Why Are You Still Unemployed a Year Later?

You’re still unemployed because your job search is ineffective.

I don’t accept the excuse “it’s a bad economy and that’s why you’re still out of work.”

It’s not appealing when you play the victim and adopt a LOSER mentality.

Common Frustrations of Conducting a Job Search

Yes of course – the bad economy does make job search more difficult.

Yes of course – there are fewer jobs available than when it’s a thriving job market.

Yes of course – employers are taking longer to make a decision and slowing down the hiring process

Yes of course – most recruiters have nothing to work on – so your phone is not ringing.

Yes of course – in a down job market – most employers are box-checking waiting for the perfect candidate who fits every item on their job description: “You’ve only got 7 years of  food service distribution experience into Mexican Restaurants with greater than 50 rooftops in the NW region of the country – Gee whiz, we need someone with 8 years of experience selling to chains with more than 65 rooftops.” Many employers are nitpicking the details of your background – not focusing on whether you can achieve their desired results.

I know all these problems. I’ve seen candidates face them in 5-6 recessions over the last 25 years and not one of the issues related to job search frustrations is different today than it was in 1985.

However, the process of conducting a job search has changed dramatically and the vast majority of candidates DO NOT GET IT or are IN DENIAL over how to conduct an effective job search.

Allow me to share a few recent examples to drive this point home:

First Proof YOUR JOB SEARCH IS INEFFECTIVE

A few weeks ago, my partner, Brad Remillard, ran a survey on LinkedIn regarding length of time currently unemployed executives and managers have been unemployed. In an unscientific survey/poll of executive and managerial candidates, Brad discovered that over 75 percent of those currently unemployed had been unemployed for approximately one year.

Frightening. Unimaginable. Shocking. Frustrating. Incomprehensible.

I just cannot understand how anyone – unless they have a bottomless pit of money – or their spouse is the significant bread-winner – can survive for a year without working.

I hate to be the harbinger of bad news – but prepare yourself for a job market that’s close to crashing again – as if it couldn’t get any worse. We could be 18-24 months away from a job market recovery.

I digress – let’s come back to WHY YOUR JOB SEARCH IS INEFFECTIVE:

Second Proof YOUR JOB SEARCH IS INEFFECTIVE

I just finished an interview with a candidate for one of my National Account Sales Manager Searches. Before I started interviewing the candidate (let’s pretend his name is Bob to protect the innocent), I asked him some questions about his job search (an informal survey I am conducting with EVERY candidate whom I interview).

Little bit of background first: Bob has an outstanding proven track record of success for a position in area that I am recruiting for. I would suggest that there are probably at least 20-25 of these searches going on at any time. Some are being done directly by the company through traditional advertising, some are being conducted by recruiters (such as yours truly), and some are in the “hidden job market”– no recruiters and no advertising – just good old classic networking and referrals.

Every response that Bob gave me to my questions about what he was doing on his job search to find a new job was very similar to the candidates I’ve spoken to since the start of this year. Let’s peg that overall number at roughly 500 candidates based on 20-25 candidates a week.

I’ve got a dozen examples of why Bob’s job search is ineffective. It’s not one thing that’s leading to job search failure – it’s the fact that he’s not doing all 12 things effectively.

Here’s my small, itty-bitty, and trite example that is reflective of his overall job search failure:

I asked him what has he done on LinkedIn to create a compelling profile. He thought he had done a good job. I viewed his profile and it was far from compelling. In fact, I’d give it “D”. Obviously, he has not invested the time to create a compelling linkedin profile for job search.

I then asked him how many times does it show that his background has appeared in search results (about half of what the number should be weekly – he’s getting in 12-15 search results – should be 20-25).

I asked him how many times his profile had been viewed (again half the recommended volume – he’s at 5-7 and it should be 10-15). Obviously, he’s not optimized his LinkedIn Profile to appear in searches by recruiters, HR professionals, and hiring managers.

I asked him if he’s active in groups, Questions/Answers, status updates – his response was basically inactive. Obviously, he’s not using the multitude of FREE tools that LinkedIn provides for job seekers to enhance job search networking and referrals.

