| Home | Resumes | Recruiters | Interviewing | Direct Mail | Networking | Career Planning | Ads & The Internet |
February 24, 2010: How to Use the Phone to Make You Look Like a Fool I received a message on my voicemail from a person whom I didn’t know this morning: “Hi, Mr. Magician, my name
is Arlo Wingnut. I was just calling to see if you were still
in business, and wanted to see my resume. I live in
Worcester, Massachusetts, wanted to find out what searches you’re
working on, and to find out if you wanted to see my resume. If you’re
still in business, please give me a call. My number is …”
 Now this is a
long ways from the best way to introduce yourself. The first
thing I heard was a series of crunches and crackles. Arlo was
calling from a cell phone, and the connection was terrible.Broken rule number one: Use your cell phone only if necessary on a job hunt, and never to make cold calls. All the person has on the other end is the sound of your voice, and cell phones almost never sound as good as a landline. Arlo's connection was abnormally bad, but I’ve received worse – messages where parts of the message were unintelligible, including the phone numbers, making it impossible for me to call back. Broken rule number two: Asking twice if I was still in business was really strange … and insulting. Yes, a number of search firms have closed their doors of late, but a quick Google search would have found my web site, and considering that he had reached my voicemail on my business line, he should assume that I am still in business. Even if I had gone out of business and was still using the same phone line to sell aluminum siding or vacuum cleaners now, he would have risked nothing by leaving a sensible, interesting message in my voicemailbox. I can’t imagine why he thought he would be more likely to get a new job by leaving a message that started off by asking if my firm had folded, and getting a new job was certainly the object of his call. Broken rule number three: Thinking that recruiters – or anyone – will take the time to return calls from unknown people so they can get the privilege of receiving a resume. Retained search firms are getting 100, 300, or more unsolicited resumes a day in this economy. There’s no need to make phone calls to the numerous messages left by unknown candidates to collect resumes for the files, unless the caller gives you a compelling reason to do so (like mentioning a background that would be appropriate for a current search assignment).
I normally would delete a message like this, but I decided to be nice and call Arlo back to let him know that his cell phone connection was not strong. (I gently told him that he should use a landline on his job search.) Turned out he had a sales and marketing background with a reputable electronics firm. I was kind of surprised that someone with a sales background would have left such a poor message. Hopefully, he doesn't cold call prospective customers from his cell phone and first ask them if they are still in business. And no, I wasn't enthused about receiving his resume - had I perchance been working on an appropriate assignment, any enthusiasm I would have had about him would certainly have been dimmed by his clumsy approach. What should he have done? He should have said, “Hi, this is Arlo
Wingnut, and I have a background in senior sales management for
Gargantuan Photovoltaic Systems, where I led the team that introduced
our line of chocolate-frosted photovoltaic panels that you’ve probably heard
of. I’m considering changing positions now, and wanted to speak to you
for a few minutes about my background. My number is 508-...”
Will most retained search consultants call him back if he leaves a message like that? If they don’t know who he is, probably not, unless they’re currently working on an assignment that matches his background. Some might call because he mentioned that he’s with Gargantuan, which has a reputation for employing superior people, or because they have heard of the smashing success of their chocolate-frosted photovoltaic panels. But his batting average from leaving a message like I’ve just described will be much higher than what he'll get from his original one, which will get instantly deleted by almost everyone. 
If you do make cold calls to
retained search firms (which I don’t think is a very productive use of
your job hunting time) or directly to the hiring manager at a
prospective employer for that matter (which, although difficult, will
give you better results than you'll get by calling recruiters
at random), make
sure that you say something that will immediately catch the interest of
your target – research indicates that you have five to ten seconds in a
cold call to make someone interested. February 8, 2010 Networking: Be Careful How You Use Names I received a resume and cover letter from a job hunter last week that started off with, “Marc Finster enthusiastically recommended that I contact you about my job search.” The problem was that I had no idea who Marc Finster was. I checked my database, discovered that he is the CEO of a large company, and that I had sent him a brochure about my firm several years ago. He and I have never spoken. Obviously, Finster didn’t recommend me enthusiastically. Another time, my phone rang, and a job hunter told me that, “George Basner told me many nice things about your agency, and suggested that I contact you about my job search. I just got laid off from …” Once again, I had no idea who Frank Basner was. While I was on the phone, I checked my records, found out that he was the VP/Human Resources for a large retail chain that I had once mailed a brochure to, and again was a person with whom I had never been able to speak. (A side note: using the word
agency
when you’re speaking with a retained search firm makes you sound like a
fool. I don’t think the caller knew the difference between a retained
search firm and an employment agency – it’s important that you do
enough pre-call research to sound like you know who you are calling,
and what they do).
