Job Search Firestorm of Controversy

As many of our loyal readers know – I’m not shy about vocalizing (can you do that on a blog?) my thoughts related to job search.

In fact, I’m probably one of the more (along with my partner Brad Remillard) controversial figures in job search blogging. Brad and I give “straight talk” (better known as ‘”tough love” by the girls on my high school basketball team) about why most job seekers conduct ineffective job hunts and why it takes so darn long to find a job.

We’re also two of the most prolific publishers of FREE and inexpensive job search content on the Internet. If you can’t find the answer to your job search question in our extensive library and archives, then it probably doesn’t exist.

We can make this bold statement since we’ve got the credentials to back it up through real experience of over 250,000 candidate interviews, over 1,000 search assignments, training over 5,000 recruiters, and 30,000 hiring executives and managers over the last 30 years.

Now to the real purpose of this blog post – why have I just generated a firestorm of controversy surrounding one of our most recent blog posts?

I put forth the idea in my last blog post that most candidates are NOT effectively using all the FREE job search tools that LinkedIn provides – and as a result – their job search is ineffective and taking far too long.

It’s not the only reason your job search is ineffective (there are hundreds of reasons), but it is a significant reason.

Oh my! You’d think I had just refuted a major law of universal physics.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many candidates weigh in with their opinions.

We can divide the opinions by those writing comments into two main camps:

Group 1: You’re right – I’m ineffective and need to get my act together to learn how to more use LinkedIn to improve my job search

Group 2: I already know everything there is to know in how to use LinkedIn and it’s useless. Being on LinkedIn has not helped my job search and I cannot see any value spending more time on LinkedIn.

To the first group, I applaud you for trying to learn everything you can that might help you in your job search. There are literally hundreds – perhaps even thousands of things you can be doing in your job search to make it more effective.

In coaching high school basketball, we have a saying “It’s the little things that make a difference”. Success doesn’t come from huge or amazing changes, it comes from all the little things someone does that their peers are not willing to do, such as diving on the floor for loose balls, boxing out, saving a ball from going out of bounds, sprinting back on defense (interesting parallel to job search).

Al Pacino, in his role as the Coach in “Any Given Sunday” talks about the success that comes from doing the little things in his locker room talk about “inches’. Again, interesting parallel – metaphor – for job search. The Coach talks about the “inches” (read: opportunities) that are all around us – yet most never reach for the extra inch. The inference is that unless you reach for the extra inch – success becomes elusive.

To the second group, I would say shame on you for thinking you’ve cornered the market on how to leverage LinkedIn. There is such a wealth of knowledge to be gained from reading books on LinkedIn, testing different ideas, experimenting with the tools, checking out how others do it, reading the blogs dedicated to LinkedIn, or taking one of the myriad of courses/classes/webinars on leveraging LinkedIn.

Can someone answer this question:

Why do most candidates not take advantage of the wealth of information, tools, resources, and techniques to improve their job search?

Is the reason most candidates don’t know what information, tools, resources, and techniques are available?

Or maybe the reason is that most candidates just don’t want to grab those extra “inches” that are everywhere around us.

Here are two examples from our own library/archive and resources:

How many of our readers have downloaded our FREE LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment Tool to improve their chances of being picked by a recruiter or HR manager?

How many of our readers signed up for the webinar my partner, Brad Remillard, just taught on how to use SEO techniques on your LinkedIn Profile to improve where you appear in a search of candidates by hiring managers, recruiters, and HR professionals?

Why do you think most candidates do not take advantage of the myriad of resources available to help improve their job search?

Barry

LinkedIn Profiles Are Worthless, If People Can’t Find You

I firmly believe that most LinkedIn profiles are worthless, even the really good ones. I even teach a webinar on building a compelling LinkedIn profile. This is not to say that profiles on LinkedIn are not important. They are definitely important. Most are just worthless not only because they leave out valuable information, but also because they are not optimized so you  show up during a LinkedIn search.

I know this because recently for a search I’m doing I spent hours using LinkedIn to search for potential candidates. Then I received a resume from a person and looked him up on LinkedIn. I couldn’t understand why I didn’t find him during my search process. He was on LinkedIn but his profile was poor and clearly not optimized for someone searching on LinkedIn.