This is one small element of an overall effective job search – but indicative of all the other things he should be doing and is NOT doing. It’s unfortunate that he’s been out of work for almost a year – his job search should have been over in 4-6 months if he had conducted an effective job search.

Would You Like To Be Part of Our Research Study?

We are going to undertake a research study using the Key Elements of our Job Search Assessment Tool which follows the format of our Job Search Methodology. (You can download the Job Search Assessment Tool for FREE by clicking here).

One group will be those unsuspecting candidates that I interview and ask questions about their job search – we’ll correlate their length of unemployment with their job search effectiveness.

The second group – for which we need volunteers – are those executive level candidates (VP title and annual compensation of at least $150K) who would like to go through an intensive FREE course and coaching program of using our Job Search Success Methodology. We’ll track the time it takes you to find a new job using our approach.

FREE Job Search Course and Coaching Program

This FREE course and coaching program will be an abbreviated version of our formal executive job search coaching program.

My hypothesis is that those who are willing to invest the time and energy in our job search methodology will see a 50% reduction in the time it takes to find a new job.

If the average length of time to find a job in your given profession, industry, or geography is one year – you should be able to reduce that to 6 months or less using our methodology.

DON’T RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU’RE NOT SERIOUS ABOUT FINDING A GREAT JOB QUICKLY

This is an intensive, rigorous, focused approach to job search. You’ll probably spend 60-80 hours a week on the process. You’ll be held accountable for completing assignments and tasks or you’ll be dropped from the course if you cannot keep up with the pace OR you’re not motivated to find a great job quickly.

Not everyone will be accepted into this free course and coaching program. We will only take the first 25 applicants that can pass a rigorous screening interview with high standards for excellence, commitment, stick-to-it mentality, initiative, and focus.

If you’re interested in being part of this select group, write a comment to this blog post and I’ll follow-up with you.

Barry

If you would like to be considered for this FREE course and coaching program, there are a couple of homework assignments first (I’m already donning my professorial hat):

Download the Job Search Assessment by clicking here

Download the FREE Chapter on phone interviewing in our Career Success Methodology by clicking here.

Download some of the FREE Audio Programs in our extensive library by clicking here.

Then decide if you want to raise your hand and be considered for this exclusive and elite FREE coaching program.

Why Do Most Recruiter Interviews Set You Up for Failure?

Most 3rd-party recruiter interviews set you up for failure with hiring managers.

Before the entire recruiting profession jumps down my throat over that statement – let’s examine this statement in a little more depth.

Most (there are a few exceptions) recruiters conduct “box-checking” interviews. These sound like “Tell me about yourself.” “Have you done this?” “Do you have this skill?” Do you have this knowledge?” “What’s your biggest weakness?” and all the other 20 standard, stupid, inane canned interview questions that have been asked since the beginning of time.

We also published a couple of articles on some of the “other” reasons for shooting yourself in the foot when interviewing. Two of these articles you might be interested in are:

Candidate Interviewing Mistakes

You Can’t Interview Yourself Out of Wet Paper Bag

Most executives and managers tell me that the vast majority of the interviews they’ve gone through with 3rd-party recruiters are a joke. The believe that these sessions are nothing more than “meet-n-greets” where the recruiter is trying to determine if the candidate will embarrass them on the interview.

None of the traditional interview questions get at real success and the ability to translate prior accomplishments to predicting future performance. Very few recruiters have ever been trained, coached, or learned how to measure true performance – or predict future performance based on past success.

So, let’s follow this process logically. The recruiter conducts an interview for their client by box-checking the job description. The candidate is now lulled into the belief that this will be a similar interview with the client.

Wrong.

Most sophisticated hiring executives/managers are going to talk about outcomes and results – the candidate is stunned to be talking about outcomes, results, deliverables, accomplishments, and achievements. The candidate is at a loss to provide 2-3 substantive examples with quantifiable details for each claim.

The candidate was expecting the traditional 20 stupid, inane, canned interview questions.

The recruiter did NOTHING to prepare the candidate for a more rigorous interview.