 The
main point here is that if you’re going to name drop to better get
someone’s attention, you need to really find out how well your friend
knows the person they are connecting you with. In both cases mentioned
above, the job hunters’ referral sources had obviously just reached
into some folder stuffed with introduction letters from recruiters with
whom they had never had any contact, and passed along my name along
with the names of countless others. The job hunters then created a
story about how strongly I was recommended, and thought they were using
a name that would instantly perk up my ears.
Instead, they hurt themselves. I can quickly tell that the false flattery was fabricated – I hear garbage like that a lot, as does any recruiter or executive who is the target of job hunters. Starting a conversation with fictional puffery, quoting an unknown person, is worse than starting off by making a cold introduction about yourself. Networking to someone else’s connections is only valuable if your referral source is referring you to someone he or she knows well. Rather than try to leave a networking meeting with 30 names of people a networking contact has had little or no contact with, try to aim for no more than one to three real contacts, and then dig hard to find out how strong the connection is. January 13, 2010: LinkedIn Invitations - Make Them Personal A high portion of the LinkedIn invitations I get read like this: Elbert Glomp has
indicated you are a Friend:
I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn. - Elbert Glomp This is LinkedIn's default verbiage for an invitation. It's not terribly enticing. I know that when I get one of these from someone, they are sending invitations to everyone under the sun, and don't really care if I'm linked to them. So why should I bother to say yes to their request? Instead, make it personal. It won't add too much time, and you shouldn't be sending out so many invitations that you can't personalize them, anyway. This would be much more appealing: Dear Job Magician:
It's been a long time since we were throwing kegs out the window at the frat house (that was back when footballs were made out of stone and our shoulder pads were made out of wood - remember?). I found you on Linked In, and would like to add you to my network. Would you like to connect? Elbert It really helps to mention how you knew each other if you're not regularly in touch with the person (he or she may have to be reminded if it's been a while). A longer email, telling what you're up to, can be a great way to re-establish an old relationship. Many people get invitations from people they barely know or don't know on a regular basis (I seem to get those all the time, so I assume that others get them regularly as well). Skip the LinkedIn default invitation. Differentiate yourself. December 12, 2009: Don't Apply for a Job - Make a Job
Job hunters keep telling me they applied for a job. They found out about it on a job board, a company web site, or they found out that the company was looking from someone on LinkedIn. Then they applied for it. And heard nothing.  Job
board ads are generating 1000 applicants in a day or two in this
economy. Unless you are an absolutely perfect fit for the job, and
lucky enough to make it through the gears of the screening mechanism,
your chances of landing the job are less than one in a thousand, once
the job is advertised.(Bear in
mind – 1:
Most job hunters think they are a perfect fit for the job. In the minds
of an employer, however, a perfect fit is someone already doing exactly
the same job with exactly the same level of seniority for an identical
company – a competitor.)
