Do You Stand Out on LinkedIn in Your Job Search?

Studies in recruiting and hiring indicate that over 95% of all recruiters, human resource professionals and hiring managers are using LinkedIn to search for top talent. Are you visible in their searches for candidates? Or are you beige – fading into the woodwork and invisible to recruiters and hiring managers? This episode of our weekly Internet Radio Show on Job Search and Hiring Top Talent dug deep into how you can easily become visible on LinkedIn to improve your job search to generate an abundance of job leads and referrals.

Put On Your Sales Hat To Get A Job

Understanding the 4 key best practices all top notch sales professionals use to attain success. Apply these sales best practices to your job search to cut your transition time in half. Ever wonder why some candidates can complete their job search in half the normal time, have an abundance of great job leads and referrals, and quickly find an outstanding opportunity? The reason why some candidates “succeed” in their job search and some “fail” miserably is that the most successful job search candidates apply the 4 key best practice of sales to their job search. These top caliber candidates “Put On Their Sales Hat” in their job searches.

Interviewing Mistake

I was recently speaking with a CEO client who shared this interviewing faux pa. I think candidates often believe we either make this stuff up or “I would never do that.” That maybe true, but are you making some other mistake and like this candidate never finding out about it.

My client was meeting a candidate in New York. The candidate arrives a few minutes late. “No big deal,” says the client. The candidate was a little frustrated for being late. He apologizes and explains there was a major accident and traffic was shut down. He shakes my clients hand and immediately says, “You might want to wash your hands, I could have Swine flu.”

End of interview.

By the way, this was a professional sales person at the manager level with at least 10 years of experience.

This is just one of many examples we have encountered in our collective 50 years as recruiters.

So here is my question for you, “What should this candidate have done?” It seems obvious to me, but apparently it isn’t to all candidates.

Would like your thoughts and comments.

For more information on interviewing tips and mistakes check out our free resources. We offer audio files from our talk radio show, articles and our most downloaded item “Winning the Phone Interview.”

How To Engage Recruiters In Your Job Search – Radio Show

Engaging recruiters is an important component of one’s job search. As recruiters with over 50 years collective experience we discuss the best way to ensure recruiters respond to you. It is more than just sending in resumes and hoping you get the call. This show discusses concrete things you can start doing now to build a relationship with recruiters. In addition, there are many types of recruiters and a lot of different reasons to engage some but not others. In less than one hour you can find out how best engage the right recruiter for your career.

Your Job Search Questions and Answers

On Friday from 9 – 10 AM PDT we often conduct free “Candidate Open Forums.” These are conference calls open to all of our candidates, in which we discuss topics and answer questions directly from you – our candidates. Unfortunately, we are limited to 50 people on the line at one time, so often we can’t get to all of the questions submitted ahead of time via email.

We believe these are important, so from time to time in this blog we will discuss the topics and questions we, 1) don’t get to during the conference call, 2) are asked over and over again (so these are probably on your mind too), and 3) just consider important for you to know.

Remember, we are retained executive recruiters so the answers and thoughts come strictly from that perspective.

1) Chronological vs. functional resume? Easy answer –  NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, use a functional resume. In my almost 30 years of recruiting I have never had any recruiter or hiring manager support the functional resume. I have also been on many panels where all of the panelists agree to NEVER use a functional resume. Functional resumes just scream out,”Try to figure out what I’m trying to hide.” See our free audio file on resumes.

2) How do we overcome negatives such as age, turnover, time between jobs, etc? We believe you address them head on. If you have a negative, avoiding it doesn’t make it go away. We have a blog entry “Preemptive Strike” which you should also consider reading. If you have a negative item, you should bring it up straight away, discuss it openly and then whatever happens, happens. Don’t assume, “They didn’t bring it up so it must not be a problem.” They didn’t bring it up because they already settled it in their mind. You need to preempt any preconceived ideas before they come into play.

