The Daily Recruiter

“Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline.” - Jim Collins So many of my posts have been about where to find a job (as you would expect). But then I started thinking, what about the not so obvious places to find a job? You’ve heard the usual statistics “80% of all positions are filled without employer advertising” or “80% of all jobs are filled by referral” and finally “most job seekers find jobs through networking”. Now there is some truth to this (although I’m not convinced about the statistics), and you should ensure you focus on this as one part of you job search strategy (hence this post).

• Unlocking the Hidden Job Market - This article, posted on Yahoo’s Hot Jobs, not only covers the “80%” type quotes, but actually gives some pointers on how to tap into the hidden job market. The article talks about leads and contacts as well as some passive methods of tapping the hidden market.

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Applying for any job takes a great deal of work and dedication and one of the most important things you will need to do is to find the ways in which you can stand out above all of the other applicants and land the job for yourself. Not only will you need to polish your personal appearance and make yourself look professional and reliable but you will also need to work on making yourself look great before you ever meet your potential employers. This will come through the resume that you give to them. Your resume is going to serve as a representation of who you are as an employee and as an individual, so you will want to do your best with making sure that you make yourself look good.

Your Prior Job Experience is Vital

Employers are going to be looking for new people, who have the best possible skills to fit into their organization. While the skills that you have gained through education will be important, these employers also need to know that you can fit into their structure without problems. This will come through the amount of prior work experience that you have. You will be able to indicate all of the jobs in which you have performed in the past and show that you can be a part of a functional team without problems.

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That headline, by the way, was a sign on Ronald Reagan’s desk when he was president.

And it’s our theme for the day.

Two weeks ago, I was speaking with a sergeant in the U.S. Army.  One thing led to another, and the subject of leadership came up.  My fave.

He told me a fascinating story of unselfish servant leadership that has to be shared.  We can all learn from it.

At the time of our talk, he was a few weeks into a 3-month long training course, and the first round of tests had already occurred.  One element was a physical training (PT) test.  To pass, every soldier must meet or beat pre-determined scores in several different events (max push-ups in 2 minutes, max sit-ups in 2 minutes, a max 2-mile run time, and many more).

Should any soldier fail the cumulative PT test, he or she has one chance at a make-up test a week later.  If they fail again, the consequences are severe.  They get no third chance.  And they can never be promoted to the next rank or pay grade.

Yikes.  A lot riding on this.

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Do you wake up in the morning eager to get on with your job? Or do you drag through your workday just dreaming of getting home and relaxing? If you chose the second variant it’s time to take control and change the situation. We’ll tell you how to find work that is a perfect match with your talents, personality, passion and dreams and how to organize your career change process.

Six Steps to Career Change

#1 Rediscover Yourself Before jumping to a new career it is very important to journey inward and explore your strengths, values, interests and skills. The better you understand yourself the better chance you have to find the career of you dream. Think of what you like doing in your leisure time and what achievements you had at school. You should also identify the reason why you want to leave so you don’t jump out of the frying pan into the fire: is it the content of your work that you hate or is it your boss, salary, colleagues, the working environment? If you like what you do but you’re dissatisfied with the terms and conditions you’d better negotiate them with your boss or find another job in the same field.

#2 Research your new career

Read as much as you can about the field you want to enter to have a clear picture of how it works. Try to reach out to personal contacts in that industry by attending conferences, networking events. Conduct informational interviews, talk to your friends and colleagues – they can help you with job leads, advice, and information about a particular company or industry. It would be a great opportunity for you to shadow professional and observe work first hand. Follow the latest developments in the industry you’re heading towards.

#3 Volunteer activities

The best way to get an inside look at the career field and to gain necessary experience is a part-time or volunteer job. This way you’d be able to understand if it is really what you’ve dreamt about and make a change in a less drastic way.

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Gone forever are the days in which an employee (literally) stayed on one job for life. What human resources departments have to content with today is a highly transient workforce. People in perpetual motion for numerous and diverse reasons; not the least includes economic reasons, health reasons, and even reasons relating to criminal activities. This makes conducting backgrounds check an absolute must in order to protect all employees. Failure to perform a “due diligence” search of those people you bring onboard the premises could cost your company millions.

Check Everyone

The courts have ruled- the moment a person sets foot on your premises, they become the company’s responsibility. Even what may be considered as a simple fight, can turn into a litigation nightmare, lasting for many years and costing the company millions in legal fees. One case I’m privy to involved three individuals caught up in a sexual tryst at work. The female employee was dating one person, then switched and starting dating another. The two individuals got into a fight over the female (at work). One employee breaks the other’s jaw. This may be very bad news for the employer. There are two distinct documents (savvy) attorneys will want to subpoena immediately. (1) Your policy on violence and violent acts at work, and (2) the background check you conducted on the employee. Well, in this case, the company failed to conduct any background checks.

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Your cover letters are an introductory sales pitch with the purpose of persuading employers that reviewing your resume is a good use of their time.  The last thing you want to do is give them a reason to eliminate you from the candidate pool.  The following topics should not be mentioned in your cover letter:   

-Salary Requirements – Your cover letter is not the place to discuss your salary requirements.  Even if the employer asked for your salary requirements, I would suggest that you don’t provide this information.  Salary requirements are a way for employers to eliminate people who want too much money or to limit your salary if you receive a job offer.  You don’t want to compete for a job based on how little money you’re willing to take. 