(Bear in mind – 2: If you apply for a job through a job board or through a company web site, your resume goes into an enormous slush pile that is read by a screener – a low level human resources person or recruiter who will in turn pass on a handful – perhaps 25 – to a higher-level human resources person who will screen them further before discussing them with the hiring manager.) You can better your odds a little bit by determining who the hiring manager is and sending your resume directly to him or her. But this still puts you in competition with countless others, some of whom are more likely to be closer fits than you are to what the employer is seeking. If you’re going to spend your job hunting hours and days looking for jobs that companies have announced and then applying for them, you will likely have a long job search. Those who are most successful make a job for themselves. By that, I don’t mean that they start their own business. They get to the employer before the organization has formerly announced its search for Director of Planned Giving. That means you can’t take the easy way. Limit yourself to 10% of your time looking at ads and poring over company websites, looking for announced jobs. Limit yourself to 10% of your time chasing recruiters. Spend no more than 10% to 20% of your time applying for jobs.  Spend
the remaining 80% to 90% of your time getting to companies before
they’ve formally decided to fill a position. That means you need to do
the following:
And all of this means that you’re going to have to become a good salesperson. One fantastically successful sales rep who I kind of managed (he represented 20 companies, so I can’t say I really was his boss) told me that most people can become known. He found ways to get in front of seemingly anyone he needed to get in front of, using connections if he had them, and front doors and back doors if he didn’t. With networking, you’ll talk to people you know, and find ways to get introduced to people you don’t know. With direct mail, you’ll reach out to people you don’t know. With a vengeance. That means big numbers – 1000 letters or more. By following up by phone (most people don’t do this, especially if no position is advertised), you’ll increase your batting average on direct mail significantly. You need to do this sensibly. Don’t go to the CEO, unless the company is small, or you’re big enough to work for the CEO. Do your best to avoid your target’s secretary. He or she is there to limit access to the Beeg Boy. Place your calls when the secretary is not likely to be there – before 8AM or 9AM, or after 5PM. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve called someone just after 5PM, and gotten through to the person who I could never reach during the day. In particular, I remember making a cold call at 5:05PM, and the hiring manager picked up. I told him I was going to be in his town the next day (which happened to be true), and asked if I could come in for a meeting. I introduced myself the next day. A month later, he introduced me to his CEO, and they gave me four search assignments. Did I get a job? Essentially, yes. I had a contract for about eight month’s work. And it wouldn’t have happened if I had waited for him to respond to the letter I had mailed him a month before that. In the days before I had my own business, I used the same technique to get myself full-time jobs. Stop applying for jobs. Instead, start contacting employers before they know they have a desperate need for you. November 10, 2009: Unemployed? When to Frimp, When Not
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article about unemployed people living off of severance packages and continuing to live the same lifestyle as before (click here for the story). One couple, both of whom were unemployed, were spending $250/month on a cleaning woman, $50/week on flowers, and vacationed in Virginia Beach. Another woman did daily Starbucks runs, continued to dine out regularly, spent $150/month on her hair and $30/month on pedicures. I may be telling you the obvious, but if you’re unemployed, you can find ways to cut back, especially since you now have more time on your hands. And all of this can be done without you becoming a hermit and going insane. Restaurants go away, except for, perhaps, a rare $20 Pizza Hut family meal special. Replace them with potluck dinners at friends’ houses. Keep exercising (this is crucial to your physical and mental health), but cut it down from the country club to the YMCA or find a way to do things for free (I play basketball at various elementary school gyms a few nights a week for free, and most areas have a variety of athletic activities available either for free or for a token cost). Replace downhill skiing with cross country skiing, and save $70 a day per person. Cancel expensive vacations if you can. I know someone last summer who replaced a family trip to Yellowstone with a camping trip five hours from home. No matter where you live in this country, I guarantee you that there is a fantastic place for you to explore and relax within a day’s drive of your home. You know the rest of this. Cut back on the luxuries, and replace them with activities that are free and still fun. Get back in touch with friends and family, and you may have even more fun than you had on those candlelit dinners and distant vacations.  At the same time, there is one
area where you cannot frimp, and that is on your job search.
If there is any place to make an investment, it is on an area where you
are likely to get a five hundred-to-one return (try getting that in the
stock market, or by going to Starbucks). Reaching out to employers
costs money in some ways, and your appearance when you meet with
employers, recruiters and networking contacts needs to make it look
like you’re holding up fine, even if you’re unemployed. That means: Wardrobe:
Step it up to make yourself look like a successful executive if your
wardrobe is stale. Many people’s closets grew thin or became
out of
style as business casual began to dominate workplaces. You can’t dress
business casual, or in dated styles, for an interview.
