The Investigative Recruiter

Funny, new website for your anecdotes: TJNTIY (they're just not that into you)

I recently posted a Q&A on LinkedIn asking "What have job candidates done or said that blew their chances of getting hired?" and received an astounding 40 answers. I could not believe the weird stuff that recruiters and hiring managers said that candidates had done during their interviews. It seemed to be something that recruiters and hiring managers wanted to talk about . . . A LOT. And so with that I've launched a new website called TJNTIY (they're just not that into you).

I figured a little levity could go a long way to get us through economic hard times we all face. In anecdote after anecdote, you get to hear how hiring managers assess and ultimately decide against a candidate who could have been you or me. That insight, I hope, will help candidates not make similar mistakes during their next job interviews. TIY postings, on the other hand, will provide real-world examples of things a candidate can say or do to get hired as in "they're . . . into you". And last . . .we also invite the anecdotes about the clues from a potential employer that, when decoded, suggest they're just not that into you.

So please come. Read. Laugh a little. And then share . . . (those who are not logged in can post anonymously to the site.)

See you online!

Recruiter, Clone Thyself: Do Twice as Much in Half the Time

Have you ever found yourself at the end of a day, week, or month and wonder where the time went? Seriously.  One moment you were at the beginning. The next moment . . .its as if Scottie beamed you up to CBD (close of business day). You review all that you did in the preceding hours and realize you could not have worked any harder. If you did, you would be dead. (Seriously. Your co-workers arriving the next morning at work would discover you sitting bolt upright in your chair, head tilted back, and mouth agape - as if  your last words were not words, alas, but a silent scream.)

I don't know about you, but I've got 371 emails in the inbox I'd cleaned out less than 24 hours ago.  It's like I've got randy rabbits in there making baby email bunnies. I've got 4 phones to my name, each one with voicemails demanding my attention. Throughout the day, luminaries and clients all want a piece of me. (The economy is actually working for us as employers seek better value in the search firms they retain.)  And then there's the social networking, the blogging, the speaking engagements, the video and photo shoots, not to mention the fact that I head my own firm as CEO with all the requisite fiscal and leadership responsibilities that come with it. 

So what's a recruiter to do? What's anyone in talent acquisition to do to meet the growing demands of our 24/7 world when you have so much you want to achieve and so little time in which to do it. I have two words for you.

Clone thyself.

Big, fat companies have been cloning themselves for years. They call it outsourcing.  If the outsourcing extends beyond the boundaries of these United States, it is called off-shoring. But for individuals, I am referring to a personal assistant, in this case a virtual one.  Celebrities have enjoyed the benefits of personal assistants for years. They can serve as your own personal concierge, taking care of whatever business needs tending to that can be delegated. It takes some planning and management, but as Edward Savio points out, the rewards can be enormous. It's a way to drive your performance to new heights by getting twice as much done as you did before. You get around to doing stuff you should have been doing that wasn't because you didn't have the time. You get time for work/life balance. And because you are making oh so much more money, you get to give back and pay it forward.

Of course, The Good Search is positioned to serve as a natural extension to internal search teams. In essence, we help recruiters clone themselves whenever their bandwidth is maxed out or whenever their time is better spent managing relationships with hiring managers and ushering top candidates through to offer.  Clients retain us for a single executive search engagement a month at a time or to deliver candidates across a range of openings. . .we keep it easy, flexible, and affordable. And that's the approach you want in your virtual assistant.

Typically, the corporate solution for an overworked executive is to provide an executive assistant.  But, honestly I believe virtual assistants offer greater flexibility. You can task them with personal as well as professional responsibilities. You can have them work overnight while you're asleep so that the task is complete by the start of your business day.  You can have them manage a team of helpers . . . The increases you see in your productivity and income should more than offset the cost.  In fact, I know some top executives who use a virtual assistant in addition to the executive assistant they have at work. Moreover, one keeps his personal assistant a secret -- better to keep 'em guessing on what his secret is to accomplishing so much more than everyone else. ("Does George ever sleep?")

So the next time your "To Do" list is longer at the end of your day than at the beginning, simply clone yourself. You and your newfound you will be glad you did.

Genius Video of Faux Job Inteview by a Smart Aleck Kid

Seriously. I want to hire this kid. And the agency that's driving the Born to Consult campaign for Deloitte. And Deloitte. The company is ranked No. 9 on Fortune's Most Desirable MBA Employers list. And upon viewing the video, it's easy to understand why. They get it. The advertising campaign is designed to capture the attention of the mid-20s MBAers who spend most of their waking hours online. (A tip of the hat to The Recruiting Animal whose tweets brought the video to my attention.)