-Why you’re Currently Looking – Although you may be tempted to share the reason why you’re currently unemployed or looking for a better opportunity, don’t.  In this economy where mass layoff announcements occur weekly, it’s not necessary to explain why you’re currently looking for a job.  If you are truly compelled to provide this information, wait until the job interview where you can fully explain why you’re looking for a job.  Your cover letter is not the place for this information.

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If you’re like me, scarcely a week goes by without receiving an email or phone call from a job-seeker saying something along the lines of, “I’ve been looking for a job for months, and I keep getting interviews but I don’t get the job.  I have no idea why - the recruiters and hiring managers never give me any feedback.”

Whether a recruiter/hiring manager should provide detailed feedback, and whether that feedback would ever actually change a candidate’s behavior is something we’ve talked about before.  

Some recruiters/hiring managers think that they have a responsibility to provide feedback; others not so much.

So I asked one of the best recruiters I know, Maureen Carroll, for her expert opinion.

“Of course recruiters should provide feedback to candidates who have gone through a first interview and haven’t been selected,” she says.  “It’s just part of delivering a good candidate experience.”

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In these tough economic times, many people are being laid off, losing their jobs, and finding themselves relying on unemployment for a few weeks, or even months. However, there are also cases where either voluntarily or otherwise, people resign from their jobs.

The question is, if you do resign, are you still eligible for benefits? Here are the facts:

• If you resign, whether voluntarily or under duress, you will not be eligible for unemployment benefits.
• In some cases, the unemployment office will begin to pay out benefits, before this is confirmed. In that case, when they do confirm with your employer that you did, in fact, resign, you will be liable to repay those benefits.
• Not only can you not claim unemployment benefits if you resign, but you will also probably jeopardize any claim you may have had for unfair dismissal, in the case of a forced resignation.
• Since resignation is seen as an elective, it is understandable that the unemployment office does not deem it fair, or necessary, to pay benefits to people who have voluntarily become unemployed.

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Your resume must capture the reader’s attention within the first 15 seconds or risk being lost in the reject pile.  One key success factor for your resume is its readability, that is, how easily and quickly the reader can absorb your information without loosing interest. To help you gain maximum attention, here are ten tips to keep eyes focused on your resume.

1. Avoid small font. Nothing in your resume should be smaller than 11 point. If your reader has to squint, he’ll end up skimming over the important parts of your resume.

2. Keep your font simple. They may not be the snazziest, but the two easiest-to-read fonts are Arial and Times New Roman. Anything in your resume that causes eye strain de-motivates the reader to keep reading.

3. Don’t write large blocks of text. A resume reader’s attention span just isn’t up to more than three consecutive lines of text. Beyond four lines and your block of text gets ignored completely.

4. Use white space to separate bullet points. The purpose of bullet points is to visually separate text so that your information stands out in easy-to-digest bits. Without white space your list of bullet points takes on the look of an extended block of text.

5. Don’t try to squeeze too much onto the page. A densely packed resume carries a 0% motivating factor— nobody wants to read it! Never sacrifice readability in order to keep your resume to a certain page length.

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Companies now have to put on their “selling shoes” to the candidates.  They need to articulate the positive points of the company, culture and the position; create some excitement with the candidate.   Companies are so busy “screening out” that they forget to “screen in” candidates.   We no longer can assume that we have the only position open in a poor economy and candidates should be grateful for this position.

Within the last two to three months candidates are interviewing for one or more positions at the same time.  We no longer have the luxury of “taking our time” to find the right candidate.  The “right candidate” is now coming to the interview while engaged in two to three other opportunities.

In the last six weeks, we had a candidate accept an offer, and in three weeks another company came in and offered the candidate a position that was financially more rewarding with a nice career path.  The candidate took the position.  I had another candidate who had a new opportunity presented to him on January 18th and he had an offer in hand ten days later.  I had to pull him from an opportunity that we presented a month before.  They also did a great job of creating a vision for this candidate.  They truly “recruited him.”

Here are some tips to prevent hearing “The Candidate is no longer available”:

·    Agree on the requirements for the position, and set the interview process up in advance
·    Move quickly (no more then 3-4 weeks) from resume received to offer
·    Make sure to sell the company, opportunity and future
·    Prevent a prolonged or delayed start date

Hope your 2010 is off to a great start!

About the Author:

Brett Stevens is founder and President of The SearchLogix Group.  Brett has enjoyed remarkable success in the executive search business in the fields of Software Sales, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Distribution, Warehousing,  and Transportation. He has achieved the industry’s highest level of professional certification: Certified Senior Account Manager (CSAM). He has received numerous regional, national, and international awards through meeting the needs of his clients. He continues to achieve record breaking performance and has been nationally recognized for those results with The SearchLogix Group.  Brett is a member of The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals  (CSCMP), formerly The Council of Logistics Management (CLM);  The Association for Operations Management (APICS);  The Warehousing Education and Research Council (WERC), and The IIE (Institute of Industrial Engineers). He has been recognized in many trade and online magazines and is a notable guest speaker and most recently, Brett was recognized internationally by both the American Stroke Association (ASA) and the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) for his fundraising efforts.  You can email Brett at brett.stevenspr@searchlogixgroup.com or telephone him at 770-517-2660 x20.