The best recruiters conduct more in-depth interviews of candidates than their clients will ever conduct. The best recruiters probe deeply and will continue digging until they get the details. The best recruiters triangulate your responses to validate, verify, and vet your claims.

These interviews act as preparation for the real thing.

Box-checking,  traditional, stupid, inane, and canned interview questions do you a disservice by lulling you into a false sense of security about the interview questions that will be asked by strong hiring managers and executives.

So, let’s take this to the logical conclusion:

• Assume most recruiters will not ask tough and insightful questions.
• Assume most recruiters cannot prepare you for an interview with a strong hiring manager or executive.
• Assume most recruiters don’t really understand how to probe accomplishments, achievements, outcomes, and results.
• Assume most recruiters don’t understand how to predict future performance.

What can you do to get ready for a “real” interview?

Here are a few proactive ideas:

• • Read the free popular chapter in our book, “This is NOT the Position I Accepted” titled “Winning the Phone Interview”
  • Practice your responses over and over – imagine this is the most important presentation of your life. Practice your responses in front of the mirror, with family, the dog, your cat, friends, neighbors, associates
  • Practice some more
  • Read item number 1 – master our technique of D.R.E.S.S.U.P. for the phone interview
  • Practice some more
  • Frame all your responses with as much quantifiable detail as possible, names, starting amounts, ending amounts, budget, savings, number of people on the project, length of time, etc
  • Read everything you can on how to interview more effectively
  • Practice some more

Don’t blow the interview just because a recruiter didn’t ask you the correct questions. Be proactive in preparing yourself for a more rigorous interview.

Download our FREE popular Phone Interviewing Chapter “Win the Phone Interview”

What’s your experience in working with recruiters?

What percentage of all the recruiters you’ve met – made you work really hard during the interview? How many of those sessions were “meet-n-greets?”

Barry

P.S. Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Discussion Group where phone interviewing, recruiters, and everything else job search related is thoroughly discussed.

Ever Wonder Why No One Calls You Back After the Phone Interview?

The Myth of Phone Interviewing

Yesterday I phone interviewed a candidate for a search I was conducting for a National Accounts Manager position. The phone interview was with my client – the CEO.

I had already interviewed the candidate by myself for the job. The candidate passed with flying colors. He was specific, precise, gave good examples, was articulate, and provided good validation and verification of his accomplishments.

Here’s what happened: My client started the interview with more open-ended questions than I typically ask.

As a recruiter, my questions are laser-focused, drawing out every detail of an accomplishment and achievement like having blood withdrawn.

I don’t care if candidates are not prepared for my interviews – I’ll extract it out of them like they were sitting in the interrogation room at a local police station. Some of my candidates have indicated these interviews feel like a “soft deposition” (not sure if I could have come up with a better oxymoron).

Unfortunately, most hiring executives and managers don’t dig and probe as deep to validate, verify, and vet candidate accomplishments. Instead, they ask broad high level questions and wait for the candidate to prove how good they are at interviewing.

Yes – I know it’s a travesty for hiring managers to base their assessments on how well candidates interview rather than on the substance of what they have done and what they can do. It’s a fact of life.

We’re trying to change it one interview at a time – getting hiring managers to focus more on measuring whether the candidate can do the job vs. whether the candidate can interview well. Not sure this will happen in my lifetime.

How to Blow the Phone Interview

The candidate choked up. He blew it. He stuttered through the interview. He was disjointed. His thoughts were jumbled. He would get sidetracked and lose the focus on his point. Here was a candidate who made hundreds, if not thousands of presentations to clients. Here was someone with a great track record of success. But he still blew the phone interview.

Why? How could this happen?

It happened because he did not prepare adequately for the phone interview. He never got a chance to get to the first stage of a physical interview. He can ill afford to miss an opportunity like this job after having been out of work for more than a year.

I’m convinced that one of the major reasons a lot of candidates are still looking for a job after 12 months is that they are not prepared for phone interviewing.

He didn’t review his accomplishments. He didn’t rehearse his answers. He didn’t organize his thoughts related to the potential company’s needs.

The interviewer didn’t guide him through the interview – question by question probing for success. Instead, the interviewer conducted a typical interview at 40,000 ft. and the candidate wasn’t prepared for a typical interview of standard, inane, common, and canned interviewed questions. These were the same 20 questions, hundreds of other managers had asked him prior to this interview.