• He lacked key words in  his profile.
• He didn’t have the right key words that people will search on.
• The information was not placed in the right locations on the profile.
• He had not done any research or even thought about optimizing his profile.
• His profile lacked or completely missed how LinkedIn prioritizes profiles results from a search.
• He wasn’t optimizing his connections and groups so as to leverage his profile for a person searching for his profile type.

As a result of these and other issues I missed him. This almost cost him a job lead, an interview and potentially a job.  He is still in the hiring process so don’t know whether or not he will get the job. Yet,  all this stuff is easy to fix.  It doesn’t require a lot of time, but it does require understanding how to optimize  your profile and how LinkedIn works when conducting a search for people.

Even a great profile that can’t be found is like having a great website that nobody visits. Not a lot of value.

Is  your profile optimized? If not think seriously about doing it. I would recommend doing two things.

1. First develop a great profile. Make it compelling, identify the key words, have it complete including your work history, groups, education, interests, specialties and contact information. This has to be done first so you can optimize it for a LinkedIn profile search. Plus when someone views your profile, you want them to call you.
2. Only after you complete and compelling profile is it time to optimize it. I say after because it is almost impossible to optimize your profile if it isn’t complete. Identify key words, include them in the right locations, test your profile by searching for yourself and ask others to search for you. What page do you show up on? Keep playing with it until you are at least on the first 5 pages. Change the words, move the locations, add more words, re-test and have others re-test. It may take a little time but it is worth it.

Taking a little extra time to optimize  your profile will pay off. I’m glad this person found me through his network, but I wonder how many other opportunities he might have missed because he wasn’t findable on LinkedIn. I believe this is one of the most overlooked aspects to LinkedIn. Candidates just assume they will put up a profile and people will come. Not true. You must bring them to you.

To help  you create a complete and compelling profile download our free 8 Point LinkedIn Profile Assessment. It will help  guide you with the first step. CLICK HERE to get  your free copy.

Check out our audio library. There are many recordings there about using LinkedIn and they are all free to download. CLICK HERE to review the audio files.

Join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. Over 5400 members with active discussion, news and information to help you in your job search and your LinkedIn profile. CLICK HERE to join it is free on LinkedIn to join groups.

WARNING: Those and many other resources on our website are 100% free. I’m conducting a webinar on Thursday, July 21, on ADVANCED LINKEDIN – MAKING YOURSELF FINDABLE. This webinar will show you exactly how step-by-step to get your profile on page one when people are searching for you.This is not theoretical it will show exactly how to do it.  If you are interested in getting your profile on page one then CLICK HERE to learn more.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

Why Don’t Candidates Use LinkedIn Effectively?

Are you leveraging LinkedIn in your job search? If not, you could be dragging your job search on for a longer period of time than is necessary.

LinkedIn provides one of the greatest sets of job search tools – practically for FREE!

Why then are so many candidates so bad at using it for their job search?

This just makes no sense to me.

If you’re in a job search, help me to understand why you’re not effectively using LinkedIn to cut the time it takes to find a great job by at least 50%.

Here’s a great fresh example: I was interviewing a candidate for National Sales Manager Position this morning. This is a senior level job – compensation is in the $150K-$200K range.

She’s been out of work for an entire year. I asked her how many phone interviews she had in the last year. Her answer was “roughly about 10”. I asked her how many physical interviews she had in the last year. Her answer was “less than 5.” Her activity level is so low it would have been a miracle to get a job offer.

I then asked her how she was using LinkedIn in her Job Search. She says
“I’m really using LinkedIn. I logon all the time. I look at the job ads being posted. I check out the status updates of all my network contacts.”

You’re NOT effectively using LinkedIn. You might not be found by a hiring manager or recruiting unless pure random luck intervened.

You’re lurking. You’ve faded into the woodwork. You’re invisible.

