Job Search: Matchmaking is not paper-based

I just go crazy when I read blog posts like Seven Reasons Why IT Recruiters Instantly Reject Resumes.  I’ve seen so many of these types of articles the past two years.   With a scolding tone up front in the mix, they are written by (what sounds like) weary recruiters complaining about how candidates resumes are making their life difficult and getting in the way of their payday.  

This latest post is littered with pandering prose:

If a company is going to pay a recruiter a significant retainer fee, they expect a perfect match…

If candidate is in medical software development and the job is in financial development - the recruiter will not be calling...

Any good recruiter can find a candidate with that current familiarity…

Companies are not paying recruiters to help candidates transfer their skills from one field to another…

Although these statements are based in truths (you never want to give anyone a reason to reject your resume) – it is just looking at the problem the wrong way and it diminishes the extreme value that top staffing professionals provide the customer and the candidates.  

Even in tighter job markets like today – talented talent-finders remain as busy as ever.

Analog solution in a digital world

It’s no all about the resume.  Here’s 7 of my own points on the subject.

1. Let’s get something straight up front: Companies are not paying a “significant retainer fee” to someone to sift through a pile of resumes.  For that skillset – they get an intern.  I can search Linked In, too.
2. The most successful recruiters I have employed are relationship based for the long-term.  They maintain these relationships from job-to-job (town to town, up down the dial) with people.  They get to know both the hiring manager and candidates very well.  It’s those relationships (and not a bullet in a resume) that allows them to make the perfect match. 
3. Recruiters know their market.  They know which companies are hiring for what kinds of skills and who and where people that can do it are (or want to be).   If I need a UEX maven with Dreamweaver experience  – I know who to call today that knows where one is.
4. Successful recruiters rarely have carpal tunnel.  More time at Starbucks and less time in their cube or on the “interwebs” is how they roll.  They are constantly networking with candidates and hiring mangers alike (attending user groups, professionals association meetings, or breakfast meetups).  It’s all about eye-balling people more than resumes.
5. Good recruiters are creative and do not stick to absolutes.  They often (with great success) match companies and candidates that may not seem a fit on paper to one another.  We know culture/team fit can be as (if not more) important than some industry/technical experience (obviously to a certain point).  Numerous times – I’ve interviewed and hired candidates based on the recruiters recommendation that I “must meet Jill – she’s a perfect fit for your team”.
6. As with any service business,  if you are focused solely on cost - and not value to all sides of the transaction - you’ve already lost.    Even when I have worked at companies that had internal recruiters and had policies against “agency fees”, I still have employed outside recruiters for key positions if needed.  I say it all the time to staffing pros I work with:  find me the right person, and I will make the case to get the fee.  Finding the right people fast is a such a competitive edge that the ROI is an easy sell.
7. Top recruiters value both candidates and companies.  Why?  Well today’s hiring manager is tomorrow’s candidate and visa-versa.  If my candidate experience with you feels shopping at Walmart, I’m probably not going to employ you to find candidates for me (and worse yet – your candidates will not refer future hiring managers and candidates your way). 

Tweaks and small steps can take you far

My buddy @ReidCarlberg talks about how tweaks beat resolutions in a post today.  Loved it.  Reid has set a goal for himself to do my morning reading of the Internets at the gym instead of while drinking coffee at home.  No mention of when he is going to ingest his oatmeal (but that’s another story).

I talked about resolutions (more as goals and how to reach them) the other day.  This tweaks concept fits into the main thrust that there is a lot that goes into reaching your goal and it usually starts with something small.  Just as (what was all the rage in the late 90’s) Big Hairy Audacious Goals failed for so many companies that tried to adopt it when their culture did not support it, you probably want to start small (and specific) with your goals.

A journey of 1,000 miles started with a single step and a lot of heavy breathing

In that resolutions post, I also spoke of achieving a personal goal of running and completing my first marathon.  That was not something I started in the same year (I didn’t start from being a couch stalagmite to running 40 miles a week).  Instead, it was the result of many small (and yes – some large) tweaks over 3 years that got me home.

Some steps on the path:

• I had to lose 80 pounds. Not with a rapid-loss fad diet or pills – but simple things over a period time (like mixing in a salad).
• Getting back into running shape.  When I picked up running seriously (after a couple of years layoff), I started small.  My first workout was walk 1 min, jog 1 min for 20 minutes.  6 weeks later – I was running a 5K. 
• Adding overall fitness in my life.  Whether it is spending some time with the Wii Fit, or taking the stairs at work (the latter more challenging when you’re hoofing it with a 9” Logger boot) – tweaking to a more active lifestyle helped the mental aspects of this life change.

Start small – but just start

So if you’re on the health kick bandwagon for 2012, find the tweak in your life to get you started.  It may not being going to the club 5 days a week with the other folks who started today and will be gone by Valentines Day.  It can be as simple as committing to walking the dog two blocks twice a day (instead of the one you do today). 

If finding a job (or a new job) in 2012 is in your sights, a goal of having coffee with two people you don’t currently know each month may be your first step.