Shame on him.

Death by Phone Interviewing

He tried to “wing it”.

I’ve seen this “death by phone interviewing” over and over again.

Many candidates think that their accomplishments listed in their resume should “stand on their own”. This myth of phone interviewing couldn’t be further from the truth. Keep in mind that you’re primarily being interviewed for how well you make it through the phone interview – not necessarily how good you are as a potential candidate.

If you can’t navigate the dangerous waters of a phone interview, forget about ever getting a job offer – since you’ll not even make it to the face-to-face stage.

Raise Your Chance of Winning the Phone Interview

If you’d like to learn more about how to win in a phone interview, download for FREE the most popular chapter, “Winning the Phone Interview”,  of our Job Search Workbook, “This Is NOT the Position I Accepted”.

Barry

Getting Professional Help Can Shorten Your Job Search – Example 2- Interview Mistakes

The first article addressed how to handle the problem of turnover. This example deals with two simple issues that could have resulted in the person not getting the job because of simple mistakes that were easy to fix. The person just didn’t know how. Any professional career coach, outplacement firm, job search coach, or executive recruiter should know exactly how to help you: 1) not make the mistake in the first place and 2) how to overcome it once it has happened.

The candidate called me and said, “I think I may have just blown an interview with the way I answered one question. Is there anything I can do?” “What was the question?” I asked. He replied, “The CEO asked me what I wanted to do with my career, and I told him that I love marketing, and wanted to be a VP of Marketing in a medical device company.” Since he was interviewing for a VP of Marketing position in a medical device company that would seem to align well with the what the CEO was looking for. Also, given the candidate’s background and experience it was a reasonable answer.

Then the CEO came back with, “Well, that could be a problem here, as we like to hire people that want to move  up in the organization and that strive to be better and not just do a job.”  OOPS, there is a big communication gap here. The CEO meant one thing and the candidate interpreted it another way. This is often the kiss of death.

So what would have been different had this candidate been working with a professional?

1. The mistake should never have happened. The candidate wasn’t prepared. From a professional’s point of view this question should never have been answered. It is clearly vague and too open to interpretation. What does career mean, what time frame is the CEO addressing, what is the motivation for asking this question, how soon does the CEO expect a person to move up, etc? These all  need to be clarified prior to either answering the question or integrated into the answer.
2. The candidate would have been prepared not to fall into this trap. It wasn’t a trick question, and certainly not a deliberate attempt to trap the candidate. It was just one of those questions often asked that are so vague that the candidate doesn’t really know how to answer or there are just too many ways to answer it.
3. Once this happened, a professional would know exactly how to minimize the damage. Since the candidate felt this was the turning point in the interview, and this was a critical mistake that would cost him the job, it can’t go unresolved.

Again, like the first example in this series, it was an easy fix. There was no guarantee the fix would work, but it certainly couldn’t make matters worse . At this point, the candidate was convinced he wasn’t getting the job. There was no place to go but up.

Since the candidate now knew what the CEO was looking for in this question, we simply expanded on the candidate’s answer in his thank you letter. The candidate explained that he thought the CEO was looking for a short term answer to what he wanted in his career, so he answered it with the next three to five years in mind. However, longer term he would expect to move  up in an organization within five to eight years. Obviously, a little more detail was added, but you get the picture.

It worked, and he did get the job. We know it worked because the CEO told him that the thank you letter changed his mind.

I believe, and the candidate believes, that the professional help was directly responsible for getting this job. He believes it saved him additional months of searching for a position. As he told me, “Even if I found a job one month later, it would have cost X in lost salary.”

Getting professional help can save you thousands of dollars. Take your monthly salary and multiply it by how many months you have been looking for a job. That is the cost of unemployment. Finding a job one month earlier because you got professional help is cheap compared to the alternative.

The final article in this series will help you identify the right professional. There are many frauds and unqualified people posing as professionals that take your money and don’t deliver results. These must be exposed and avoided. There are also many outstanding people that are true professionals, highly skilled, and with great experience, that are worth far more than they receive from helping candidates find a job.