Start to leverage all the great tools LinkedIn provides for your job search, such as:

• Ability to participate in Questions and Answers
• Ability to constantly evolve and change your Profile
• Ability to Get Testimonials/References to say good things about you
• Ability to share books/reviews/thoughts with others
• Ability to participate in group discussions
• Ability to post useful information into groups
• Ability to contact directly potential hiring managers and recruiters
• Ability to post rich content/media of Powerpoint presentations, white papers, video, and audio
• Ability to “LIKE” and comment on the status updates of people in your network
• Ability to easily build a powerful network to generate an abundance of job leads and referrals.
• Ability to include your twitter stream and blog postings

I’m almost embarrassed to ask candidates about their use of LinkedIn in a job search. When I hear their answer of how much they think they are using it and how they see themselves as a “power” user of LinkedIn for Job Search – I want to double over in laughter. I know that in 99% of the time when I go to look them up on LinkedIn, their activity level and sophistication of using LinkedIn is usually in the bottom 10%.

Why?

There is NO EXCUSE not to become a power user of LinkedIn for Job Search. The resources are astounding. For example, Brad and I have authored numerous articles, blog posts, and radio programs on this subject. We’ve got FREE tools to help you – such as our LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment Scorecard which you can get by clicking here.

Special NOTE: My partner Brad Remillard is facilitating an upcoming inexpensive Webinar on How to Use LinkedIn to pop to the top of a hiring manager/recruiters search for candidates?

Can you afford to end up on page 3 of a search a recruiter is conducting for someone just like you? If you’re not on page 1 – you’ll never have a chance to get noticed. Check out the description of this LinkedIn Webinar by clicking here. I’m really excited about this unique technique Brad has developed to get you to the top of LinkedIn Candidate Searches by Hiring Managers and Recruiters.

This technique of leveraging “SEO” on LinkedIn for your profile is just one of the hundreds you can use to dramatically improve the effectiveness of your job search.

In This Market You Need An Edge. This Might Be That Edge.

Some candidates will enter the job market with the desire to learn everything they can about the best way to conduct a job search. Many will use outplacement firms, attend a webinar or two, read articles on interviewing or resumes, and begin networking.  All good stuff.

However, I believe they leave out one of the most valuable learning tools for a job search. All of the above is important, but what about the other side of the hiring process which is understanding a job search from the recruiter’s or company’s perspective?

Why not read about the hiring processes companies use? Seems to me this would  add a lot of value to one’s search. I ask candidates to start reading and researching articles and books written for hiring managers. There is an enormous amount of information on the Internet that will help you understand exactly what the company is thinking and how they want to  hire.

Many, if not most companies today use some form of behavioral interviewing. There is a wealth of articles, videos, and blogs dedicated to this topic. Just Google “behavioral interviewing”  and over 309,000 results come up. You can discover nearly the exact questions you will be asked in an interview. It is as close to an open book test as you can get, yet few candidates take the time to do this. It is like trading stocks with insider information.

Our book for hiring managers, “You’re NOT The Person I Hired,” goes into great detail how companies should implement an effective  hiring process. It details what questions to ask, how to probe deeply, what other sources to use to  help with candidate selection, how to write a job description that aligns with the real job, and much more. So far over 10,000 CEOs and key executives have this book on their book shelf.  Just reading this book alone will help prepare you for the best way to prepare for an interview, how to align your resume with what the company needs, how to prepare your references, and much more. All you need to know is what the company is going to do and then plan accordingly.

The best defense is a good offense. Understanding exactly how companies do their hiring is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for a job search.

Reading everything you can about how to conduct a search is important. Focusing on how companies hire and learning their methodology is also important. Take the time to prepare yourself for their hiring methodology. You will see a big difference in your results.

You can obtain a copy of our book, “You’re NOT The Person I Hired” from our website if you’d like. There are many good books, blogs, articles, videos, and resources in the market for you to take advantage of. In this market you need an edge  over your competition. Every little bit helps. I encourage you to consider coming from the recruiter’s or company’s perspective.

For more on conducting an effective job search, take a look at our audio library. All of the recordings are free to either download or stream. CLICK HERE to review the titles.

I welcome your comments and thoughts.

Brad Remillard

Recruiters Are Your Friend And Your Best Job Search Resource

I read hundreds of blogs, LinkedIn comments, responses to our articles, tweets on Twitter, and emails from candidates every month about recruiters. Many are negative. Most complain about recruiters. Many are justified and many are not. Like everyone in a personal services business, you can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Regardless of  what we do, we can’t help everyone.

