HOW TO MANAGE THE JOB SEARCH / RECRUITMENT PROCESS (part deux)

Amazingly, I didn't get a single negative comment about last month's thoughts (and virtually no one wanted to post their comments publicly on the blog!). I did hear from a few who offered the flip side of the recruiting equation- that they get calls from recruiters enthusiastically talking up this job or that, who get them all excited and have them share their soul only to have the recruiters go absolutely silent. It makes them feel rejected, used, or worse. And yes, I hear this from hiring authorities, too.

I understand completely where you're coming from.

Confession: I'm guilty of this too.

It's certainly not intentional, but that's no excuse. Should I try harder to respond to everyone? No question. I seriously lie awake at night sometimes thinking about those who I should've gotten back to. My sincere apologies. I will try harder.

On a good day I'll get a couple dozen new referrals from my contacts. I try to call each one to find out what kind of experience they have, what they'd like to see in their next opportunity, etc. By sheer time constraints, I have to try to determine as quickly as possible whether each candidate has the potential to help one of my clients fill a critical need. The unfortunate truth is that most don't. Many are great researchers, salespeople, or CEO's, but they may not fit any of the needs that our clients are looking for at the moment.

The other factor is the candidates' expectations. Many candidates have the impression that recruiters are there to find jobs for them. The truth is that recruiters find candidates for jobs, not jobs for candidates. This is no minor difference.

Occasionally a candidate will come along who is so white hot that just about any company that I take them to will fall all over themselves to hire them. Make that rarely. No, let's call that very rarely.

The rule is more like this: I sift through hundreds or thousands of potential candidates in my head, with my team, and in my database, trying to take into account the job, the company culture, the bosses' style, the compensation, the location... well I think you get the picture. Few make the cut.

The Market Research business is no simple skills match. The nuances of each job and each company are extremely intricate, and my value comes in knowing these preferences and not wasting my clients' time by sending resumes of candidates that I know are not a good fit.

For the candidate, it comes down to me classifying them into two rough categories- active right now (able to fill an urgent client need), or someone to keep in mind for a future opportunity fit.

We (you & I) both know when you're active when:
-I have you scheduling interviews and reviewing job opportunities.
-I call you and pepper you with questions beyond the normal "how many years of experience" types of queries.
-You're serious about your job search and you respond quickly to my messages and emails.
-You freely share ANY information that might help me get to know you better so that I can match you better.
-You have realistic expectations about your value in the marketplace and you are objective in your self-assessment.
-You are not wasting anyone's time trying to wrangle a raise from your current employer by dangling an offer in front of their nose. (By the way, if you try that, chances are good that you've just written your own pink slip- maybe not now, but you’re on the list).

For the "future opportunity" candidate, STAY IN TOUCH! Sure we can slice and dice our database and scour our memories to help us find you in a few months when your perfect job opens up, but you want to stay fresh in our minds! I have a ton of candidates for whom I have a general idea of what they want next. I’ll email them occasionally with one opportunity or another and they’ll either say “tell me more” or “no thanks”. Works great. Less filling.

Then I have the more proactive ones who drop me a note to say hello or (much better!) to give me a referral. I don’t mind this exchange as long as it’s not too often. Every day is too often. Every couple of months is fine. When something changes in your situation, let me know. Are you feeling more urgent? Have you decided that Austin is a perfect place to live? Did you get a promotion and decide to stay where you are? Great! Let me know!

Did you notice my comment about referrals? It's the lifeblood of my business. If you want to be remembered for future opportunities, help your recruiter by telling them about good people that you've worked with (no, you don't have to give up your co-workers; that's unethical), people you admire, and even people you've only heard of! I'll track them down!

OK, I’m worn out for this month. Next month I’ll look at things more from the hiring authority’s perspective. Remember- you’re a candidate today but could be a client tomorrow. A client today might well be a candidate next month. It pays both ways to have a good relationship with a recruiter!

Feel free to add your two cents. Thanks for your time!

HOW TO MANAGE THE JOB SEARCH / RECRUITMENT PROCESS

I think most people would agree that the single most important part of any job search is for the candidate to be noticed by the person making the hiring decision. This is how recruiters make a living. They develop relationships with the right person to understand their business issues, which leads to understanding their talent needs, which leads to recognizing the right candidate, which leads to the personal introduction and recommendation. A personal recommendation from a recruiter who has a good trusting relationship with the decision maker is like a good friend telling you to try the restaurant down the street- YOU LISTEN!

Sure, you can send in your resume through a company website or Monster ad, but face it- you'll inevitably wind up in a stack (or worse, a data file) of hundreds or thousands of resumes with a slim chance that the right person will notice how special you are! If you ARE the right candidate, a personal introduction is nearly essential to make you stand out from the pack of misses. That's what a good recruiter brings to the table.

Inherent in this message is an unfortunate fact: if the recruiter does not believe you are right for the job, they will not make the personal introduction and they will not vouch for you. Their reputation as a trusted business advisor to the hiring authority would be tarnished, because they'd think, "this recruiter must not understand my business or he wouldn't be sending me people who don't fit!" If you ARE right for the job and the recruiter agrees that you are, you'd be crazy to be 'one in the stack' as opposed to getting that personal recommendation.

The same goes for posting your resume on a job board. There is an unfortunate assumption made by many recruiters (yes, I'm guilty) that if you're on a job board, you're probably not an 'A' player. Oh boy, have I just opened the email floodgates! I'm sure I'll be bombarded by angry messages from those who disagree. So how can I say that? Look at it this way- 'A' players in general are valued by their companies and well taken-care of, so they're generally not looking. When they make a move, they use their trusted networks and know the players that they might be interested in exploring. They know how to use recruiters and how to avoid winding up as 'one in the stack'.

My clients' HR people are downloading resumes from job boards to fill their databases and look busy for their bosses. They place job ads (frequently when they don’t even have an opening) to fill their contract commitments to the job board sites. BTW, I too will occasionally place an ad and each time I get hundreds of responses- most of which are so far off the mark that it proves to be a huge waste of time. I seriously once got a response from a candidate for a VP spot (at $175K salary) who had no more experience than working at Mickey D’s! Placing ads is a curse more than a blessing!

I guarantee that the HR folks are feeling the same way. It's like trying to find a trophy Marlin in the ocean by casting a massive drift net and sifting through every fish in the sea! Smelly!

Would I stake my reputation on someone I found on a job board? Probably not. There surely are diamonds in the rough, but there's an awful lot of rough out there! I'd rather spend time networking and asking people in the field who the 'A' players are. Refer back to the 'personal recommendations' references above.

OK, so you're going to call a recruiter. Now you have to manage the process. This is absolutely critical in getting you to the right hiring authorities. I speak to candidates all the time who find that their resume has been sent all over the industry without their knowledge or permission. They then call me and find that I am not in a position to help make the personal introductions to the proper decision-makers.

The deal is simple. Any recruiter worth their salt will ask you for permission before sending your resume anywhere. It makes a candidate as well as a recruiter look stupid if they introduce a candidate who has already been introduced, either by another recruiter, an existing employee, or by sending in a resume via a website or job board. After all, if what we sell is relationships, it's a pretty thin relationship if I don't even know that my candidate sent their resume in a month ago.

In return for that level of respect, a recruiter should ask for and deserves to be kept informed about where you have been introduced and when, or any other developments as they come up that might affect your candidacy. A candidate that compromises my relationship with my client is poison- I don't care how great they think they are.

OK. That's enough of my rambling for now. I've only scratched the surface of how the recruiting process goes from my end. I believe that for both candidates and hiring authorities, a good understanding of how our end of the business works can only help everyone involved.