We offer many free tools to help you. CLICK HERE to download a free sample cover letter that  recruiters like. CLICK HERE to download a sample thank you letter that will make sure you are remembered. CLICK HERE to download a free LinkedIn profile assessment that will help you build a great LinkedIn profile.

Finally, consider joining our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. It has a wealth of great articles and discussions to help you in your search. CLICK HERE to join the other 5,300 members of this group.

I welcome your thoughts and comments. If you liked this article, please tweet or re-tweet it so others can benefit.

Brad Remillard

Why Your Skills & Experience Don’t Matter To Recruiters

The title is true. It just isn’t true all of the time.

I can’t count the number of times I have heard from candidates, “I have done all of the things for your position.” or how many times I get a cover letter that goes into a lengthy explanation about “how perfect” they believe they are  for my search.

One question, “If you are so perfect for the position, then why didn’t you get it?”

Skills  and experience will only get you so far in the hiring process. At some point, usually much earlier than most candidates realize, these begin to diminish in importance.

What begins to increase in importance is your qualifications. This encompasses a lot more than skills and experience. Otherwise, why go through the interviewing process? If skills and experience were all that mattered, you would be hired just from your resume.

For example, let’s say that I received your resume and started reviewing it. At this point, skills and experience are 100% of my screening process.  Once, I have read your resume and like what I read,  I will then pick up the phone and conduct a phone screen. I don’t like to call it an interview, because quite frankly I’m in a screening mode more than an interviewing mode.

At this point, your skills and experience may now only be about 75% relevant. During this phone interview, it is true that I’m interviewing you on your skills and experience, but that isn’t all. There is so much more to a phone screen that it took a whole chapter in our candidate job search workbook to cover it all. This chapter is so important that we offer it for free for everyone to download. CLICK HERE if you want to download it.

If that goes well, the next step is going to be a face-to-face interview. Now your skills and experience are at best 50% relevant. Since I have read your resume and conducted a phone screen, I have a really good feel for whether you meet the minimum criteria or not. The interviewing priorities shift. There are so many issues I’m screening on to decide if I will send you out to my client that I can’t list them all.  This took too many chapters in our job search workbook to properly cover and with the depth needed, I can’t possibly go into all of them, but here are a few.  I’m interested in much more than just your skills and experience. I’m also interviewing for how professional your presentation is, how well you can communicate, whether or not you can withstand probing questions on your background, do you have the facts on your accomplishments, do you answer questions in vague generalities or can you get specific, and even how strong or weak your first impression was.  I’m paid to make value judgments regarding  how well you will fit with the company, if you are prepared for how my client will interview you (are you prepared or just winging it) and whether or not you will embarrass me once you are in front of my client. It only takes once in a recruiter’s career to have a client call back and complain that the candidate wasted their time, before the recruiter improves their screening process.  These are really the basic things I’m screening on in our in-person interview. Only about 50% pass this interview.

That means half will never meet the hiring authority. Even though they have the  experience and skills required, they may not be qualified.  Now of this 50%, some will turn out to not be a good match, and often the candidate will agree. Usually, that is less than 10% of the total people I have interviewed in-person.

I can assure you it works about the same when you are interviewing with companies. The only major difference is that as the interviewing process progresses the percentage of reliance on skills and experience decreases even more.

For some senior level positions that require more than 4 or 5 meetings, this percentage may dwindle down to as little as 10% or less.

As the interviewing process moves forward, the hiring authority has already come to the conclusion that the candidates have at least the minimum skills and experience to do the job. Otherwise, they would have been eliminated.

What I’m trying to stress in this article is that candidates rely too much on their skills and experience to the detriment of what is important at different points in time during the hiring process. It isn’t always about your experience. At some point the question is, “Are you qualified?”  It is more about your personality, behavioral issues, managerial style, communications, professionalism, professional presence, assertiveness, etc. that really matters.

These are the things most candidates take for granted during the  hiring process. I have encountered so few that grasp these at the actionable level. Many reading this article will be thinking to themselves, “I know all of this.” That is the point of the article and the frustration. You may know all of this, but what are you doing about it to ensure that you pass?