I believe, (make that I know), that we provide more free tools and resources for people in a job search than any other recruiting firm on the Internet. If you know of any that does more, I’d like the link. However, even though many of these resources are 100% free, people still complain to us.

Recruiters are the best resource for candidates to go to  for job search help. I believe that is because recruiters are the only people that have the experience to really help. It is recruiters that know what companies are looking for, what the market is like, what companies want to see and not see on a resume, if you interview well or not, how you will be viewed by a company, and so on. Recruiters live with all of this every day. Who better to have the knowledge of what makes one person very marketable and another person not as marketable.

Good recruiters look for top talent. They know it when they see it. After all, for the last 30 years, all I have done is evaluate talent. Any recruiter who has been around for some time can be a valuable resource for your job search.  I encourage you to take advantage of the advice and knowledge of recruiters. Don’t be afraid to ask for constructive feedback. Most recruiters will gladly give it to you.

If you have a relationship with a recruiter, this is the person you should seek out advice from. They know you and hopefully will be honest with you. So many candidates will never use recruiters for the real value they can bring to your search. Just one suggestion can dramatically change the results in your job search. Our cover letter is one example of that. I have seen so many examples of how one small tip, suggestion, or constructive help has impacted a candidate’s job search. Most of the time the candidate doesn’t even know they are making the mistake. Only a person trained to look for, or notice, these small issues would catch them. That is what recruiters do every single day.

One of the best resources we can offer you is our  sample cover letter. We get more positive feedback on how this tool has impacted a person’s job search than any other resource. I encourage you to download it and use it. We make this available for FREE because we want to help you. CLICK HERE to download.

Join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. It has 5,400 members and is one of the most active job search resources on LinkedIn. CLICK HERE to join.

I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

Brad Remillard

Most Recruiters are Wasting Your Time

How do You Find a Recruiter that will work with you?

Networking – Networking – Networking (more on this subject later)

Many candidates assume the recruiter is “working with them” if one of the following scenarios take place:

1. The recruiter accepted your resume
2. The recruiter called you back on the phone and interviewed you
3. The recruiter asked you into their office for a formal interview
4. The recruiter sent you out to interview with one of their clients

Is the recruiter working with you – helping to identify great opportunities, thinking of you first when an appropriate search tumbles across their desktop, giving you ideas/suggestions/recommendations on how to improve your job search/career management?

Absolutely NOT!

You are nothing more than a piece of paper at this point. Perhaps, your “filler” because their client needed to see two other candidates before making a decision on the real candidate they wanted to hire.

There is no relationship – no chemistry – no mutual support.

AND the worst thing is that the recruiter you’ve called or sent a resume to could be the WRONG recruiter. This is THE primary reason most candidate-recruiter relationships never develop – you’re talking to the WRONG recruiter.

How do you find the right recruiter?

The right recruiter is someone who consistently makes placements of candidates just like you – frequently – successfully – consistently – regularly.

NOT occasionally – infrequently – sometimes – maybe – once in a while.

Have you ever asked a recruiter how many times in the last year, quarter, month (take your pick) did they place someone in a job just like the one you’re seeking?

You would probably be shocked by the answer you hear.

How do you find recruiters who frequently place talent just like you?

Below are a few key steps you can follow to identify appropriate recruiters and begin to develop a “tight” relationship. How could we define a “tight” relationship – it’s one where the recruiter passionately pitches you to their client, you’re the one they think of first on a search assignment, and when the hiring manager rejects you – they fight to the end to convince the hiring manager to meet you.

Can you claim to have this type of “tight” relationship with any recruiters? Probably NOT! Perhaps, the reason is that you’re spending time trying to develop a relationship with the wrong recruiters.

The STEPS to Recruiter Nirvana:

1. Ask your peers which recruiters they are working with
2. Ask hiring managers/executives which recruiters they use to fill jobs like the one you want
3. Look in recruiter directories on the internet for which recruiters specialize in your function, industry, or geography
4. Read the blogs of the very best recruiters (unbiased impression coming up here  – like Brad and I)
5. Which recruiters are ranked in the top 50/100 on twitter and other lists?