Phone: You need a dedicated job hunting phone line. Don’t try to get by with the family phone line and hope your six-year-old or teen-age daughter will take messages for you accurately. Sensible employers and recruiters don’t leave messages with kids, but may never call you back if they have a pile of prospects to call after you. Use a landline – I’ve called way too many people on cell phones and internet phones with disappearing or unstable connections. You need to sound as professional as you would in any office. Letterhead: Printed letterhead adds a nice touch, and doesn’t really cost that much. Formal thank you cards won’t set you back that much, and make a great impression. Briefcase/Portfolio: If you don’t have something like this in leather, buy one. Car: You probably aren't about to go buy a beautiful new one just to look good, but make sure the one you're driving looks decent. Keep it clean, both inside and out. Get the paint touched up outside if need be. If you have a really worn out car and have a big interview, consider renting a car for the day. They come with unlimited mileage in most cases, so you can do a 600-mile round trip for the cost of the gas and car rental. Databases/Direct Mail/Job Hunting Tools: You can’t afford to depend on networking and Monster to get your next job. Direct mail can be expensive, but it is still successful for a lot of people (See Direct Mail Success Stories – In the Dour Early Months of 2009 for a couple of real life examples). Sites like RiteSite and ExecuNet are not that expensive, and will enable you to contact retained search firms, find 6-figure-plus jobs posted nowhere else, and extend your networking. *
And what about the Country Club? Can’t give you the answer on this one. You can golf at a community golf course for a lot less. However, it is possible that you may meet your next boss on the course at the fancy club. Take a look at your dues, think about the people you’ve met there in the past and decide whether you’re likely to bump into the right person there. I’m skeptical about this, personally, but I know that there is enormous variance club-to-club, depending on the community in which you live and which club you belong to. November 6, 2009: A silver lining. Unemployment among managers drops! Some of you may have been dismayed by today’s unemployment figures, which showed an increase from 9.8% to 10.2%. Unemployment was projected to rise to only 9.9%. Much of the increase is due to the way the government gathers these figures. The rate of teen unemployment and unemployment for the self-employed, which the government has a tough time calculating, bumped up the numbers. So the change was not as radical as it appeared. The good news for the executives out there is that the unemployment rate for those with college degrees dropped from 4.9% to 4.7%. The unemployment rate for those in professional and managerial jobs dropped significantly from 5.2% to 4.7%. Significant signs of light at the end of the tunnel for the 6-figure job seeker. November 2, 2009: Check Out Your New Company Carefully
Here’s my friend’s disturbing story: My friend, a highly skilled executive, renowned as a leader and motivator of all, was text messaging while walking down the street. He fell through an open manhole and died. His soul arrived up in Heaven, where he was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter himself. "Welcome to Heaven," said St. Peter. "Before you get settled in though, we have a new rule here that came down from way up high …” "Um, what is it?” asked the bewildered executive. "What we do now is let you have a day in Hell and a day in Heaven, and then you can choose whichever one you want to spend an eternity in." "Actually, I think I've made up my mind. I prefer to stay in Heaven,” said the executive. "Sorry, the boss gave us these rules ..." And with that St. Peter put my friend in an elevator and it went down-down-down to Hell. The doors opened and he found himself stepping out onto the putting green of a beautiful golf course. He was shocked to see many of his friends there – some in golf shorts and others in bathing suits, lounging around the pool. They greeted him warmly. Two beautiful, scantily-dressed women from his past sneaked up on him and kissed him. “Orval, we’ve been waiting so long for you.” He played a fantastic round of golf with his old friends, even making a hole-in-one. That night he went to the country club, where he enjoyed a dinner of steak and lobster tails. Later on, he met the Devil, who actually was a really nice guy – turned out the Devil had grown up in Saskatchewan, just as my friend had. They drank fine wines (aged since the Crusades) and told jokes until the wee hours of the morning, when it was time to leave. Everybody shook his hand and waved goodbye as he got on the elevator. The elevator went up-up-up and opened back up at the Pearly Gates, where St. Peter was waiting for him … "Now it's time to spend a day in Heaven," he said. So Orval spent the next 24 hours lounging around on clouds and playing the harp and singing. He had a great time and before he knew it his 24 hours were up and St. Peter came and got him. "So, you've spent a day in Hell and you've spent a day in Heaven. Now you must choose for eternity.” Orval paused for a second and then replied, "Well, I never thought I'd say this, I mean, Heaven has been really great and all, but I think I had a better time in Hell." So St. Peter escorted him to the elevator and again he went down-down-down back to Hell. When the doors of the elevator opened he found himself standing in a desolate wasteland covered in garbage and filth. His friends were dressed in rags, dragging boulders across the dull landscape, occasionally being flogged. It was hot as, well, Hell.  The
Devil wandered over and put his arm around him. "I don't understand," stammered Orval. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and a country club and a swimming pool and we ate lobster, drank wine and had a great time. Now all there is here is a giant garbage pit and all my friends look miserable." The Devil looked at him diabolically and said ... "Yesterday we were recruiting you. Today you're an Employee."
