Poll: Social Media in Your Job Search – What’s Working for You?

6 Feb

Is it just me or does it seem like every day there’s a new social media tool coming out, or a new application of an existing social network, that promises to help you get a job? Across the web (and across the real life population as well, I assume) there are people touting the superiority of Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, and every other option when it comes to helping you find a job. I have my own biases as to what’s been successful for me, both as a job seeker and as a recruiter, but I’m asking to hear your opinions. Let me know what’s worked for you, and please don’t be shy about commenting.

I’d love to hear where you’ve been spending your social job searching time, and how the various available avenues are paying off. Thanks for voting!

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Your Personal Brand is Not Going to Get You a Job

31 Jan

I’m about to make a statement that’s going to ruffle some feathers. It’s not a great revelation; in fact it’s a statement that 10 years ago was a given. But times have changed, the information highway has taken over, and people are hungry for anything that appears to offer sound-bite answers to life’s toughest questions.

There is no such thing as a “personal brand.” That’s right, folks – you heard it here. I’m mounting a one-man campaign to take this term out of the vernacular. Will I be successful? Not on your life. But does that make me wrong? You be the judge.

There’s a debate raging in our Nation’s capital about whether business can be considered people. While this isn’t a political blog by any stretch, I don’t see how that’s even a debate. A business is not a person. And along the same line of thinking, a person is not a brand.

So what exactly is personal branding supposed to be? It’s how you present yourself in real life and online. Some of the basic criteria for what’s considered a “good” personal brand:

  • Real Life:
    • Well dressed
    • Groomed
    • Firm handshake
    • Well spoken
    • Not stinky
  • Online
    • Considerate
    • Giving
    • Engaging/Engaged
    • Intelligent
    • Relevant

Is it just me, or are these attributes nothing but basic protocol for being professional and successful? Depends on who you ask, apparently.

Taking the things we already know to do and wrapping an easy-to-digest-yet-slightly-intimidating term around them is, well, is just good business. If your personal reputation and activities now constitute a “brand” then isn’t it a no-brainer that you need a qualified professional to manage that brand, or at least to tell you how to manage it yourself? The boom of personal branding experts and coaches is a testament to that. It’s capitalism at its best, folks. Create a need; fill the need. What I’m saying is that just because the need has a name doesn’t mean that it’s anything different from what people have been doing since the beginning of time.

Should you be all of these things that make up your “brand?” Of course you should, but to think of it as branding is to already be disingenuous. If you’re branding, you’re not being you. If you’re putting up a false front in the interest of being a better brand, you’ve already lost.  Again, there’s nothing new in this branding concept except a ton of confusion and overwhelmed job seekers. Instead of thinking of your personal brand, think of not being an asshole. That tends to pay dividends.

So if your brand isn’t going to get you hired, what will? The same think that always has and always will. The right qualifications, the right cultural fit, and a bit of luck. Out of these three, you can control all of them. So do what you can to be in the right place at the right time. Apply to the jobs that you’re actually right for. Do your homework on the companies to see which ones you think are the best match for your values and personality. Ask your friends and acquaintances for favors that can help you to get in front of the right people, and offer assistance and favors without being asked.

Because which would you rather have people saying about you (this is the multiple choice part)?

“Marge is really great. Talented, driven, down to earth, giving, and not bad to look at.”

or

“Marge has a really great personal brand.”

I know which one I’d choose.

Do you think personal brands are for the birds? Do you think they’re awesome? Have no idea what I’m talking about? Leave a question or comment below or email me at hr.dave1@gmail.com and we’ll see if we can get it sorted out.

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33,000 Career Experts Can’t Be Wrong(?)

24 Jan

I got an email the other day making the claim that “33,000 recruiters can’t be wrong.” The email wanted me to buy whatever it was that the company was selling (OK, the email didn’t want that. Emails are inanimate objects and don’t actually want anything. But I digress.) The first thought that popped into my head was “just how many recruiters are there, anyway?” As it turns out, I have no idea. I lost interest in the Google results long before I was able to make a real go at finding out. What I did uncover was that according to one person’s research, in 2009, there were over 1,000,000 recruiters registered on Linkedin. To my thinking, if there are one million recruiters slinking about then there must be at least a bajillion so-called career experts out there hawking their wares. The internet and social media have made it increasingly easy for anyone with a domain name and a dream to become an “expert” in his or her respective field. And while there are a lot of really smart people out there giving career advice, there are a definitely some others who, well, let’s just say there are some others.

Throughout the days after I received it, I became increasingly obsessed with the title of that little semi-spammy email. Just because a lot of people think the same thing doesn’t make them right, right? If we always went with the majority viewpoint minorities still wouldn’t have the right to vote, the Earth would still be flat, and the Backstreet Boys would still be together. No, friends, just because lots of people agree on something doesn’t mean it’s right. Especially for your career. With that in mind, here are three pieces of advice that at least 33,000 career experts (please don’t ask me to list them) agree on and that you can feel free to disregard.

  1. You’ll never get a job by traditional methods. This is utter fallacy, and the fact that so many out there are furthering this preposterous idea pains me. Physically. Like the splinter-under-your-fingernail kind of pain. Recruiters would love nothing more than to post a job and have a ton of qualified people apply. Do you know why? It means that they don’t have to spend as much time looking between the couch cushions for good candidates and can spend more time getting to know business needs, screening candidates, developing in-depth, job specific behavioral interview questions and generally adding more value to their organizations. So tomorrow, do a recruiter a favor. Apply online to a job that fits your qualifications.
  2. You need to stand out to get noticed in your job search. In my time as a recruiter and as a hiring manager I’ve gotten resumes on rainbow paper, thank-you card envelopes filled with glitter, a shoe, a magic 8-ball and more gimmicks than I can shake a stick at. Some of them were interesting; some of them were obnoxious (think glitter.) But none of them have gotten anyone a job. Know what gets you a job? The right qualifications, good presentation skills, and timing. Period. If you can articulate the right information in writing and in person, have a little bit of luck, and are actually one of the best qualified people for the job, you have a great chance of landing it.
  3. The resume is dead. Poppycock. Horse feathers. Nonsense. Every day someone new is trying to live out his or her get-rich-quick scheme by telling you that the resume is out-dated and instead you should make a video/social/virtual resume, a visual CV, an infographic, whatever. Well I have news, folks. The resume is alive and well, and won’t be replaced any time soon with any other product. That’s right – you heard it here. That said, in certain cases it makes sense to supplement your resume with other materials – if you’re a marketing pro, you might want to put together a marketing pitch about hiring you. If you’re a video producer, go ahead and put together a sizzle reel. If you’re a designer, make something cool that speaks to your unique awesomeness. But if you’re not in a creative field and you don’t want to be the butt of a long-running joke between the recruiter and hiring manager, don’t get too cute. People in the recruitment process want resumes. Give the people what they want.

Disclaimer #1: Just because these statements don’t hold true for the vast majority of us doesn’t mean that they’re for everyone. If you think you’re in the minority and that these gems don’t apply to you, drop me a line and I’ll tell you if I agree.

Disclaimer #2: I absolutely include myself in the “domain name and a dream” category. Keep this in mind when you’re deciding whether I’m full of it: I’m not a professional career expert or coach, so I don’t have a thing to sell you. I’m just a guy with a pretty good track record in HR, Recruitment and Management who likes to write. Nobody can decide what’s best for you, because in the end you’re the one who’s responsible for the decisions you make, the career you pursue, and the glitter with which you stuff the envelope.

Have you gotten bad career advice? Good advice? Advice that has you at a loss over whether it’s good or it sucks? Leave a comment below or email me at hr.dave1@gmail.com and we’ll see if we can get it sorted out.

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Don’t Phone In Your Next Phone Interview

25 Oct

You know that feeling when you walk into a great restaurant and you get the first whiff of intermingling smells coming from the kitchen and from the plates of various satisfied diners? You know how hungry that can make you, how it makes you want to dive into a big plate of whatever even before you’ve seen or tasted the food for yourself? Now switch gears with me and come to a darker place. The greasy spoon that you went into because it was the only thing open at 3 in the morning. That unique and unmistakable mix of smoke, week-old bacon grease, cleaning products and cheap perfume that made you turn right around and walk out even though you hadn’t eaten in days.

In both of these situations you’re making a decision about the food even though you haven’t seen or tasted it. Do you see where I’m going with this? Yes! It’s the same decision that recruiters and hiring managers are making about job candidates after a phone interview. They’re deciding whether you have the right skills and are the right fit for the job, sight unseen. They’ll either be hungry for more, or they’ll be reaching for the Pepto, and it’s all up to you which one it is.

Since the internet has made it ridiculously easy for job seekers to find and apply to jobs, and as job seekers are getting more and more savvy about finding ways to get their resumes seen, companies are increasingly relying on phone interviews to try to shrink the field of qualified candidates into a manageable number. This means that if you’re looking for a job, the likelihood that you’ll have to impress someone over the phone is pretty high. And the last thing you want to do is to not be ready.

Luckily for you, phone interviews offer you, the candidate, some real advantages that in-person interviews don’t. Namely, you get to have your notes, talking points, and cheat sheets out in the open and you can refer to them as much as you want to. It’s like an open-book test in school. You have no excuse not to ace this. Here are the main points you’ll need to make sure you have covered.

  1. Make sure your interview is scheduled for a time that you’ll be able to talk. This means that you won’t have to rush back to work, pick up your aunt, walk the dog, or anything else. If the conversation goes over its allotted time, that’s a good thing. Don’t be the one who has to end the call.
  2. Arrange to be in a good place to take the call. This could be your bedroom, a conference room, your car, or anywhere else that you can be alone and that’s quiet. It should not be the local coffee shop, the bus, or walking down the street. Avoid places with loud people, barking dogs, sirens, or other distractions.
  3. Put together your list of talking points. Do this by going over your resume and writing out the specific accomplishments or highlights that you want to talk about. Write an outline of your story of how you achieved 150% of quota, how you reduced costs by 30%, how you single-handedly saved your company from ruin. Having this cheat sheet will keep you from having to remember details on the spot, and will give you a list of topics that you should be able to use to answer a multitude of interview questions.
  4. Write out your answers to those questions you know you’ll hear: What are your weaknesses? When did you have a challenge at work that you had to overcome? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? When I say to write them out, I mean bullet points or outline form – don’t write a full script or else you’ll find yourself reading from it. You want to be prepared, but you still want to sound fresh, not like you’re reading the words off of a page.
  5. Print out a copy of your resume, so that you can refer to it. If you’re asked about anything specific that’s on it, it’s helpful to be able to actually see what your interviewer is talking about.
  6. CHARGE YOUR CELL PHONE. Of course if you can use a land-line, that’s preferable (much lower chance for dropped calls, bad signal, etc.) but many times mobile is your only option.

And now you’ve prepared. When the time rolls around for your phone interview, treat it like any other interview. Dress nicely (even though nobody will see you), pre-caffeinate if you need to (don’t eat or drinking during the interview – they can hear that), arrive 5 minutes early (so that you can get settled and lay out your materials), and mentally prepare. I’ve always found it helpful to stand during phone interviews – it can help you convey more energy in your voice than if you were relaxing in a chair. And the last thing to remember for your phone interview is to SMILE. Yes, you may feel like an idiot smiling to nobody. But it will come across in your voice – you’ll sound more pleasant and more engaging if you have a smile on your face. It’s a proven fact. I think.

Keep in mind that if you follow these steps you may not move on to an in-person interview or whatever the next round is. No matter how prepared you are you could still let nerves get the best of you, or you could just not be the right person for the job. But the more prepared you are, the easier it will get, and the better you’ll be positioned to really nail it. If you nail the phone interview, you come off smelling great. And the better you smell, the hungrier that potential employer will be to dig in. So be the feast, people. Be the feast.

Bon appetít.

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How To Ask For a Raise – And How Not To

3 Oct

I shall now tell you your desire. Wait, don’t say it… I can get this…

You want a raise!

Know how I knew that? Because everyone wants a raise. You’re about as unique in this desire as you are in liking cake. So now that the cat’s out of the bag and we all know that I’m no psychic, what shall we do about getting you this raise that you seek? When it comes to milking more money out of your employer, there’s sadly no magic bullet. We’re at the mercy of budgets, emotions, parity, revenue forecasts, the economy, and a host of other factors.

Mostly, there are three things that are going to influence whether you get a raise. Before I get into what those things are, let’s take a minute to talk about what will NOT be factors. Just to be clear – this list is of things not to bring up when you’re asking for more money. Ever.

  1. What you need. Honestly, as much as I care from a human perspective about your kids’ college fund, your sick parents, your student loans and the new home you just moved into, from a management perspective I couldn’t care less. You’re not going to see more money because you have more outside obligations, distractions, and questionable spending choices. Your ability to get a raise is about how much your employer needs you, not how much you need money.
  2. How much your co-worker makes. If your co-worker makes more money than you do for the same job, chances are that at least one of two things is true. Either s/he is a better negotiator than you, or s/he adds more perceived value to the company than you do. Either way, don’t bring it up. It may in fact be true that you’re underpaid compared to cubicle-dweller next door, but if you use that as a bargaining tactic it will fail. The only thing you’ll succeed in doing is making yourself look like a child.
  3. How long you’ve been there. Because in case you’re not doing an amazing job, the last thing you want to do is to remind your boss just how long you’ve been scraping by. And besides, we’re not paid for loyalty. We’re paid to produce.

So that’s what not to talk about when asking for a raise. But with that in mind what, exactly, should that conversation be about? Well I’m here to tell you. I’ve been involved in this conversation from every vantage point – I’ve asked for raises, I’ve been asked for raises, I’ve coached people on how to ask for raises, I’ve coached managers on how to respond to people asking for raises – so I’ve seen this work and I’ve seen it fail disastrously. The difference is usually preparation.

  • First, think about your timing. Is the company experiencing layoffs? Is your boss stressed about his/her budget? Are share values in your company dropping faster than really fast-dropping things? If so, do everyone a favor and hold off. You’ll do yourself more harm than good by asking.
  • Second, make an appointment to speak to your boss. Don’t try to catch him/her on the fly; don’t grab him/her coming out of the bathroom or the elevator. Get on the calendar. This is a serious conversation with serious potential outcomes. Treat it with respect.
  • Third, know your case before you start. Just like in a job interview or a presidential debate, you need to have your talking points in order. Trying to do this on the fly is not your ideal strategy.
  • Fourth, know what you’re asking for – have that number in mind that you think is a fair compensation for what you bring to the table.
  • Last, know what you’re prepared to do if the answer comes back negative. Are you making a request or an ultimatum? Are you prepared to stay and continue to give 100% if you don’t get what you’re asking for, or are you prepared to start looking for your next job?

As we’ve gone over, when asking for a raise there is a multitude of things not to talk about (I only listed three, but the list can easily be expanded to include such topics as your new haircut, Coke vs. Pepsi, and what you dug out from between your teeth last night), but there is only one thing that you should in fact talk about. That thing is simply why you deserve more money. Not why do you want it, but why should you get it. What have you done to earn it? Have you taken on additional responsibilities outside the scope of your job description? Have you had some great wins that resulted in the company making and/or saving money? Have you consistently been recognized for outstanding performance? Have you become the resident expert in your field? Is the company truly better off for having you there?

That’s it. There’s nothing else to discuss. It’s easy to sell what you’re going to do, what you plan on over the next year. But you’re not being paid for the future – you’re being paid for what you’ve done, not what you may or may not do later. Highlight your successes, the ways in which you’re irreplaceable, the ways and times that you’ve made your boss’ life easier. Can’t think of any? Then you might want to think twice about asking for a raise. Because at the end of the day, all of us employees are products, and we’re all subject to the same principles of supply and demand. Would you pay more for the same quality product or service if you don’t have to? Neither would your employer. Keep that in mind when you’re building your case.

If you follow these guidelines, you are absolutely, positively 100% NOT guaranteed to get a raise. But if you’ve done a good job of requesting one, you’re very likely to have at least gained some additional respect in the eyes of your boss and to have started the wheels turning for the next time there’s money to spend.

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Your Elevator Pitch – It Doesn’t Have to Suck

1 Aug

For many of us, the words “elevator pitch” elicit a response of fear and stress, not unlike the words “mother-in-law” or “full body cavity search”. The reason for this often irrational fear is primarily that most people don’t know what an elevator pitch is supposed to be.

First, let’s try to dispel some of the myths around this beast. First, you don’t have to be in an elevator to use it. Second, the word pitch doesn’t quite do it justice. “Pitch” implies that you’re either selling something or playing baseball, and in reality you should be doing neither of these things while using your elevator pitch. If you’re selling something, you’re going about it all wrong. And if you’re playing baseball…if you can play baseball and network at the same time you’re either really good or really bad at both. In either case I probably can’t help you.

So what exactly is an elevator pitch? In a nutshell, it’s the long answer to the question “what do you do?” Named because it should take approximately the length of an elevator ride to deliver, it’s basically an introduction for you to use in order to garner interest in someone getting to know more about you. I’ve heard it said (and it may have been me that said it) that an elevator pitch is like a verbal cover letter. It’s also been said (and I know this one was me) that an elevator pitch is your professional pick-up line. And that’s how you should think of it. If you’re too cheesy or forward it will fail. The same thing will happen if your delivery is boring. Even if perfectly executed, your elevator pitch is not going to get you a job or close a deal, but it can give you the opportunity to speak at more length. It should be conversational, take less than 30 seconds to deliver, and give the recipient an idea of who you are, what you’re about, and why they should care. Now I realize that what I’ve given you so far probably isn’t relieving any anxiety about your pitch, so please allow me to break it down for you. There are three basic parts that every pitch should have. In life we have the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, why). In elevator pitches we only have 3.

  • Who are you?
  • What do you do?
  • Why should anyone care?

Each of these parts is equally vital to your overall pitch, and if you break your elevator pitch down into these three manageable sections I think you’ll find the prospect significantly less daunting.

The first part is easy – Who are you? Say your name, genius. The best pitch, without a name, will go over like a great commercial that doesn’t name the product. I know I want to buy something, but what?

The second part is the meat of your pitch – it’s the facts. What’s your job, your business, your product? It doesn’t have to be or sound sexy; it just has to be coherent and easy to understand. A couple of sentences is all you need. If your job title and company are important to your pitch, throw them in. if they’re secondary to a product you sell or a service you offer, focus on the product or the service. Remember, this is just enough to get someone interested – it doesn’t have to be a full autobiography.

The last part is the hardest part to put together and it’s the part that can make or break your pitch. Why should you be of any interest to whomever you’re talking to? Well duh, you may be thinking – have you MET me? Yes, clearly you are an extraordinary human being and we’d all be lucky to know you, but if you can’t put into words why anyone should care you’ll be fighting an uphill battle. This last part is your chance to get a bit personal and to make a lasting impression. When I say personal, I’m not talking about unveiling any deep, dark secrets – nobody wants to hear about your struggles with glue sniffing or your spot-on impression of the Queen Mother. I just mean that this is your chance to introduce yourself as a person and not just as a function. Having trouble thinking of why anyone should care? Start with why you care. If it’s meaningful to you, it might just make an impression on someone else. Why do you do what you do? What do you love about your job or your function?  These are the things to think about in your elevator pitch conclusion.

Hey! I just read this and I put together my elevator pitch! Want to hear it? Here it goes:

I’m HR Dave. I’m a Human Resources Director with a heavy focus on recruitment, employee relations and career coaching.  Currently I’m heading the Talent Acquisition team for a dot.com company in New York City. On the side I write a blog where I dole out job search advice and tough love because too many smart, talented people are making bad job-search decisions and I’m trying to counteract just a little bit of the bad advice that’s out there. Because if you think about it, the more educated and effective job seekers there are, the easier my job is as a recruiter.

OK – Your turn!

Once you’ve solidified your pitch, know that it is and will remain a work in progress. You want it to feel natural, like you’re just making it up on the spot. The minute it starts sounding like you’re reading it from a script, it’s time to change it up. The rule of thumb is that if you’re bored saying it, they’re bored hearing it. So keep it fresh, keep experimenting with new ways to improve or change your pitch, and most importantly now that you’ve written it USE IT!

Now get out there and make something happen. Going up?

Do you have a question you’d like to see answered on this site? Send an email to HR.Dave1@gmail.com.

Questions or comments about this topic? Please leave them below.

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Know When to Fold ‘Em – Admitting That You’re Not Getting the Job

12 Jul

Recruiters love a job seeker with energy and passion. Really, we do. I personally love to see someone with a fire and a drive for the job, for the company, and for his or her career. This energy manifests itself in many ways throughout the interview process. It can come across in a great and well thought out resume filled with exactly the skills, experience and accomplishments outlined in the job description. It can come across in a perfectly written cover letter that offers a hint of personality but doesn’t try too hard. It can be found in an initial phone conversation, when the candidate genuinely sounds thrilled to hear from me but still maintains professionalism. It’s present during the interview process when a candidate takes the time to listen to what I’m really asking and offers up thoughtful, intelligent, and insightful responses. It drives the candidate to ask real and probing questions about the position and the company rather than asking about company culture. It’s there in all of the candidate’s follow-up – energy in the voice-mails, character and professionalism in the emails, personality in the hand-written notes.

But for all of this passion, drive, energy, and near-perfection, sometimes you just don’t get the job. And one of the most difficult parts of the job search can be coming to terms with the fact that it’s not happening. After all, you wouldn’t have applied to the job if you didn’t think you were a great match for it. And throughout the interview process, it seemed like you and that job were meant for each other, didn’t it? And HR, the hiring manager and the big boss all seemed to really love you, right?

It’s so easy for everyone involved to get carried away during an interview process. You start imagining yourself in the job, and your interviewers may have genuinely thought that you were great. But this is no guarantee of anything. You don’t know how many people they’ve seen, and you don’t know how they felt about the other people they interviewed. The danger, and I’ve certainly gotten caught up in this myself, is thinking that you’re home free. Until you have an offer in your hand, you have to believe the odds are that you’re not getting the job. And do you want to know something? It’s nobody’s fault. It’s not your fault for not being a good enough candidate. It’s not the recruiter’s fault for not getting to understand your skills and experience deeply enough. It’s not the hiring manager’s fault for making unimaginative hiring decisions. It just happens. And if you’re in a serious job search, it’s probably going to happen more than once.

That doesn’t make it any less frustrating or any less discouraging. It’s a mini-trauma every time you don’t get a job (and the trauma can be magnified by recruiters who don’t give you information in a timely fashion, thus unwittingly leading you on.) But it doesn’t have to be a tragedy. First of all, you need to know that it wasn’t you. If you made it through HR to the hiring manager it means you weren’t a bad candidate. It means that you had the basic qualifications and culture fit, and it’s likely that the hiring manager just “clicked” better with someone else. And it’s not the company’s fault. The people involved made what they felt was the best hiring decision for the company and the department – there was no malice, and just because you think you were the best one for the job doesn’t mean that you were. The blame game doesn’t help – it just gives you an excuse to wallow in pity and victimization rather than getting on with your life (which is what you need to do).

So instead of blaming, take the time you need to recover – take a day off from your search if you need to and go the beach, watch some TV, chase a few butterflies, whatever you need to do in order to unwind and refresh. Then realize that it’s for the best that you didn’t get that job – it means that it wouldn’t have worked out and that something better for you is right around the corner. Now go get back on that horse and do it all over again. Because one of these times it’s going to happen, and it’s going to be worth the wait.

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