 

Deloitte's Mini-Me seems an edgier, smart aleck version of the original Oscar Meyer kid. (According to one YouTube user, the "My bologna has a first name" boy is Andy Lambros, a Greek kid from Long Beach, CA -- though not so much a child anymore since the video dates back to 1973:

 

If you want more of the Deloitte kid, run through the Q&A at the Deloitte portal. It's so good, it kind of makes you wish you were an accountant . . .

Recruiter Moxie: What to Do if Your Hiring Manager is Making Your Search a Living Hell

Scenario: What to do if your hiring manager is making your search a living hell.

With few exceptions, a senior level executive (hiring manager) is not a recruiter by profession. As a result, he or she may be under the mistaken impression that ideal candidates can be found lined up at your front door step ­– especially in this economy – when, in fact, the opposite is more likely to be true.  The flood of applicants is actually making it even harder for many of our clients to find the right candidate.  But that doesn't seem to matter as you attempt to explain why you haven't materialized a candidate out of thin air.   You watch on as your senior executive's jaw muscle flexes and as his complexion turns a shade of crimson you've never before witnessed.  Your grip tightens around the arms of the office chair in which you sit as you begin the silent countdown . You are confident he's going to blow.  

• Do not take argumentative attacks personally.  Try to picture stepping aside as incoming volleys go past. Remain mindful.
• You don’t have a “problem”:  you have an “opportunity” to improve recruiting results.
• Realize the manager may be acting under duress as a result of pressures stemming from the economy and may lack the skill sets necessary to cope.
• To gain his trust, increase your transparency: detail every thing that has been done on his behalf. Analyze what has and has not worked.  Then make recommendations.  In doing so, think out of the box. Innovate.

To prevent problems in the first place, I recommend that you or your search firm build search bullet-proofing into your search process: 

• Test the requirements of the role.  “If I found a successful candidates with seven, not the required eight, years of experience, would you rather I not present them?”
• Test the competitiveness of the role. “Are you confident this opportunity is competitive when compared to similar opportunities elsewhere?”  If the hiring manager says he doesn’t know, then that’s an opening for a dialog.
•  Proactively scan for problems that may interfere with your search success and immediately document those disconnects in a report. Even if the hiring manager doesn’t take action, you now have proof you did your best to try to resolve the issue.
• Request immediate feedback on candidates and underscore how doing so will benefit the hiring manager.

As the economy worsens, those in talent acquisition may feel it safer to keep their heads down and not speak up to deal with a problem searches and irritable hiring managers.  However, by speaking up and by solving problems, you become more valuable to your organization.

Visit http://www.thegoodsearchllc.com for our whitepaper, articles, and to brainstorm with our team.

Suzy Welch's 10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea

Suzy Welch's new book, 10-10-10 A Life-Transforming Idea, is a study in decision-making, which is why executive search consultants should take notice as well as the C-level luminaries that we recruit. A candidate's career is not simply a collection of skills and acquired experiences, but rather serves as evidence of candidate's ability to decide his or her own fate. Great recruiters learn to look for a story arc in candidate's career.  Ideally, the career path should, on average, ascend ever upwards in as series of steps in which greater responsibilities are assumed and greater challenges are overcome. There should be valleys among the peaks (a complete absence of valleys suggests a cooking of the career books). Moreover, life's lessons and priorities, its plots and subplots, are important parts of the story as they speak to character and backbone. 

Suzy is the  former editor-in-chief of the Harvard Business Review and is a work-life columnist for O The Oprah Magazine. She is married to the former Chairman and CEO of General Electric Jack Welch with whom she co-authored the New York Times bestseller Winning and of The Welch Way.  Suzy teaches us that in our complicated multi-tasking world of conflicting priorities, too much information, and far too many options, decision-making is often crazy-making at times.  As a result, we put off deciding, which, as the standard default option, is most decidedly a decision with consequences.  That is how we end up in the uncomfortable places that we end up.  Frequently, it isn't by design. It is by avoiding difficult choices altogether, which is an illusion because they cannot be avoided.  There is a tremendous price to be paid: an opportunity cost.

Suzy proposes a simple rule of 10-10-10.  We must ask ourselves what are the consequences of our actions in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years.  She doesn't mean specifically down to the last minute, month, and year. It could be 8 minutes, 14 months, and 11 years.  Rather, we must consider the immediate, short term, and long term costs and benefits regarding what we are about to do. 