September 23, 2009: Treat Recruiters Like Employers
Someone asked me what the most common mistake that job hunters make when dealing with me, an executive recruiter. The answer is not difficult – job hunters frequently treat me differently than they would treat an employer. Whether retained (I am retained, and most Job Magician advice on recruiters pertains to dealing with retained firms) or contingent, an executive search firm is always paid by the employer. Their job is to please the organization that is paying them, not you. That means that the good ones are going to do their best to present candidates to their clients who will be outstanding, or at the very least, be productive employees, well-regarded by their new companies. That’s where repeat business comes from. When speaking to a candidate that I have decided not to present for a position, in some cases, I’ve gently told the person that he or she shouldn’t have dressed casually for the interview, or have come late. I’ve had more than a few job hunters respond to this by saying, to my surprise, “You’re only a recruiter – I always wear a suit when I meet with an employer, and make sure I arrive an hour early for an interview with one.” A pretty insulting comment; is this one of those people who sucks up to the president, yet treats the receptionist poorly, and who tells the guy on the lift that he’s “just a forklift driver,” and treats him like his opinion is unimportant? There’s a disconnect here. The recruiter decides who will be presented to the client. Fail to impress her, and she’ll be calling you in two weeks to tell you that she’s presenting five candidates to the client who were closer fits to her clients’ specifications. The good recruiter comes across like she’s your best friend. From the moment she first talks with you on the phone, she makes you feel so comfortable that you figure you can relax, take it easy, and treat the interview like a coffee break. You’re smarter than the average job hunter (and fully a third of the people I interview for 6-figure-plus jobs make one of these blunders). You won’t fall into this trap. You know that you have to treat a recruiter with the same respect and caution that you would use if you met with an employer. That means:
September 16, 2009: Turn Off Your Computer During Phone Screens Computers are great for grabbing you – a galaxy of information is constantly being blasted at you from them, with ever more attention-grabbing graphics.
On my end of the phone, I frequently hear inexplicable, long pauses when I stop talking. I used to think that this meant that the candidate was deep in thought, and trying to come up with what to say next. I’ve finally learned that this usually means that the person is simultaneously reading an email that has just arrived or peeking at the internet while he’s talking to me. It’s a habit we’ve all gotten into in corporate life. It may be commonplace in corporate life, but during a phone interview or any job hunting contact by telephone, make sure your computer is asleep. You need to place your undivided attention on making a good impression on the person on the other end of the phone. She can see what you’re doing by listening to you. September 4, 2009: Get a Free Fax Line for Your Job Hunting (Home) Office
If you’re on a serious job hunt, you have gotten a dedicated phone line installed in your home (besides your cell phone – making job-hunting calls from the quality of connections you get with a cell phone make you sound awful), even if you’re employed. It has voice mail set up on it, in case you get a call while you’re on the phone. If you haven’t, do so. Don’t use your home phone, and have your six-year-old or your spouse pick up – you want to be there, or let your voice mail pick up your messages. In addition, you may want to receive faxes now and then, even in this world dominated by email. But you don’t want to, and really don’t need to, put in a dedicated line just to receive faxes.
EFAX will give you a free, unique, dedicated phone number that will transmit faxes you receive directly into your email box. They don’t even ask for a credit card number – this is totally free. The senders dial the number and send a fax, just like they normally would if they were sending a fax to any other fax number. Moments later, you receive an email with the fax attached, click on the attachment, and print out the fax on your printer. It will look just like a fax received on a fax machine does.  The phone number
they give you will not be local. If you live in Illinois, the
number they give you may be in Colorado or North Carolina.