Let me throw out a couple of examples:

You live in Los Angeles and are seeking a Chief Financial Officer Position. Who are the top 3 executive search firms who specialize in financial management search in the LA metro area? If you don’t know this answer, you’re flying blind.

You live in Boston and are seeking a Vice President of Marketing Position for a Consumer Products Company with global operations. Who are the top 3 search firms in the US focusing on International Vice Presidents of Marketing for Major Consumer Product Companies? Again, if you don’t know this answer,  you’re flying blind and probably have been wasting your time with other recruiters.

Is it time in your job search to leverage yourself and start spending time with the “right” recruiters so that you can develop a “tight” relationship?

Barry

PS Download our FREE Job Search Self-Assessment to determine if you are effectively leveraging recruiters and other key elements of your job search.

Caution: Don’t Assume All References Will Be Good. Surprising Poll.

I was recently facilitating our, You’re NOT The Person I Hired, workshop with CEOs and key executives. As is often the case the subject of reference checking came up. Most in the audience tended to agree that checking references is a waste of time. After all, candidates only give references they are sure will say positives things about them. Don’t you agree?

Then a CFO sitting in the back raised his hand to disagree. He told the story of a controller he was about to hire near the border in Texas. This was a difficult position to fill as there were a lot of specific requirements. Finally, after an arduous search he found his person. She had all of the qualifications and most importantly he really like her. The final step was to conduct a few reference checks. She handed him of list of 30 references. WOW he thought, this person really has a lot of people willing to vouch for her. So he picked 5 and started calling. The first call was to a former boss. He called and introduced himself and explained he was calling to conduct a reference check on Mary. The line went silent. The pause was so long that he thought they had been disconnected and asked if the reference was still on the line. The reference replied yes and then stated, “Mary gave me as reference? I can’t believe it. We fired her because she stole from us. She did pay us back, but she stole from us.” Now there was silence from him. He didn’t know what to say or how to respond.

This is just one of many examples of what can happen on a reference check and why you should always perform your due diligence.

I know you are thinking, “Well that will never happen to me.” That is what everyone thinks or they wouldn’t give the reference in the first place. You can blow this off or take the appropriate action to ensure it doesn’t happen to you.

Pre-qualifying your references isn’t asking if they will be a reference for you. It isn’t even asking if they will be a good reference for you. It is asking them specifically what they will say when a reference check is conducted. You know the person conducting the reference check is going to probe for weaknesses, areas for improvement, how you will rank on  a scale of 1-10 compared to others, would they rehire you, and other standard questions. Trust but verify what the person is going to say.

I have conducted thousands of reference checks in my 30 year career as an executive recruiter. I have learned that more often than not someone will give me a reference they expect to be positive and it turns negative. It is for this reason that I always check references. Like the CFO in this example it has saved me from making some big mistakes. It only takes one bad reference to realize that catching that one person was worth all of the others.

I conducted a poll on LinkedIn in which 54% replied that they have had people give them a negative reference. This goes to show you that even though the person giving the reference expects a positive reference, they often don’t get one.

SOME FREE TOOLS AND RESOURCES

To validate that your job search doesn’t have any loop holes, download our free Job Search Self-Assessment Scorecard to see if your job search is the best it can be. CLICK HERE to download.

Join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. This group has over 5,300 members. It is loaded with great articles, discussions, and resources for you to take advantage of. CLICK HERE to join.

Our audio library has over 50 job search audio lessons for everyone to download. These audio lessons cover just about every topic one will encounter during a job search. If you would like to view some of these lessons they are free. CLICK HERE to see the list.

I welcome all thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

Consulting Can Be Harmful To Your Job Search

Candidates often take on consulting jobs while in an active job search. Granted, many need the income and if that is the reason for taking the consulting job I completely understand. However, this may be one reason you are in a job search longer than necessary. This may also be one reason for the roller coaster ride many candidates experience while in a job search.

It isn’t that taking the consulting gig is a bad thing to do. It is the terms of the gig that make it harmful to your real desire, which is to land a new position.