Suzy's rule, of course, can be harnessed to assess leader's decision-making abilities by examining the implications of his/her decisions over time.  A resume is a time line.  So too is a corporation's financial statements to the SEC.  Did she go for immediate gain and ignore long-term risks? Did he fail to see a threat that emerged a half year or year down the road?  Decision-making is an expression of an executive's murky or crystalline vision.  Suzy has given us new clarity as we contemplate the futures of our candidates and ourselves.

Dude, Where's My Job? Register for Teletopic for Executive Search Professionals on Downsizing

Most of us have friends and love ones who have been recently downsized -- corporate-speak for being handed a pink slip and shown the door.  Few are immune from this dispiriting trend from the senior-most executives to entry-level workers who were the last in, and, regrettably, always among the first to go.  For those who are laid off and for those left behind, the event is disorienting.  One day the job was here: the next was gone as if Ashton Kutcher woke up from a night of partying to exclaim, "Dude, where's my job?"  Next month, I'm serving as moderator of the International Association for Corporate & Professional Recruitment's live phone-in discussion panel entitled "The Challenges of Downsizing".  The teletopic will take place on June 10, 2009 from 11:30-12:30 Eastern and designed for professionals involved in talent acquisition and retained executive search.  (To register, visit www.iacpr.org.) 

Clearly, downsizing is hitting every corporation in every sector of the marketplace. The experience is traumatic for those making the decisions and delivering the news; those losing their positions; and the individuals left behind, taking up the slack and worried about the future.  The IACPR has put together an impressive panel of experts In an effort to answer questions on the myriad of challenges – and how to effectively support all those impacted.

Joining me will be Joyce Bradley, the SVP/General Manager of the Greater Philadelphia Area of the talent management solution firm Lee Hecht Harrison;  Allison Cheston, a Career Strategist with Allison Cheston & Associates; and Ann Scott ,an Executive Agent with Scott Executive Agent.  The presenters will examine on the many challenges of downsizing – before, during and after the event. In addition, they will provide helpful tips about what recruitment professionals can do to help ease the transition and prepare executives for a job hunt.

The issues to be explored include the following:

•    Business unit heads are often the ones responsible for delivering the bad news – and often, too, the most unprepared. What should supervisors know beforehand? What is the one best piece of advice they can give to individuals when they first learn they’ve lost their jobs?
•    What are the most effective resources and support to offer those who have been downsized – and still stay within corporate budget restraints?
•    It’s a tight job market. What is the best way for job seekers to differentiate themselves? And what are the most common mistakes job seekers make?
•    For some, now might be the best time to re-assess their careers – and go off in a totally new direction. How hard is it to make a major career change? What should you know before you start? What if you’re not ready to take on another full-time position?
•    The executives who remain are the ones you want to keep. How do you successfully communicate where the company is headed and ease the stress, especially if their workload has now doubled and job satisfaction is at a premium? 

In my capacity as CEO of The Good Search, I serve as a trusted advisor to top executives and to some of the most powerful and successful companies in the world. I'm also a board member of the IACPR.  Joyce Bradley has helped companies plan an effective downsizing strategy and manage their transition process from start to finish – including ensuring that retained executives remain productive, committed and focused. Allison Cheston connects mid-career executives with work that is fulfilling, flexible and best uses their skills and interests and repackages clients to provide them more traction in the job market. Ann Scott is recognized for providing totally candid and honest feedback to candidates, which helps the prospect establish realistic goals and take appropriate actions.

Hiring During Layoffs: Delicate Mission Requires a Sensitive Approach

Scenario: What to do if you have to layoff and hire at the same time

Layoffs are occurring with increasing frequently in the current economic environment.  However, that doesn’t mean those same companies have stopped hiring. As companies brace to withstand the cold economic winds that blow, they frequently need to hire critically important talent at the same time they let other people go.  Yet, to do both so publicly risks accusations of being cruel and unfair, if not Machiavellian, to recently downsized employees.

That is why so many companies canceled their parties this past Holiday Season.  It just didn’t seem right to celebrate when so many valued team members had just been let go.   It is at these critical junctures that search firms offer a much needed veil of confidentiality and discretion to fill the openings that occur during periods of corporate downsizing.

If you must hire while you layoff:

• Avoid having your company’s recruiters conduct the search.  Caller ID and call backs will make it impossible for you to keep the search off-radar.
• Avoid retained search firms.  The cost of a single retained search can easily pay the annual salary of a staff member you just downsized.
• Avoid contingency firms.  They are nearly as costly as retained and their transactional approach does not offer the discretion required.
• Search firms that offer unbundled services offer the most cost-effective solution, however make sure the service offers high-touch concierge-quality care.