But it’s free, and unless your sender is local, it costs him no more to
send a fax 1000 miles than it does 100 miles with today’s
5-cent-a-minute phone services.Officially, EFAX limits you to receiving 20 pages per month, but they are fairly light on enforcing this. If you exceed this significantly for a number of months, they may send you a warning email, and eventually cut you off. But most of you will rarely receive 20 pages a month. You’ll just get a few faxes now and then. Why does EFAX do this? They want to sell you a more elaborate service, which costs $16.95 per month. That will give you a local fax line, rather than an out-of-state number, and no limit on the number of faxes you receive. That’s an unnecessary expense for you. They’ll send you an email once a week, trying to get you to upgrade to the paid service. That is the only thing you’ll have to endure if you sign up for this. I use a free EFAX number when I’m traveling. In that way, faxes can be forwarded from my office fax machine to my EFAX number, and I can receive and view them on my laptop. Click here to go to sign up for a free EFAX line: www.efax.com/efax-free You may have a basic fax machine from Wal-Mart or Staples for your home office. Those are handy for sending faxes out. However, if you have only one phone line, it is a real pain to receive faxes on your in-home fax machine. To do so, you have to leave your phone line open and wait for someone to send a fax (and they may take hours before they get around to doing that). Or your prospective employers may repeatedly get your voice mail if they try to fax you while you’re on the phone. Give them your EFAX line, and an employer will be able to send you a fax at any time, with no pain on their end or on yours. August 11, 2009: August Doldrums – Nobody’s Home – How Do You Job Hunt?
Although you may feel that those that hire are a sadist bunch who enjoy working over job hunters, no one on the hiring side enjoys telling someone that they didn’t get the job. They also don’t want to leave you feeling any more broken up than they have to, so they’re not likely to give you the full reason that you didn’t get it. They’re not likely to say you came across as too mousy for a sales management position, couldn’t demonstrate your achievements, or that the COO thought you were tyrannical. Some candidates want feedback when they’re told no. You're better off swallowing hard, saying thank you for giving you the chance to meet with them, and then asking if they know of anyone else who could be a job resource for you. I find that serious feedback or any attempt at coaching is rarely accepted at such an emotionally-charged time. Some job hunters argue if I give them a reason why they didn’t get the job. Occasionally, they explode. No one wants to get into an argument or get yelled at by someone they’re telling they don’t want to hire. Employers are also fearful of lawsuits, and don’t want to say anything that may trigger one. I try to give gentle letdowns to candidates, without a lot of detail. I’m not going to tell a candidate that it was inexcusable to show up 30 minutes late, take calls on a cell during the interview, or to dress in jeans. He should know better. Besides, it’s rare that something this blatant is the case. The real reason is usually that another candidate was a closer fit. Every job hunter thinks they’re perfectly qualified for the position for which they’ve interviewed. If they saw their competition, they might not feel that way. Interviewing isn’t transparent, like a football game, where you look at the other team and see that their defensive line averages 6’8” and 335 pounds. You’re 6’3” and 267, a giant in most worlds, but on a football field know that in most cases you won’t be able to push that other team’s titans around the field.  You may have
thought that your 267 pounds were enough to qualify you for
the position, but couldn’t see that the competition was quicker and
weighed 335. You interviewed for the VP/Sales position at a giftwrap
manufacturer selling to mass merchants like Wal-Mart and Walgreens. You
have experience selling decorative products to independent gift shops
and gift chains – seems to you like your experience is pretty close,
and you could easily learn whatever it is that you don’t know. However,
the other three candidates all have experience selling giftwrap to mass
marketeers, and manage bigger sales forces than you have. But that’s
something that you can’t see, and it’s not the responsibility of your
interviewer to go through their backgrounds in detail with you (and for
confidentiality reasons, they’re generally not permitted to).Don’t expect feedback, and don’t try to argue with them in your head afterwards about why the reason they gave you was incorrect. Reasons given to job hunters, like all reasons, are made up, and you heard only a sanitized version of what they believe, anyway. The only thing you’ve learned is that you didn’t get this particular job. It’s time to move on. June 30, 2009: Put Your Contact Info on your Linked In Listing Linked In can be a great job hunting tool. Not only can you use it to gain information and make contacts, but people who you don’t know can contact you. Recruiters use it, as do employers, to identify prospective candidates. However, you can’t be contacted very easily if you don’t put your contact information on your profile. To make sure someone can find you, at the end of your bio or pseudo-resume, you should enter your phone number and an email address (probably a throwaway email address, to keep your main email off the spam target lists). Only the people in your first level of connections – the 36 or 137 of the two million people in your total Linked In network – can send you an email directly through Linked In, and none can call you if they don't already have your phone number. If your contact info is not listed, the only way a potential employer can contact you is if they can somehow find your home or office phone number and call you (and why make them dig that hard? – they may go on to their next victim first), get an electronic introduction from one of their connections, which is a pain, or send you an Inmail (and Inmails have to be purchased – some companies have plenty of them, but many don’t). In addition, Inmails aren't forwarded to you unless you have your options set up to have them forwarded to an outside email address. I've had people respond to Inmails six weeks after I've sent them, discovering them only when they look at their Linked In page for the first time in weeks. I can't tell you the number of times I've tried to call an attractive-looking candidate I've found on Linked In, and called the company where they are listed as working, only to be told that they no longer work there. Or if they work at a large company, I can't figure out which plant, branch, or office from which they work. You don't want to miss the call representing your dream job because they can't reach you. May
21, 2009 The Best Job Hunting Method for 2009? All
of Them!
