might be a perfect match – I just don’t have the time to play games or dig too deeply – particularly when there is lots of other great talent available.– I’ll define “too hard to connect” as the following:

• You have no phone number on your LinkedIn Profile
• You have no direct email on your LinkedIn Profile
• You have not checked the settings for “open to career opportunities”
• You have not checked the settings for “open networker”
• Your group settings prevent me from sending you a direct message if we are in the same group

You could be missing out on great opportunities because of inappropriate fears of confidentiality or security. What’s the risk that someone has your cell number or email address when you’re looking for a job. At a minimum, what’s the risk in adding to your account the “open networker” designation so that recruiters and others do not have to use up their precious allotment of inmails?

I’ve had my phone number and email address on my LinkedIn Profile for years. I can count on one hand the number of solicitor calls and inappropriate emails from that contact information. It’s irrational to think you’ll be bombarded with solicitors and crank calls/emails. Take a risk and make yourself available – you’ll be amazed at the increase in the number of calls and emails you get when recruiters, human resource professionals, and hiring managers reach out to you when they are recruiting to fill an open job.

Take a look at my profile on LinkedIn as an example. I would also recommend joining our Discussion Group on LinkedIn and participating in the discussion regarding LinkedIn Profiles for your Job Search.

Barry

Your LinkedIn Profile as an Expanded Multi-Media Presentation of Your Resume

I’ve posted a Slideshare Powerpoint file through LinkedIn as a demonstration of one small aspect of how you can improve your personal brand and visibility on LinkedIn. Do you STAND OUT among a crowd of “me-too” profiles?

Here’s the actual Slideshare link to view or download the presentation. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to do a voice-over narration of this Powerpoint as an additional test. You can do this too.

I’ll be adding audio and video files to my LinkedIn Profile to demonstrate how you can leverage simple tools on this wonderful service to dramatically improve your job search. Take a look on slideshare at some of the other Powerpoint and Video files other job seekers have posted.

Employers and recruiters (including Brad and I) would love to hear you talking about your expertise and accomplishments, view a video of you answering interview questions, and be able to download a powerpoint presentation about your job achievements. Imagine LinkedIn as an expanded multi-media platform to enhance your traditional resume.

The funny thing is that less than a tenth of one percent of all job seekers are using all the available tools on Linked for their job search – and the tools are available for FREE – go figure!

What a shame!

Try it – look at my profile or Brad’s profile on LinkedIn. Look at some of the profiles of the masters of job search personal branding and job search networking. I’ll feature once a week a candidate who is truly leveraging LinkedIn for their job search – for each person selected every week, they’ll get a FREE copy of our book. Would you like to throw your profile in the ring to try and win a FREE copy of our book, This is NOT the Position I Accepted. Be the first to volunteer!

In the meantime, if you would like to start taking months off your job search, start taking the initiative to improve your LinkedIn Profile as a small step forward.

Barry

P.S. Don’t forget to take the Self-Assessment of your LinkedIn Profile by using our FREE scorecard for assessing your LinkedIn Job Search Profile to determine your effectiveness of being found by recruiters, human resources, and hiring managers.

P.P.S. Brad and I also did a broadcast on our radio show about this LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment Tool and how to most effectively improve your visibility.

What’s the difference between “good-to-great” recruiters and bad recruiters?

There are a few “good-to-great” (to borrow a popular phrase from Jim Collins) recruiters out there. Brad and I have trained thousands of recruiters over the last 25 years. The vast majority I wouldn’t want to work with if they were the last recruiters on Earth. They fall into the category of being a “broker” – pushing paper to make a buck – sacrificing ethics, relationships – all to earn a commission.

Conversely, a good-to-great recruiter exhibits the following 6 characteristics:

1. They are responsive

2. They follow-through on their commitments

3. They have a “trusted-advisor” relationship with their clients

4. They are knowledgeable about their client, the client’s industry, and the role

5. They position themselves as a “consultant” not a slick salesperson or “broker”

6. They have a deep understanding of how to measure talent and ask outstanding questions

Have I missed any important differences between bad and “good-to-great” recruiters. What’s your experience? Do you have a favorite story or recruiter behavior you would like to share with our subscribers?

One of the major mistakes many candidates make in working with recruiters is choosing to work with a bad recruiter. The risks including damaging your reputation, screwing up a job opportunity, and providing you with terrible job search or career advice.

Make sure you use the checklist above to ensure you’re working with a reliable, trustworthy recruiter who you know will “get your back” around issues of confidentiality, salary negotiation, presenting your background to client’s, and protecting your reputation.

We’re in middle of developing a scorecard for assessing recruiters. Share with us your key issue that leads to your love of working with a particular recruiter, or the issue that sends you running in the opposite direction. If enough people share your key issue, we’ll feature it as one of the core assessment categories on our recruiter scorecard.

We’ll be giving away a limited number of copies of our popular job search e-book to those who respond before the end of Friday. Shoot us back a quick comment on the blog and share your “burning” recruiter frustration or joy with the rest of our job search community – and perhaps be eligible to win a copy of our e-book based on the original soft-cover workbook, This is NOT the Position I Accepted.

While you’re thinking about your “recruiter issue”, take a moment and check out the extensive list of FREE audio programs we’ve archived on our web site. Every week Brad and I host an Internet Talk Radio show on Mondays 11-noon on LATalkRadio.com, alternating with job search and hiring manager topics. We’ve discussed a few times in the last 6 months various issues of working with recruiters. There are also a series of articles on this blog about how recruiters find candidates and other related topics. Be sure to type recruiter into the search dialog box at the top of the page.