As long as your company is in business, it will need people to get the work done.  But challenging times call for a more strategic approach to recruiting positioned ahead of the curve.  Downsizing alone is a drag on a company’s brand as an employer-of-choice.  It is important not add fuel to the fire by being insensitive to how your actions might be interpreted by those who were just shown the door.

For more information, check http://www.thegoodsearchllc.com

Don't Like Your Severance Package? Boss-nap the Exec Who Laid You Off. Seriously !?!

OK. So our economic world may be tilted upside-down these days. But, thankfully, a recent European boss-napping trend has yet to spread to these United States. I noticed a fascinating bit of employer-worker news on Lori Dorn's blog stunning in its bizarreness.  It goes like this:

Laid off from your job without decent severance? Don't get mad, get your boss .. .I mean, go get your boss and hold him hostage against his will (but don't hurt him) as a bargaining chip for better severance.

A Sony executive was boss-napped in France, and it appears he's not the only one.

Competitive Compensation: What to Do When Comp Falls Short

Scenario: Your opening’s compensation package is not attracting the candidates you need.


You and your search firm are excited to begin the search for a critically important member of your team. You believe that in the current economic environment, there must be a lot of recently downsized candidates that you can snap up.  Yet, it turns out the candidates that you want expect more in compensation than what your company is prepared to offer.  Still, whenever you try to broach the salary shortfall with those that control your corporate purse strings, they continue to insist the compensation is competitive – as if wishing could make it so.  As a result, the hiring manager is growing increasingly dissatisfied.  He suspects that you and your search firm are not trying hard enough, when that could not be further from the truth.

The problem may be fairly commonplace, but your search firm could have taken simple steps to prevent it. At the start of every search engagement, a search firm must:

• Proactively be on the lookout for threats to the success of a search.  For instance, the firm should make certain the salary, title, and scope are competitive in comparison to similar roles elsewhere.

• Gather market intelligence to document the threat, conduct analysis of the data, and recommend solutions to resolve the threat.
  

• Prepare a report for the hiring manager that can be used to make a business case for necessary changes in salary, title, or scope.
  

• In the event the company chooses not to address the threat, the document demonstrates that your team kept everyone fully informed.
  

Search firms often waste months for candidates that simply do not exist. As they do, the firms may whine about issues with compensation, title, scope, or shortages of talent when they should be much more proactive. They should bullet-proof every engagement by providing critical market intelligence to their clients – empowering them to address threats before they cause a search to fail.

(For more tips, whitepapers, and articles, visit www.thegoodsearchllc.com)

Too Many Resumes: Too Little Time

Scenario: What to do if you are drowning in resumes and still can’t find the candidate you need.

They say you should be thrilled.  The unemployment rate is so high that it is raining resumes.  Your candidate must be in there, somewhere.  Only thing is that you’re going blind from scanning resumes for the elusive, one-in-a-thousand, qualified candidate.  As you do, you wonder whether this is what you went to college to do – repetitive, apparently useless sifting through CVs.  With each successive resume, you casually wonder why candidates don’t read the job requirements.  Then you wonder whether they can read.  Oh yes, and then there are the resumes that don't seem particularly truthful.

No recruiting organization should rely on job postings to fill its openings.  To do so leaves you powerless to do anything, but hope and pray, that the right candidate applies.   Instead of drowning in resumes, try the following:

 

• Focus your time and resources on what’s most important: ushering interested, qualified candidates through to hire.

• Take a simple, proactive approach. Instead of waiting for the right candidate to apply, conduct research to identify the best people for the job.

• Systematically call and email prospects to convert them to viable candidates.

• If your sourcing team has trouble converting IDs to candidates, as is often the case, outsource candidate identification and development to a trusted search partner.

• Off-load applicant resumes to search partners to review and screen.

In the end, it pays to take a strategic approach to the recruitment of passive candidates.  Done the right way, you can deliver the winning candidate in the space of just a couple of weeks.  Done the wrong way, you can call endless lists of candidates to no avail.  That is why, in most cases, it is essential to forge a strategic recruitment relationship with a search partner that takes an investigative approach to find the shortest path to the best candidates.  Remember, even in this economy, the best ones remain elusive and rarely appear as applicants at your front door.

(To learn more about our practice, visit http://www.thegoodsearchllc.com)