How are you preparing?

How are you improving your ability to succinctly communicate your accomplishments?

What tangible things have you done to become a salesperson? After all, in a job search you are in sales.

Have you ever video recorded yourself in a mock interview?

What unique and probing questions do you ask in an interview that demonstrate that you are an insightful person?

How do your questions differentiate you from all of the others that ask the same questions?

How do you use your voice to communicate effectively?

I could go on and on. I’m not implying that every person needs all of these. I am implying that every person needs some of these.  The question is, what do you need in your search so that as the percentage shifts from skills and experience to your personal qualifications that you continue to excel?

Test your job search effectiveness by downloading our free Job Search Plan Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE to download.

For a FREE example of a cover letter CLICK HERE.

For a FREE example of a Thank You letter CLICK HERE.

For many more FREE resources and articles, join our Job Search Networking Group on LinkedIn. 4,300 people have done this. CLICK HERE to join.

Answering Those Box Checking Interviewing Questions – Audio Recording

Don’t Be A Box-checking Victim

STOP allowing yourself to be box-checked in the interview by recruiters, HR, and hiring managers. You CANNOT SUCCEED in the interview if you are being box-checked against a traditional job description listing precise years of experience, exact industry experience, product knowledge, specific channels, and detailed skills. No one could pass these interviews with flying colors. Successful interviewing requires you to move the interview from a typical interrogation into a conversation about the needs and obstacles in the job. Brad and Barry provide specific examples, tactics, and recommendations in this radio program on how to move every interview from a box-checking interrogation into a conversation about the work that needs to be done.

To listen or download this recording from our audio library CLICK HERE.

You can also join our LinkedIN Job Search Networking Group. CLICK HERE to join

Is Your Job Search Stuck in High School Time Warp?

Is Your Job Search an Extension of High School?

One of my favorite bloggers, writers, speakers – Seth Godin, published a blog titled “On Self-determination”. After reading the article, I realized, there was a frightening metaphor for most job seekers. I wrote a previous article about this syndrome on our blog titled “Hope and Luck are NOT Job Search Strategies”

I’ll share the example Seth used in his blog article that literally rocked me back on my heels:

Anyway, they asked for my advice in finding marketing jobs. When I shared my views (go to a small company, work for the CEO, get a job where you actually get to make mistakes and do something) one woman professed to agree with me, but then explained, “But those companies don’t interview on campus.”

Those companies don’t interview on campus. Hmmm. She has just spent $100,000 in cash and another $150,000 in opportunity cost to get an MBA, but…

A little later in his blog post, Seth made the comment:

Do you work with people who are still in high school? Job seekers only willing to interview with the folks who come on campus?

This approach of being a “victim” stems from high school where we let events and others dictate what we do, when we do it, how we do it.

I call it the “High School Time Warp Syndrome”.

If we screw up, we could always blame it on others – my coach, my parents, the administration, my teachers, my classmates. As Seth indicates, for many individuals, this “victim” approach – or what he terms a lack of “self-determination” becomes a guiding principle throughout your life.

Brad and I did one of our Radio Programs on how this syndrome of “playing the victim” or “lacking self-determination” in your job search plays itself out every day. The Radio Show was titled “Job Search Mistakes – Part 2”. You can download it from our FREE Job Search Audio Library.

YOU HAVE COMPLETE self-determination in your job search. STOP pretending your still in high school and others are dictating your actions. You have complete freedom to control, change, improve, evolve, learn, grow, and develop an effective job search.

Most candidates Brad and I meet conduct a job search at about the bottom 5% level. Why? Because they pretend they are back in high school where they never grew past a lack of self-determination or being the victim of circumstances. This is exhibited in the excuses, explanations, and rationalizations of why their job search is not working:

• I don’t do well meeting other people
• I don’t know what to do
• That seems like too much work
• I’m too busy answering job applications on job boards
• I’m waiting for the phone to ring
• I’m not really into networking
• My resume speaks for itself
• Why should I invest time to prepare for an interview, doesn’t my background speak for itself?
• The recruiter didn’t call me back – all recruiters are idiots
• The hiring manager didn’t call me back – all hiring managers are idiots
• I sent my resume in – but no one followed up with me

Stop complaining, kvetching, whining, crying, fussing, and acting like you’re back in high school. Like Seth Godin suggests, become Self-Determinant!  Take your job search effectiveness from the bottom 5% into the top 5% and finish your job search. Apply yourself. Reach past your comfort zone in your job search and do something different tomorrow.