That means use:
I
have always recommended
direct mail, combined with telephone
cold-canvassing techniques afterwards, as part of a job search; about
30%-40% of
those who work hard at this will find their next job through this
method. Sales people continue to
make cold calls, and get orders that way.
Job hunters should do the same, because job
hunting
is selling.
Research
indicates that you have five to 10 seconds to hook
the reader, so you need to hook them right away with something that
knock their
socks off on your resume, cover letter, and in any cold telephone call
presentation. How do you hook ‘em? Try something like this on
the phone, if
you’re contacting a piggery: “My
name is
Arnold Ziffel, and I have a background in senior marketing management
of pork
products sold to Kroger, Albertsons and other major
supermarkets. I
recently sent you my resume. I am going to be in May 9, 2009: Post Interview Follow Up: What Should I Do? When Should I call?
You've just had a (gasp) job interview. You get home, all out of breath. What do you do next?
You should follow up by phone after the interview, but don't call a day or two later - you'll seem like you're either desperate or a pest (and who wants to hire either one?) ... If they've told you that they are interviewing several more candidates, and won't be done until May 23, wait until May 26 to call back. If you have no information on when they are supposed to make their decision, call after 7 to 14 days. If you don't get through after a couple tries, leave a voice mail message (not with the secretary, who won't take down every word you say - call after hours if you must to get to the voicemail box). Remember, in these days of caller ID, not to call over and over again if you get voice mail - you'll look like you're crazy if your interviewer checks the caller ID and sees that you tried to reach her 12 times in an afternoon (unless you block your caller ID). Bear in mind that when you're out of work or job hunting, two weeks can seem like eons. In the world of work, two weeks fly by, and any executive is lucky if she gets to one or two of the must dos on her to do list. Your new job may be the most important thing in your life, but it isn't to your interviewer, whose day is filled with meetings and catastrophes and who hopes to somehow find the time to fill the position for which you've interviewed in between these. April 24, 2009: Linked In Updates - Keep Your Name in Front of Your Connections If you’re looking for a job, or even thinking about it, you should be on Linked In.  Among
many other things, LinkedIn
gives you the ability to regularly tell
everyone in your network what you’re working on. Those in
your network
get a weekly update on everything that everyone in their network
reports they are Working
On.
I was looking at one of the weekly updates I get, and read this: STATUS
Arne
Saknussem is
working on optimal tax jurisdictions for
insurance
businesses. Wow, I better find something more appealing for the next
update....
I couldn’t help but laugh when I read that one, and fired off Arne a quick email. He wasn’t aiming it at me, like some of those other email bombardments I get every day from people trying to keep their names in front of me. Yet, this one, buried in with all the other things that my Linked In friends were doing, caught my eye. So put something interesting in your Working On on LinkedIn every week. Some of your LinkedIn connections will notice.