3) What is the best method and frequency for following up on a resume? For us, as recruiters, we prefer via email or one of the social media forums, Linkedin or Twitter. Recruiters have reduced staff just like many other companies, while the number of calls from candidates has skyrocketed. It isn’t possible to call every person. Email allows us to reply late at night, on weekends, or even while waiting in the lobby of a client. I can’t do that with phone calls. Regarding frequency, if in fact you are dead on perfect,  then after two weeks send a follow-up email.

4) With so many top level executives in the market, how do you differentiate yourself from the pack? This is the 64,000 dollar question. We believe the best answer is to have a very compelling resume which is targeted specifically to the position. A generic, one size fits all resume will not differentiate you. That is what “generic” means. In today’s market our clients and therefore recruiters, are seeking very specific backgrounds. We are not looking for the proverbial, “Jack of all trades,” we are looking for the, “King or Queen for a specific role.”

5) Is negotiating with the employer different today due to the economic situation, and if so how? There is a difference given today’s market. For example, most companies will not relocate today especially in a large market area. Also, companies tend to be closed to severance agreements. If you aren’t working, they figure there is no reason to give an agreement and they are in control. You have to pick your issues and know where to compromise. This is all part of the pre-planning process for a job search. What issues will you compromise on and which ones should you dig in your heels?

This is enough for now, check back regularly for more Q&A.

We realize not everyone will agree with these answers and that is healthy. So if you don’t agree, or wish to comment, we encourage you to do so. Just click the link below.

We offer a wealth of free resources to anyone in a job search. To see what is available to help you simply CLICK HERE.

Generating Referrals In Your Job Search

If you’re looking for a job, are you are frustrated that you’re NOT getting enough job referrals or job leads from your network? We explore the mistakes, errors, and frustrations candidates experience in trying to generate job referrals or job leads. We offer five key ideas in job search networking to guarantee you’ll generate an abundance of job referrals and job leads. Stop crossing your fingers and using hope as your primary strategy to obtain leads and referrals. Listen the best practices that can reduce your job hunt by half.

Only 5% of resumes receive an “A” rating

Marc Cenedella, Founder & CEO, of TheLadders.com, Inc. recently sent out an email that didn’t surprise me as a recruiter, but may surprise many candidates. Marc indicated, “About 5% of the resumes we review get an “A” from us. The vast majority are “B”s and “C”s.” Given this statistic it might help candidates understand why their resume isn’t getting noticed.

As recruiters we often review upwards of 300 resumes for a search. Of those 300 hundred on average only 30 will get calls from us and 5 will go forward to the client.

The main reason for the low number of calls is too often candidates leave off so much important information, the reader just doesn’t have the full picture needed to go forward. This is basic information I’m alluding to. It is not reasonable to expect recruiters or hiring managers to call every person to determine if they excluded some vital information from their resume.

Having an “A” resume is the candidate’s responsibility. PERIOD. It is not the reader’s responsibility to try and figure out your background.

I applaud Marc for clearly stating what most recruiters already know.

We have a free 1 hour audio available to help you make sure you know what vital information to include on your resume. To download this free resource CLICK HERE and it will take you directly to the download.

Clicking this link will show you all our FREE CANDIDATE JOB SEARCH RESOURCES.

Where’s Wes A. – NOT Waldo

Years ago I worked with a candidate named Wes. He was a living, breathing example of what all candidates should be like. Back then I was a contingent recruiter, meaning I only got paid my fee when a company hired the candidate, Wes was the candidate all contingent recruiters look for. As we say in the industry, “When he goes out for an interview just give him the invoice to hand to the company.” or in other words, Wes was a walking placement.

But Why. What made Wes so different from the thousands of other candidates we met and have met, that even 15 years later our firm still remembers him and often refers to him.

Wes not only knew what it took to get a job, he lived it. Wes took preparation, practice and presentation seriously. It wasn’t enough that he knew all this, he incorporated into every aspect of his job search.