Have you even bothered yet to download our Job Search Effectiveness Self-Assessment to determine if you’re in the top 5% or the bottom 5%? Brad and I have talked about this popular self-assessment over and over on our blog. Thousands of job seekers have taken it and dramatically improved their job hunting plans and success.

I spoke with a Senior Sales Executive yesterday in a phone interview and asked him why he had been out of work for a year. His story (and he stuck to it) was that the economy was tough (victim disorder – lack of self-determination – high school time warp dysfunction).

I can’t present a candidate to my client that has been out of work for a year.  They would slap me so hard my head would spin around.

Don’t let this happen to you. Start down the path of Self-Determination in your job search TODAY!

Learn everything you can about job search best practices. Follow the top bloggers on job search – get an new idea every day. (We’re writing another blog featuring the very best bloggers from across the Internet sharing FREE Job Search Resources and Best Practices – subscribe to all their feeds).

Your effort, intensity, focus, learning, trying different tactics all help move beyond the “lack of self-determination” and victimization that categorizes most job searches. It’s NOT one big thing that will make the difference in your job search – it’s the hundreds of little things you do that are different from what you’ve done before.

STOP being caught up in the HIGH SCHOOL TIME WARP DYSFUNCTION!

Barry Deutsch

Join our rapidly growing LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group to engage in great discussions around job search best practices and how to conduct a more effective job search.

The Curious George Approach to Interviewing

As many of you know, I follow an large number of blogs every day on a wide range of subjects – hiring, job search, motivation, blogging, retention, performance management, social media, internet marketing, basketball coaching – every interest that I have both personally and professionally. I get hundreds of ideas about blogging, marketing, FREE tools to offer YOU – the list is endless.

Which begs the question – what are you reading?

Do you have your books list up in the LinkedIn Application? What blogs do you subscribe to and read consistently in some RSS feeder like Google Reader? What blogs/forums are you commenting on what you’ve recently read?

(Little sidenote: There are few activities that a professional, manager, and can engage in that will lead to as many benefits as a high level of reading and exploration – do you make reading and exploration a big priority in your job search?)

Shoot us back a note in the comments about your favorite blogs that keep you informed, moving to a new level of learning, and turned on about new knowledge.

YOU MIGHT ASK  – where are you going with all this? You might ask – how does all this talk about blogs relate to job search and job interviewing?

I was reading one of my favorite blogs on how to blog better, ProBlogger , and Darren Rowse, the blog author, talked about the lessons learned from reading Curious George Books with his 3 year old. You remember Curious George – I still have the ones from my childhood and I had the chance to share them with my kids when they were younger.

Here’s what Darren said in his blog article titled A Lesson from Curious George for Bloggers:

The books of choice at bed time in my 3 year olds room are all Curious George books at the moment. He’s crazy for George.

Needless to say that the 6 Curious George books that we have are getting read again and again – I pretty much know them off by heart…. to the point that I’ve started taking less notice of the story itself and more notice of HOW its been written.

There’s one thing about Curious George Books (or at least the ones we have) that I’ve noticed that really makes them more engaging than some of the other kids books my boy reads.

Do you know what it is?

It’s something that draws my boy further and further into the book.

Any ideas what it could be?

It’s a technique that actually causes my little guy to ask me to turn the page – something that gets him thinking about what is coming next – something causes him to be curious – just like George.

What do you think it is?

This technique is not only a page turner – its something that draws my boy from being a passive listener/reader of the book – but actually gets him interacting with the book – talking about it as I’m reading.

Have you guessed what it is?

The technique is simple – on every second page there’s a question.

It’s not a question that needs an answer – but it’s a question that engages the person reading the book and draws them deeper into the story.