Whatever your goals (and steps to get there are) – they start with that first one.

I’m in a New Year State of Mind

Billy with a lot more hair (I know the feeling)

A song by the boy from New York City is running through my head today.

A picture postcard
A folded stub
A program of the play
File away your photographs
Of your holiday

And your mementos
Will turn to dust
But that's the price you pay
For every year's a souvenir
That slowly fades away

Every year's a souvenir
That slowly fades away

Souvenir
Music & Lyrics by Billy Joel

2 things to add to your 2012 Resolutions

As 2011 is all but in the rearview and we gird our loins for what awaits us in 2012 (ready or not, here it comes) – many of us go thru the annual rite of making resolutions (or goals) for the coming year.  These may be of a personal or professional nature and are intended to start us – or keep us -  on a desired path (to being a better father, a better widget maker, or a person of better health).

We all know if you don’t state (and re-state) and measure your goals, there is little chance of you reaching them.  You gotta step on the scale each week (whether you ate a cabbage-only meal 3 times a day all week or spent Ladies Night downing 13 or 14 Mojitos with your pals).  Those are the paint-by-the numbers way to achieve your goals and check the box complete at the end of the year.

But for all the PMP® in me – goals, resolutions and deadlines are more than numbers. I look back at one set of “project” goals from 2012 which I oft talked about here (my “Marathon Project”). 

My project goals were:

1. Be (Significant) Injury Free (or at least reduce severity and length of the inevitable)
2. Train and run my first Marathon
3. Run 1,000 miles in 2011  (training for #2 should take care of #3)

I do an inside my head, Tiger Woods fist pump when I see that I achieved all three goals and exceeded my own expectations.  But as I sit here on the cusp of the brand new year, I feel very different about these goals than when I set them.

The game inside the game…

This time last year, I was determined to cross off that bucket list item of finishing my first Marathon.   That was the impetus for the journey and of the three goals - it is the “sexiest”.  Run a marathon and people clap when you cross the finish line (even for slow people like me), you post pictures on Facebook and you get a shirt and a medal. 

But on this end of the finish line, I feel more of a sense accomplishment with the other two goals.

The injury-free goal was the most important of the three (that’s why it was first).  This was all about risk management. Simple: Get injured and your season is over (or at worst – you can’t properly train).  I only missed one scheduled workout to injury all year (which is a first for any training season). That’s fairly remarkable given my age and size.  Special thanks goes to the makers of Advil® and Archer Farmers frozen corn for helping me reach that mile marker (the latter used as ice packs that form fit to the sore body part)

As for running my first 1,000 mile season, that experience I cherish the most.  Running that many miles means I survived the 115 degree swing in temps during the year, the pains and poundings (see bloody proof in the above picture), and the ear-piercing sound of the alarm clock going off at 3:07 a.m. to get a mid-range run in before work (when all I really wanted to do was stay in bed). 

But there was the hidden ROI from my project. 

…and the unexpected result

The sum of my journey was that I wielded discipline and patience.  Discipline to hit the road on a below zero morning or a rainy, muggy afternoon married with patience not to overtrain.  Knowing when to cut back to save your body and mind – not just because you are being a slacker that morning.

I knew (and planned) that I would need those two tools to reach my goal – but I didn’t realize that they would be something in themselves that I would covet at the end of the road (as it were).

The resolution will not be televised

As you set your goals – what other (step) goals and tools will you need to get there?  What hidden outcomes from your journey await?  At the end of 2012, will you be looking down at the integers on your scale or looking forward to the reflection of yourself in the mirror (and doing that fist pump).

What’s your plan?   No matter what they are – most likely you’ll need to stock up on discipline and patience to get you there.

Enjoy the the last lap of 2011 and best wishes for Happy New Year to us all/

To take you and the Sun to promised lands

The LEAST favorite day of the year is here (especially those in these Northern providences): The Summer Solstice.
I rant today not against the pagan underpinnings of this Solstice, but the Martellato tone of the bell for which it tolls. Although (contrary to popular wisdom) the days will not actually get shorter in these parts until Sunday, we’ve nonetheless reached the mountaintop of daylight in the Summer of 2011 (and I can see the other side). Just as quickly as (nearly all) those pre-commute tempo runs had been lapped by the light of dawn, the darkness will once again begin the take back of the night as it slithers upon the 6 month journey to the most dark time of the year.

While I am singing one season following another for you in my head, Asparagus is gone from the Farmers Market and will soon give way to juicy tomatoes, scary deep fried Mayonnaise (at your state and county fair), tart apples, bulbous pumpkins, and then flint corn (the multi-colored corn with the politically incorrect name) .

For runners, the dog days of summer may not be over (in fact they are just beginning) but that Fall marathon you’ve been training for is getting larger in the window (and gosh golly you’ve not done enough hill work, Fatso). Soon you'll be trying to get ice out – instead of into – your water bottle.

Gosh – I’m starting to depress myself (tapping my inner Marvin)

Marvin: I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed.
Trillian: Well, we have something that may take your mind off it.
Marvin: It won't work, I have an exceptionally large mind.