Barry

How to Mistreat Your Recruiter

Recruiters also need a little love

Why do many executives and managers mistreat recruiters when they are employed – yet beg recruiters to return their calls and present them on search assignments when they are unemployed or into a major job search for new position?

Is there a touch of irony to this scenario?

Let’s discuss precisely what it means to mistreat your recruiter:

1. When the recruiter calls you to discuss an job opportunity, you don’t return the call, are rude, or slam down the phone impatiently stating you don’t have time to talk.

2. When the recruiter asks you for a referral on an existing search, you indicate that no one comes to mind or you cannot think of one person out of the hundreds you’ve interacted with over the past few years. There is no risk in making a referral – is that not what networking is all about?

3. When the recruiter asks for an introduction to one of your peers or other executives who are looking to employ a recruiter to fill a position, you refuse to make the introduction.

4. When the recruiter who placed you or has worked with you before, calls to check in, buy you lunch, develop a relationship to get to know you better, you drop the phone like it’s a hot potato – why would you want to be caught meeting with a recruiter – wouldn’t that give your peers back at the office something juicy to gossip about?

Brad and I have been conducting executive search for over 25 years. Learn more about one of the most successful Retained Executive Search Practices in this country. We’re highly sought-after speakers, facilitators, and keynoters on the subjects of recruiting, hiring, and job search.

The first people we think of on a new search is “who do I have a relationship with that is an outstanding candidate?”. Our second step is then to start networking through our relationships for candidates we don’t know intimately right now.

What defines a “relationship” with a recruiter. It’s an individual who goes “above and beyond” their peer group in building a long-term mutually beneficial relationship with a a recruiter – one who doesn’t mistreat their recruiter.

Are you guilty of mistreating your recruiter?

Remember – recruiters also need a little love (or at least a pat on the back).

When was the last time you hugged your recruiter?

Barry

P.S: Don’t forget to check out the extensive archives on our site of FREE tools, templates, audio, and examples Brad and I have posted for the candidates who do show us a little love now and then.

Don’t forget to join Brad and I in our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group by clicking here for the invitation.

We would like to hear how you’ve either mistreated your recruiter or hugged them by going beyond your peer group to create a relationship.

Learn How to Master a Job Search

Simple Action: Job search discussion group

Brad and I facilitate one of the largest and fastest growing job discussion groups on LinkedIn and the Internet. The discussions are lively, helpful, informative, and dynamic.

Are you missing an opportunity to find a great opportunity, improve your interviewing, and cut your job hunt timeframe in half?

If you pick up one tiny morsel of information that generates a new job lead, scores a point in an interview that leads to a another invitation to come back, or improves your job hunting productivity and slices an entire month off your job search – would the investment of joining the discussion group be worth it?

What a stupid question! Of course it’s worth – especially since it’s FREE and the quality of information exchanged is extremely high.

This begs the question of if you’re not a member of our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group, you’re probably not taking advantage of the numerous opportunities the Internet offers for discussions, information, audio, video, and a wealth of other free material on how to conduct an effective job search.

There are many great discussion groups on LinkedIn. You might be reading this blog post if you’re a member of one of those groups, like Career Rocketeer, Grafton, or Exec-u-net. There are just a few of the other great groups/publishers of outstanding content for job seekers. There are Yahoo discussion groups, Ning Groups, and hundreds of blogs focused on job search, interviewing, networking, and personal branding. Many outstanding career coaches publish their own blog with great content being posted every single day.

Shame on you if you’re a candidate in thick of a job search, and you’re not taking advantage of all the FREE job search resources available to you.

Here are some questions to think about if you are in a job search:

• What discussion groups do you belong to on LinkedIn?
• Do you follow the LinkedIn Q&A – posing questions and answering questions?
• Do you participate in Yahoo Job Search Groups?
• Do you participate in Ning Groups on Job Search?
• What blogs do you follow on Job Search?
• Do you frequently scan iTunes for new podcasts on Job Search topics
• Do you look for new videos on Youtube regarding job search topics?
• Are you active in following job search experts on Twitter who are recruiters or career coaches?
• Do you have a master list of all the job search Internet Radio Shows being broadcast on a weekly basis

As an Executive Recruiter, one of the things I measure in candidate is a level of learning, personal growth, and professional development. I’ve seen many a 55 year-old with a much higher level of personal growth than many 25 year-olds. Job Search is no different than your trade, professional expertise, functional discipline like accounting or marketing.

I’ll ask at the end of an interview “what else are you doing in your job search to learn how to improve your job search knowledge, skills, and capability? You guessed it – Duh — and a blank look.

If you want to master your sphere of influence, you’ve got to become an expert. To differentiate yourself and leverage your skills/knowledge as a competitive advantage in a job search, you’ve got to learn everything there is about job search best practices and what top talent does to consistently find and obtain the top job opportunities.

Small caveat to following “experts”: Some “charlatans” pass themselves off as understanding the job search process and they don’t have a clue – if you follow their advice your job search will either take longer or fail completely.

However, the vast majority of publishers, facilitators, content generators in this field are great individuals who have done deep research and are willing to share that information with you. In a future blog post, I’ll be sharing some of the better FREE Internet Resources.

To see all our FREE Resources for job seekers, browse our extensive library and archives of examples, templates, and audio programs.

Barry

P.S. Join our LinkedIn Discussion Job Search Discussion Group today and get access to our brand new Self-Assessment Matrix for Determining the Effectiveness of Your LinkedIn Profile. Are you visible to recruiters and hiring managers?