They are questions about what will happen next, questions about what the reader thinks or knows, leading questions that draw readers to keep reading but also to become engaged.

I’m reading the blog article and all of sudden it hit me – this is the same best practice technique that most top candidates use in an interview to engage with hiring managers (Thanks Darren for letting me borrow your analogy). The same concept applied in a writing a popular children’s book can be applied in a high level interview.

Do you engage, build rapport, draw the interviewer toward you, and build passion in them around wanting to learn more about YOU? Think about your last few interviews.

• Did you wait till the end to ask questions?
• Did you use your questions as a technique of engaging and stimulating a conversation instead of an interrogation?
• Did you get ask questions to get the hiring manager talking?
• Did your technique of asking questions last for a moment or two – or were you able to sustain it through-out the entire interview?
• What happened on the interviews you were engaging through questions vs. the interviews where you didn’t ask very many questions?

Download a few of our FREE Audio recordings of past Radio Broadcasts that Brad and I have done on interviewing best practices.

You can also find more details on how to prepare and ACE a “Curious George” Interview in our Job Search Workbook.

Try the technique on your next interview. Let us know what happens.

Who would have thought a simple children’s book could provide so much insight about interviewing?

Barry Deutsch

Our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group frequently discusses best practices for interviewing. Learn from some of the best in how the instinctively use the “Curious George” Technique.

5 Most Frequently Asked Job Search Questions I Receive

On Friday’s 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?

You can download a free 8 Point Job Search Plan Self-Assessment that will help you evaluate exactly what you need to do to improve your search. CLICK HERE to download.

Is your Linkedin Profile going to get you noticed. Our FREE Linkedin Profile Matrix will help you develop an outstanding profile. CLICK HERE to download yours.

Join our LINKEDIN Job Search Networking group. Over 4200 people have joined. CLICK HERE to join.

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.

Brad Remillard

Never Waste A Thank You Letter Saying Thank You

After an interview, sending a “Thank You” letter is common etiquette and a nice thing to do, but saying “thank you” should not be the main reason for sending it. Most candidates send one after interviewing with a company, but as a recruiter, I rarely receive one. I personally don’t need one, but on the occasions when I have received one, I think the candidate misses a great opportunity by just saying, “Thank you for the interview.”

I believe a good “Thank You” letter should be used to reinforce your ability to do the job and/or address any potential issues that came up during the interview. It can be another marketing document. It is important not to over do it, but a tactful letter, that does some subtle marketing can have a big impact on the person reading it.

For example, a few years ago a candidate called me after an interview and said, “I think I blew the interview.” The CEO asked me, ‘What my career plan is for taking this position?’ I answered how over the next few years I would impact my department and how that would impact the company. The CEO responded, “That is fine, but we really want people that want to grow and maybe some day have my job.” The candidate asked me what would be the best way to recover from this or if there was a way to recover. The answer was the, “Thank You” letter.

A carefully worded, “Thank You” letter explained to the CEO that the candidate interpreted the question as asking for the short term impact he would have once on board. He went on to explain, in the “Thank You” letter, that certainly in the long-term his desire was definitely to advance, but he realized that was dependent upon him doing an exceptional job in the role he was being hired to fill, hence the reason for answering the question as he did.

The candidate had the opportunity to address a miscommunication during the interview, which is a common problem with interviews. Ultimately, the candidate did get the job. Would he have gotten it anyway? Hard to tell. One thing is certain, the candidate didn’t think he would have.

Some other basic issues regarding a “Thank You” letter:

• One page maximum
• Send shortly after the interview
• Not an email (with the possible exception of IT professionals)
• Addressed to a specific person, not “Dear Interviewer” or salutation left blank
• Individualized to the particular interview, personalized to the specific topic
• Do not use a generic one-size-fits-all thank you letter

Consider using this as one more chance to market yourself. Don’t over do it. This is not the time for a hard sell. It must be subtle and tactful. It won’t work all the time, but hopefully as in the example, it will work the one time you really need it.

Download a FREE sample Thank You letter along with some Do’s and Don’ts for Thank You letters. CLICK HERE to get yours.

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We encourage comments and your feedback.

Brad Remillard