When a company met Wes, he was polished, practiced the introduction, had questions to ask that other candidates hadn’t even thought about, practiced answers to the most commonly asked questions, mirrored the interviewer, prepared how to use his voice and body language to show passion, knew exactly when to pause in his answer to make his point, engaged the hiring manager with meaningful issues during the interview, practiced how to read body language so he knew when to stop talking and re-engage, finally Wes knew when it was time to ask a question or wait until the next interview. Nothing was left to chance.

But most importantly, like all well honed professionals, it all came across naturally and appeared effortless. Not staged or rehearsed. Yet, of course it was.

Wes did not just look for a job. He stepped back and asked himself, “What do I want when I hire a candidate?”. He told me that question profoundly changed how he conducted his search. His answer came back, “I wouldn’t hire myself.” Strong comment to make about one’s self. Not many candidates are that objective or honest with themselves. This should be a question every candidate asks themselves. Few will be objective enough to accept the answer. But to those few it will change your search process for good and make you, “A walking placement.”

Wes decided to do what he had to do to hire himself and he had very high standards for the people he hired. He started reading books, hired coaches, video taped himself, lost weight, shaved his beard, wrote out answers to questions and then rehearsed exactly how to present the answer, rehearsed hand motions, body language, practiced pausing, joined Toastmasters, ensured his resume targeted the position, his resume was about the job – not him, he practiced mirroring, he spent as much time practicing as he would for a board presentation. Nothing was left to chance. WOW that is a lot of work.

Recruiters will always be looking for Wes A. You can be one with just some serious preparation, practice and presentation time.

We offer a number of free resources to help you become Wes. For access to our FREE resources CLICK HERE

Preempt Any Negatives – Don’t Wait

A preemptive strike is a good strategy.

I came home from work one day and I had just walked in the house as my son came up to me and said, “We need to talk.” He was too young for the birds and the bees and probably knows them anyway, so I knew something was up. He explained that while practicing his pitching for baseball, he threw a wide pitch and broke the window above the garage. I replied, “No big deal, all boys break a window once in a while.” He then said, “Well, that is not all. After that I moved to the other side of the garage and threw another wide pitch and broke the other window, too.” He was scared I would really be mad. However, I thought, “How can I be mad? You stole all my thunder by coming to me. I didn’t have time to get mad.” He did a preemptive strike.

How does this relate to a search? I was conducting a search for a Sr. VP Human Resources. One candidate’s resume indicated a lot of turnover. As I went through her background it became clear that there were great reasons for the turnover and in most cases the company turned over on her, not the other way around. The problem was that she wasn’t addressing these in the interview right up front. Basically, she wasn’t defusing a negative situation.
We helped change that by putting together a script that dealt with the turnover right up front. In the interview, she preempted the interviewer by saying, “I realize from my resume it appears that I have a lot of turnover, and I can understand why one would think that. Let me explain the circumstances surrounding the turnover as I’m sure it will help clarify this issue.” This defused the situation and opened the opportunity to explain that a lot of the job changes were not her leaving the company, but rather the company leaving her, by either relocating or closing facilities. By addressing it right up front, the candidate demonstrated she had nothing to hide and allowed for a discussion around the issue.

When the candidate did get a job, she wrote to us saying she felt this technique played a major role in helping her get past the first interview. Too often a candidate leaves the interview thinking everything is great because the interviewer never mentioned anything about the negative. They don’t understand, that is, because they have no concern about it. You are out, so it didn’t need to be addressed.

Don’t avoid negatives. Do a preemptive strike by bringing them up first.

Just in case you are wondering, he has broken the same windows again. I started buying replacement windows in bulk.

There are a lot more tips, resources and assistance at our website www.impacthiringsolutions.com

Engaging A Career Coach – Should I??

A career coach is something many people consider engaging.  Marcia Bench, Director of the Career Coach Institute discusses everything you should know before considering engaging a career coach. What questions to ask, should you even get a coach, how they work and how they will benefit you, what should you pay and what qualifications they should have. Before paying for a coach, you must hear what Marcia advises.