I have seen this happen so many times in my career as a recruiter. Candidates are in a perpetual job search. What happens is that candidates get an opportunity for some short term income with a consulting assignment, and because they really don’t know how consulting works, they jump in as if it is a full-time permanent position. Real consultants would never do this. Most consultants can’t do this because good consultants have more than one client so they can’t devote all of their time to any one client for an extended period of time. Candidates, turned temporary consultant, don’t grasp this.

I find that most candidates really don’t view a consulting gig as a consulting gig. They view it as a job. So in reality, they pull themselves off the job market for whatever period of time the consulting lasts. They put their job search on hold. When the consulting assignment ends they restart their job search again. This on/off job search is very harmful for a number of reasons.

1. People begin to view you as a consultant and don’t refer you when a permanent position comes up.
2. The timing for a job opening has to coincide with when you aren’t consulting, otherwise you will never find it.
3. Networking stops so recruiters and those you would keep in touch with either forget about you, refer someone else they are currently networking with, or assume you must be off the market because you aren’t around anymore. Basically out of sight, out of mind.

So what should you do? You need and want the money from consulting. You want the best of both worlds. Well, this is one time in life when you can have the best of both worlds. I would have said, you can’t have your cake and eat it too, but I never understood that. Since you can’t eat cake you don’t have, what else are  you supposed to do with the cake once you have it?

The most important thing you can do if you want to take on consulting roles is behave as a consultant. This means you control your schedule.You have to let the potential client know you are a consultant and have other clients, so you need some flexibility. It doesn’t have to involve a lot of time off, but there will be days when you will be later than others. These are the days you network, schedule meetings with people, attend those networking meetings, let people know you are still looking for permanent work, and make sure you don’t pull yourself off the market. This has to be discussed right up front just like all consulting roles. You can agree on X number of hours per week, but you have to look out for yourself. Agree to the total number per week, not necessarily the time. You must leave some flexibility for continuing your job search. If you don’t, then your job search is on hold.

For those that say, what if the company won’t agree? Then they don’t see you as a consultant. They see you as an unemployed person looking for money. It is your job to position yourself as a consultant in the company’s mind. After all, what if you truly were a consultant with multiple clients, then what would you do? You would negotiate a mutually beneficial relationship.

Don’t let consulting stand in your way of your real objective. If you want a full-time permanent position, then don’t take yourself off the job market. Instead, work with the company as a consultant to ensure the job gets done to the client’s satisfaction and that you too are satisfied.

Help make yourself findable with a great LinkedIn profile. You can use our free LinkedIn profile assessment scorecard to help you. To download your free scorecard CLICK HERE.

Also, join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. There  is a wealth of resources there for you. You can even tap into others that are successfully consulting in order to find out how they do it. CLICK HERE to join the group.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

Have You Fed Your Recruiter Today?

Recruiters need nourishment too.

Like the little fake babies they give to middle-school/junior high students to carry around, feed, clean, and nurture for a few days – if you don’t take care of it – bad things happen.

Your recruiter relationship is exactly the same!

Brad recently wrote an excellent blog post about why you don’t get your calls returned from recruiters – here is another key reason (huge hot button for me):

Recruiters need nourishment too.

What have you done to nurture, feed, support, and provide love to your recruiter relationship?

If you’re not going to go out of your way to build and sustain a relationship with a recruiter, why should they invest the time and energy with you?

If I get a CFO search, the first group I look at to see if there is a qualified candidate is my inner circle of deep relationships. I’ll only turn to referrals, cold calls, and other networking strategies if my immediate network doesn’t contain the ideal candidate.

Are you an ideal candidate in any recruiter’s network?

Let’s assume for a moment you’ve been referred to a recruiter that you’ve been trying to build a relationship with for years. Finally, the recruiter takes your your call based on the referral and the relationship starts. Let’s also pretend that at this exact moment, the recruiter does not have an assignment that matches up with your background.

What do you do to ensure your background and capabilities stay in the forefront of the recruiter’s brain? How do you get your name to pop up every single time an appropriate search crosses the recruiter’s desk?

Classic networking techniques is the correct answer.

What do master networkers do to build relationships?

• Send articles of interest to the recruiter
• Make appropriate referrals on possible assignments or with potential candidates on other searches
• Send information about yourself to the recruiter – your latest blog posting, a copy of a particularly insightful article you wrote for a trade journal
• Offer to grab a cup of coffee together
• Refer other candidates and hiring managers to the recruiter

I could count on one hand the number of times a candidate has used any of the above tactics with me.