April 3, 2009: The Worst Job Hunting Gaffe Perhaps
the oddest
job-hunting gaffe I’ve experienced was
from a guy who called up and started off with, “Mr. Job Magician, my
name is Ed
Simple. Did you get
my letter?” He told me he had sent me a questionnaire to fill out, which asked me to tell him more about my firm, to tell him what industries I worked in, what networks I was a part of, etc. His letter had said that after I filled out the questionnaire, if he thought I was appropriate to represent him, he would send me his resume. Rather
than tell him that
I was about to call the Guinness
Book of World Record to let them know that I had finally found the
world’s
dumbest job hunter, I talked to him for a little while, explained how
retained
search works, and asked him if anyone had returned the completed
questionnaire. He
was disappointed and
surprised that no one had. (And yes, this is story is absolutely true, but as I'm sure you figured out, I made up the name Ed Simple, not to protect the innocent, but because I long ago forgot his name). Although I can’t imagine that any of you would try something this bizarre, this approach illustrates a fundamental lack of understanding of retained search that is common. Retained search firms don’t represent candidates – we’re not interested in finding you a job. We are paid by our clients, not you, remember. When a very attractive candidate becomes available, I won’t immediately jump on the phone and call my best clients to see if I can find a home for her. I’m concentrating on the two or three projects I have in hand at that time, and have no interest in candidates who don’t fit those tightly developed specifications. A project I worked on recently required a PhD in biochemistry or genetics, deep experience and understanding of gene splicing, and the ability to manage 100 people involved in developing genetically-designed animals for pharmaceutical research. Most of my searches come with specifications that are that narrowly defined. I can almost never shoehorn an extremely well-qualified candidate with a background in tire manufacturing into a VP/Manufacturing slot for a company making industrial drives. My clients want me to find people with specific experience in their industry. March 30, 2009: We Can All Say We're Great - Don't Say It, Prove It on your Resume Recently, when talking with my sister Katarina, she used the word brilliant in a sentence. In all my arrogance, I responded, "Brilliant ... kind of makes you think about me, doesn't it?" Katarina responded brilliantly with, "It makes me think about you talking about you."  Unfortunately,
all but about 1% of resumes start out with you talking about
you.Here's today's sample resume starter: "Highly
intelligent, energetic, entrepreneurial and high-achieving executive
with 10 years of work experience and superb academic
credentials.
Deep network of corporate client, private equity and professional
services relationships developed over numerous years.
Outstanding
new business development skills and ability to understand explicit and
implicit client needs. Highly articulate and persuasive
communicator. Proven ability to raise capital.
Experience
recruiting, leading and motivating teams. Significant
corporate
finance transaction experience."
Arrgh! as Charlie Brown would say. Did that put you to sleep? This summary tells me he has 10 years of work experience, along with some private equity and capital raising experience. The rest of it is self-praise -- fluff. Everybody and his sister can claim (and they all do claim) to be highly intelligent, energetic, entrepreneurial, high-achieving, highly articulate and persuasive communicators. I'm not picking on this person - who actually has a pretty impressive background. It's so rare that I see a resume that doesn't start out with a boring thud like this one that I routinely skip the summaries - but the good resume writers out there will put something in the summary that will catch my eye.
Dropping all the self-praise - all the you-talking-about-you is the first step. Get rid of all self-describing adjectives, which no one believes, and which even you wouldn't believe if they were on the resume you were reading that belonged to someone you'd never met. Replace them with specifics. In this candidate's case, replace proven ability to raise capital with raised $1.65-billion in capital to fund 13 transactions in three-year period. Add specifics, and stop praising yourself. See our article, Writing a Powerful Resume Summary, for more information on this. The beginning of your resume needs to be eye-catching, rather than something that makes you indistinguishable from everybody else. |
                                      |
||||||||||||||
But you may
find that there is one avenue during the vacation season. The
hiring manager may actually answer her phone directly, which her
assistant would be doing if he wasn’t on vacation. Try making some cold
calls. Yes, you’ll find many won’t be there (don’t leave
messages – they’ll be quickly deleted on return from vacation), but
there is a minority who now are answering their own phone lines, and
you might be able to actually get to talk to Ms. Big now that she’s
picking up her own phone.
I didn’t recognize his name, and
told him that I didn’t
remember seeing his letter.Home | Resumes
| Recruiters | Interviewing
| Direct Mail | Networking
| Career Planning
| Ads & The Internet
About Job Magician | Advertise With Us
| Contact Us
©2008-2010 Terms of Use - Privacy Policy