Well, I wish you'd just tell me rather than try to engage my enthusiasm

If you’re expecting a GATHER ye rosebuds while ye may post (then you’ve haven’t dug far enough into my back catalog of posts). This is just another riff on the previous post about goals (and tracking to them). Whether it is that aforementioned marathon, you’re first Triathlon, getting that new job/new promotion, mixing in (more than just) a salad into your diet, finishing painting trim on the backside of the house as you promised your wife or grabbing another catch with your son (or Dad) – another milestone like today (and the others you’ve set for yourself) are opportunities for you to ask yourself,  how ya’, doin?

Having your corn knee-high – or being 2 pant sizes down – by the 4th of July is less than 2 weeks away.

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Random | And the beat goes on

The news of the last 24 hours was one of those Al Stewart moments that collapses the bookends of (nearly) a decade into a single moment.  I (like many folks) was immediately transported back to that Tuesday morning in September 2001.  The sights, sounds, smells and the feelings of that day that also lives in infamy flooded me. 

As is common in these human milestone markers (the birth of a child, your 40th birthday, MJ dying), we can often take stock and ponder the delta of all the things in our lives that have changed over that period.

I heard the news back then, oh boy

In 2001, I was in my recently purchased first home and my just as recently acquired unemployment status.  Just 3 days past my 3 days of severance, I sat in my spacious home office that Tuesday morning massively searching online for a job and scheduling networking meetings.  I was listening to KSTP-AM (talk radio - the social/edgy/viral/ media of that day) when (the late) Mark O’Connell announced “a private plane” had struck the Trade Center in New York.

Still in my work outfit of that day (running shorts and a wife beater), I headed into the living room and turned on the TV and flopped onto the couch.  Moments later,  I witnessed a second plane hit the other tower.  For the next 3 days, Max (my cat) and I remained similarly splayed on that couch watching all the gory details unfold on broadcast/cable news (primarily through the eyes the late Peter Jennings and the now retired Tom Brokow).  There was little else to do - my anemic job search ground to halt as quickly as civilian air traffic that day.

Who told you this guy was in here?

Fast forward to last night.

I am in the same room as 2001 – but now it is my master bedroom.  Max the cat is still there – but also my wife (who I did not know in 2001).  She was watching The Housewives of “Whatever” (since I was not paying attention).  

I had my headphones plugged into my iPad and had resumed streaming “The Sting” via Netflix (as I often use movies as sleep inducing white noise):

Billie: Who told you this guy was in here?
Lieutenant William Snyder: Nobody. I just know what kind of woman he likes. Going to check all the joy houses till I find him

The movie had just rolled by the above scene (with Charles Durning and Eileen Brennan) when a muted beep from a KSTP-TV “push notification” informed me that President Obama was about to speak.  Soon thereafter, we all knew why he was to speak.  It would be over an hour before he came to the podium – by which time both my wife and I had fallen asleep.

The next day, reports chronicled (that like so many recent events around the globe) that Twitter was the source of the first credible reports. 

History has turned a page, ah-huh

As I am wont to do – linking and transitions filled my mind and my morning commute (although dressed in a real suit as I headed to a client site today). 

Of course, in 2001 I did not have a blog (let alone this one).  In 2021, I doubt I will.  What will be the social media killer app of that day? 

October 23, 2001 – one month after 9/11, the first iPod was introduced to the market (white only).  Many colors and variations of iPods, iPhones, iTouches and two iPads would follow. In 2020 – what will be the mass communication media platform of that day…the holodeck?.  If so – I hope I have the life size (virtual) Paul Newman and Robert Redford acting in my living room

There are countless other examples that remind us that drums keep pounding rhythm to the brain….

All I know is we don’t really know what is to come in technology and media that far in advance (although we get closer to the Jetsons and jetpacks every day).   All I know is that I look forward to the journey to come. 

Oh – and don’t worry.  My wife swears that Max will beat the odds and still be with us in 2021 (at a  spry 25 years old). 

Conjunction Junction – make that your function

If I was to sort and group my email Sent folder by Subject text, “30 Second World Famous Introduction” would be one of the most used texts.  I just finished sending another one of these networking “blind dates”.

I talked about this in a longer post in 2009 (20 Job Search Answers You Need To Know | #4 How do I start to network?) but I wanted to hit this specific topic again (because it is so important).

To quote that post (and myself): 

(Connecting people) is something I strongly believe in (and do at least once a week). This is all about hooking-up folks whenever you can - WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED. Whether you call it pay it forward or Instant Karma (as I prefer to), connecting others in your circle expands your circle, too.  So if you know two people that could benefit from meeting each other – hook them up. 

I often hook-up people with my “Blind Date Introduction” email I am fond of sending (just did it last night). 

The email comes in 4 parts and goes something like this:

• The set-up:  Why I think you two should meet
• Person 1 Bio:  How I know you and why you are special
• Person 2 Bio: How I know the other person and why they are special
• Contact: Provide each others contact info with a note to contact the person (or not) as they both see fit

If you do only one thing in 2011 to grow your network – make connecting people that one thing.