Relationships are not based on sending a piece of paper to a recruiter. If you want your calls returned, it’s time to start developing a deep and meaningful relationship.

I am convinced that one of the major reasons so many executives have been out of work for so long is that they refuse to accept the importance of relationship building in networking. Mass mailing resumes and responding to hundreds of job advertisements is a worthless and useless waste of time.

Is it any wonder why the people in your network are not referring you to great opportunities?

Is it any wonder why you don’t have an abundance of job referrals and leads?

Is it any wonder why most recruiters will not return your call?

Why are you not engaged in relationship building activities? What’s your fear?

I cannot understand why most executive candidates stink at relationship building activities in networking. Hundreds of books have been written on this subject. Numerous blogs are published on the subject. There is an overwhelming number of webinars available in how do build relationships in networking.

Help me to understand the dilemma. Why are most executives who have been out of work for a long time period unwilling to engage in relationship building with recruiters?

Barry

photo credit flickr

P.S.: Are you part of our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group? If not, your missing one of the most dynamic job search discussion groups on LinkedIn. Get your job search questions answered now from other job seekers, hr professionals, and recruiters.

Interesting Poll Results Regarding Resumes

Over the last few months I have conducted a couple of very non-scientific polls on LinkedIn. I wanted to better understand what candidates do with their resumes. Granted, these two polls don’t give all of the answers, but they did show some interesting answers. Like many polls, they might have created more questions than answers.

I had been curious as to how many resumes candidates were sending out. I had no idea if it was hundreds or just a few. So the first poll question was: On average, how many resumes do you send out per week? 848 people responded.

79% indicated 1 -10

16% indicated 11-20

4% over 20

I actually thought the highest group would be the 11 – 20 group. Comments back did indicate that the numbers move the longer one is looking for a job. For example, a number of people indicated that at first they were sending more resumes than they are currently given they have been looking for some time. That would make sense since I’m confident that when one first starts looking they have a lot of places initially to send resumes. Once those are done the number drops.

87% of  the women send out 1 -10 per week, while that drops to 76% for men.

10% of the women send out 11- 20 per week, while that increases for men to 19%.

The only age group that was higher was the 18-24 group with 85% indicating they send out 1- 10 per week. All the other groups up to 55+ were in the mid 70% range. However, the 25 – 34 and the 55+ age groups lead in sending out 11-20 resumes per week.

The other question I asked was to find out where most of these resumes were going. Candidates are sending out a lot of resumes so they must be going someplace. 320 people responded to this poll. Not a big number, but interestingly the percentage didn’t change much as more people responded. After about 275 people responded, the percentage stayed within one or two points.

52% indicated that they send most of their resumes directly to companies with job postings.

30% indicated that they send most of their resumes to job board ads.

11% sent them to recruiters.

5% sent unsolicited resumes to targeted companies.

Two things surprised me with this, 1) most people aren’t using the job boards as their primary source for sending resumes and therefore finding a job and 2) far fewer are sending to recruiters than I expected.

I did find it interesting that 100% of the people in marketing that replied indicated they only send resumes directly to a company job posting. Academics and Sales were also much higher than the other functional areas with 60% and 50% sending directly to the company job posting. Academics doesn’t surprise me as that would seem to make sense.

Age was another interesting number. I expected most of the younger generation to use the job boards as this is via the Internet, but I was wrong. 72%, by far the largest number, of 18 -24 year old candidates reply directly to company job postings. This group was also the least likely to send their resume to a job board with only 17% using this as a primary source. The 34-54 age group used the job boards for sending resumes the most.

The biggest and far away the most common comment was how frustrated candidates are about not hearing anything back once they submit a resume. Many referred to it as the “black hole.” I was going to ask the question what percentage of the resumes that you send out do you hear back on, but judging from the comments I came to the conclusion that the 0 – 5% category would be the winner by such a wide margin it didn’t make sense to ask it.

That is how the numbers and things came out. Like it or not, believe it or not, do with it as you please. It is just information.

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I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard