Tag Archives: recruiting

To get the job would you do this?

This is by far one of my all-time favorite recruiting stories.

Years ago, a co-worker was working to fill several administrative positions.  Part of her responsibility was to verify the information a candidate would enter on their application.  It was common for her to ask candidates to send in copies of their high-school or college diplomas as a way to verify their education.

One day she stopped by my cube and handed me a fax and with a big grin on her face asked “does anything look out-of-place to you?”  It was a copy of a high-school diploma.  The copy was a bit grainy but it was still fairly easy to read.  I read it three times before I finally started to believe what I was reading.

Keep in mind that a candidate was submitting this document as proof of their high-school graduation.  It had not one…not two…but three typos on it.  I must say, it was quite an accomplishment to pack so many typos in a document that had so little verbiage.

As if that wasn’t significant enough, the signature for the district’s superintendent was not the correct name.  It was fairly common knowledge who the superintendent was because that particular school district was in the news a lot and they were currently on the hunt for a new superintendent.

To this day I still do not know what would possess someone to submit a document like that.  I understand there are some people who are willing to lie, cheat or steal.  But in this case, if they are willing to falsify employment documentation, don’t you think they would have someone look it over?  I guess that story ended the way it should have.  Cleary, my co-worker passed on the opportunity to hire this individual.

Spelling 101

The importance of spell check cannot be overstated.  Weather you are preparing your resume, an email, a presentation, or another form of business communication you cannot skip this step.  It should go without saying but it is often overlooked.  ALWAY, ALWAYS, ALWAYS hit spell check.

I was once preparing a job-search email, hit spell check and realized I had misspelled the recipient’s name.  Had I not caught the error, my job-search query would have been over before it even began.  In my career I have seen countless resumes and cover letters with typos.  Those are the ones that do not make it to the top of the stack.  A major and consistent complaint from job applicants is that they never hear back from employers after applying for a position.  Many candidates would do well to go back and double and triple check there documentation.  Their “hit” rate might increase if they do.

Once you have gone through the spell-check suggestions be sure to re-read your whole document slowly to ensure you have used the correct words (or have not omitted a word).  You many have spelled “there” correctly so it will not flag as an error.  But do you need to use “their” instead?  Or “whether” instead of “weather”?  Spell check won’t let you know that’s wrong.

Did you notice when you spotted the errors in this post how it distracted you from the message?  That’s what those types of errors do…take away from the message you are trying to convey.

Happy hunting!

Simplify

A very good friend of mine shared this list with me years ago.  It’s an important list and I thought you would appreciate it as well.  It hits the mark and helps you keep first things first.

Walden Pond

Walden Pond (Photo credit: qwrrty)

The angels say “Never borrow from the future.  If you worry about what may happen tomorrow and it doesn’t happen, you have worried in vain.  Even if it does happen, you have to worry twice.”

Rules to live by –

1)      Pray

2)     Go to bed on time

3)     Get up on time so you can start the day unrushed

4)     Say no to projects that won’t fit into your time schedule or that will compromise your medical health

5)     Delegate tasks to capable others

6)     Simplify and unclutter your life

7)     Less is more (Although one is often not enough, two are often too many)

8)     Allow extra time to do things and to get to places

9)     Pace yourself.  Spread out big changes and difficult projects over time; don’t lump the hard things all together

10)   Take one day at a time

11)    Separate your worries from concerns.  If a situation is a concern, find out what God would have you do and let go of the anxiety.  If you can’t do anything about a situation, forget it

12)   Live within your budget; don’t use credit cards for ordinary purchases

13)   Have backups – an extra car key in your wallet, an extra house key buried in the garden, extra stamps

14)   K.M.S. (Keep Mouth Shut).  This single piece of advice can prevent an enormous amount of trouble

15)   Do something for the kid in you every day

16)   Carry a spiritually enlightening book with you to read while waiting in line

17)   Get enough rest

18)   Eat right

19)   Get organized so everything has its place

20) Listen to a tape while driving that can help improve your quality of life

21)  Write down thoughts and inspirations

22) Every day find time to be alone

23) Having problems? Talk to God on the spot. Try to nip small problems in the bud. Don’t wait until it’s time to go to bed to try to pray

24) Make friends with Godly people

25) Keep a folder of favorite scriptures  on hand

26) Remember that the shortest bridge between despair and hope is often a good “Thank you God.”

27) Laugh

28) Laugh some more

29) Take your work seriously, but not yourself at all

30) Develop a forgiving attitude (most people are doing the best they can)

No matter what your line of work, you’re in sales.

After recruiting sales people almost exclusively for the past 13 years, I have come to view the job-search process as a sales process. Here’s why I think you should too.

If you are looking for a new job, you will be required to sell yourself, your skills, experience and training. Like it or not, you are now officially in sales. It makes no difference what your background may be. If you make the connection and see the similarities between the sales process and the job-search process, it will be much easier to navigate through it.

Some people have a difficult time tooting their own horn. Others find it difficult to even list the successes they have had in their career on their resume. They become uneasy in their own skin when circumstances require them to do so. If it has been awhile since you have had to create a resume I understand how difficult it can be. And by ‘awhile’ I mean 10 years or more. Things have changed dramatically since the last time you had to dust off your resume. I’ll address crafting a resume in subsequent posts.

At its most basic, the sales process consists of only a few steps:

  • Prospecting – What companies or people do you want to seek out? This also includes networking and getting referrals.
  • Setting appointments – How many interviews are you scheduling?
  • Making your presentation – Performing well in the interview.
  • Handling objections – Address their questions about your background and sell your skill and experience as the solution to their needs.
  • Closing the sale – Ask for the job!

Let’s start with prospecting:

You have lost your job and now you’re looking for another. Tell everyone you know. Your first thought might be to keep the information to yourself and I understand that. However, you need to overcome that initial instinct so you can prepare for what’s to come.

Telling your story often you will find you can never know where the next lead or opportunity will come from. They can literally appear from out of nowhere. Until you opened your mouth, you had no idea your neighbor of 15 years is a good friend with the hiring authority for that choice position you are after. Or, the high school or college buddy you haven’t seen or talked to in the past 20 years reaches out unexpectedly. You talk and find out he or she is well-connected in the industry you are trying to get into.

In these situations, you will need your connections to refer you to the people you need to get to. Likewise, the more people you talk to, the more referrals they are likely to provide. They can provide job leads you were unaware of, they can give you names and contact info of people at your target companies and they can uncover additional sources of leads. All of those activities can be considered prospecting. And you thought you weren’t good at sales.

Next is setting appointments:

On this step there is no direct correlation between the sales process and the job search. In sales, one can call prospect after prospect until they have the necessary number of appointments set to meet their goal. When looking for a job, unfortunately you cannot call every company you would like to work for and set interviews with the hiring managers. It would be nice if it worked that way but I’m quite certain those hiring authorities will have something to say about that. Instead, be ready when your phone does ring and a recruiter wants to schedule an interview. The goal is to have so many opportunities working at one time that you can have multiple interviews in any given week.

There is a good chance that your first interview will be a phone interview. If you successfully pass that test they will be scheduling the follow-up face-to-face (F2F) interview. And like the professional sales person you are, you want to schedule that next interview before you are off the phone. It may not always happen. But at the very least you want to ask the question: “Let’s go ahead and set that interview now. Is Thursday at 2:00 or Friday at 11:00 better for the hiring manager?”

Phrasing it that way is called the alternate advance. Give them an option to choose from. If neither of them works for the hiring manager they have to say so and will more than likely come back with yet another alternative.

Making your presentation:

This is the F2F interview. You are prepared, your resume is letter-perfect and you are exhibiting confidence and energy. Thinking like a professional sales person, what are they really good at doing? Asking questions. A professional sales person likes to get the other person talking. They listen more than they talk. Your job in the interview is to ask questions as well. What are the potential employer’s pain points? What are their biggest problems? If you were to start tomorrow what needs addressing right away? Find out by asking.

Handling objections:

By uncovering their issues you can craft your responses specifically to their needs; all based on your skills and experience. It is important to keep in mind that nothing about this process is about you. It is all about them and their needs. Solve their problems and you will be certain to stand out above all the other candidates.

Closing the sale:

After you have made your presentation and overcome their objections it is time to review a few things before closing the sale. You should review the process with them and ask about next steps. Some good questions to ask are:

  • Is there anyone else I need to speak with as a part of process? (Companies these days are notorious for not wanting to make a hiring decision. To support this behavior, many of them will throw in additional interviews at that final stage for additional reinforcement of their decision to hire or not hire.)
  • What is the rest of the process? (Do they know or does it sound like they are making things up as they go?)
  • When do you intend to make a decision? (Listen carefully to their answer. You will be holding them accountable to this if it drags on.)
  • How many other candidates am I competing against? (You want to know as much about your competition as possible.)
  • When can I expect an offer? (You know what their offer would look like because the salary has already been discussed. More on this in subsequent posts.)

If they dance around any of the questions pin them down. You can do that in a professional manner. Do not leave the interview not knowing the next steps and timeline. Sure, things can change but that just gives you permission to continue following up.

If you can envision yourself working there be sure to ask for the job. Tell them you can see yourself working there and would like the opportunity to do so. Keep in mind there are professional sales people who have difficulty doing this and it is their career. Feeling a little nervous is ok. But it is important to overcome that fear.

The salesperson that never asks for the business will never feed their family. It’s the same way in looking for a new position. When interviewing, you can never expect an offer if you do not ask for it. You would be surprised how many candidates never ask for the position at any point in the process.